World's Second-Tallest Roller Coaster Is Permanently Closing

Your next trip to Cedar Point will be a little less thrilling. The famed amusement park, located on the shores of Lake Erie in Sandusky, Ohio, announced Tuesday, Sept. 6 that it will be closing the Top Thrill Dragster, its 420-foot tall ride that is the second-tallest roller coaster in the world.

In a statement shared across its social media channels, the park shared with fans, "We have an important update to share regarding our Top Thrill Dragster roller coaster," before announcing that "after 19 seasons in operation with 18 million riders experiencing the world's first strata coaster, Top Thrill Dragster, as you know it, is being retired." Although the Top Thrill Dragster is officially closed for business, the park added that "Cedar Point's legacy of ride innovation continues" and its "team is hard at work, creating a new and reimagined ride experience." This suggests the coaster may eventually reopen, though under a revived ride, details of which will be shared "at a later date." Similar moves have been made for other attractions within the park, including coasters like Mean Streak and Mantis, which are now known as Steel Vengeance and Rougarou.

Originally opening on May 4, 2003, the Top Thrill Dragster took riders 420 feet high, launching them from zero miles per hour to speeds reaching 120 miles per hour within just four seconds, with the ride lasting just 17 seconds. The ride was among the most popular at the park, drawing in some 18 million riders throughout its 19 years of operation.

However, the fate of the Top Thrill Dragster had been hanging in limbo for the past year up until Tuesday's announcement. The ride has remained closed since Aug. 15, 2021, following an accident at the park in which a small metal object came off the ride and struck a 44-year-old woman in the back of the head. A 620-page report released in February by the Ohio Department of Agriculture, which oversees the state's amusement parks, noted there was "insufficient evidence to find the action or inactions of Cedar Point violated any of the laws," Despite this, Cedar Point announced in February ahead of its May opening season that the Top Thrill Dragster would remain closed for the entirety of the 2022 season. Suspicions that the ride would close were then sparked over the weekend after parkgoers noticed that the drag car outside the ride's exit area had been removed.