Local news outlets were told that Arntanaro Nelson, who lived in Wilmington, died on Friday.
Several news sources say that the man who died after being hit by a roller coaster at an Ohio entertainment park last week has been identified.
A 38-year-old man from Wilmington named Arntanaro Nelson died Friday at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. He was being treated for injuries he got at Kings Island on June 19, according to WLWT and The Cincinnati Enquirer.
CBS station WHIO said that both Mason police and the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office confirmed that the victim was who they said they were.
A representative for Kings Island told WLWT that Nelson went into a fenced-off area near the Banshee roller coaster around 8 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
A representative for Kings Island told WLWT that Nelson went into a fenced-off area near the Banshee roller coaster around 8 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
Nelson is named in a police report that was received by a source. The report says that police were first called to the park “for a traumatic injury” after King Islands security found the victim in a restricted area near the rollercoaster.
According to the police, the victim was trying to get back the keys he had dropped while riding the roller coaster when the ride hit him.
According to CBS affiliate WKRC, the victim told the greeter at the entrance to the ride with two kids that he had lost his keys and “needed to retrieve them.” The ride operator at Kings Island who wasn’t working the Banshee ride said this.
The unnamed worker said, “The person at the front desk told them that they couldn’t do that right now and that they would have to wait until the park closed, at which point we could get them to you at lost and found.”
A short time later, the unnamed ride operator said that some riders had come back very angry. “They told us, ‘We hit something, we hit something, we hit something!'” the worker remembered.
According to WLWT and WHIO, Nelson was taken to the hospital in serious condition. Two days later, he died from his wounds.
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It was reported in the Enquirer that Nelson’s death was a “suspected accident” by the coroner’s office. The event is still being looked into.
The Enquirer and WHIO both say that the Banshee ride returned on Saturday morning.
