Batman Decapitates Boy [File Under "Be Glad You Have Daughter"]

Shared by aquariumdrinker


Not that girls don't get into trouble, but there seems something particularly boyish about chancing a trip beneath a 50mph roller coaster to make better time getting back into the park.

The popular "Batman the Ride" rollercoaster at Six Flags Over Georgia remained closed Sunday while authorities continued investigating the death of a teenager who jumped over two fences and was struck by the ride.

The 17-year-old South Carolina teen who died was identified as Asia Leeshawn Ferguson, of Springfield, S.C. He was on a church outing when the incident occurred about 2 p.m. Saturday. It was the second Batman ride-related death at the Cobb County park.

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According to police and the amusement park, Ferguson and a friend climbed over two 6-foot fences -- a wrought-iron style park perimeter fence and a second chainlink fence around the Batman ride -- as a shortcut to get back into the park after lunch. Signs about 40 to 50 feet apart on the outer fence warn that it is a "restricted area" for "authorized personnel only." According to park officials, a sign on a locked gate at the chain link fence also reads "Danger zone" and "Do not enter."

Ferguson was decapitated when the ride struck him, police said.

Batman riders dangle beneath a track and travel up to 50 m.p.h., climbing and dropping the distance equal to an 11-story building and going through two vertical loops and two single corkscrews. The first fatality involving the Batman ride in Georgia occurred six years ago. A 58-year-old park worker, Samuel Milton Guyton of Atlanta, was killed May 26, 2002. Guyton was in a restricted area on a platform when he was kicked in the head by 14-year-old girl on the front car of the ride. The girl was hospitalized with a leg injury.