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Patent filings published earlier this week, viewed by The Independent, include designs for seats equipped with sensors and robotic safety inspectors
Mike BediganSunday 30 November 2025 16:28 GMTComments
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Universal Studios has filed patents for new technology aimed at improving safety, two months after a man died on a ride at its newly opened theme park in Florida.
Patent filings published earlier this week, viewed by The Independent, include designs for seats equipped with sensors and robotic safety inspectors, among other things.
The technology is designed to detect problems before and during ride operation, and comes following the death of 32-year-old Kevin Rodriguez Zavala at the Epic Universe park in Orlando on September 17.
One of Universal’s patents, titled Seat Assembly Sensors and Controls, shows seats embedded with sensors that monitor a rider’s body position and automatically adjust the restraints during operation.
Sensors placed in the seat and harnesses are configured “to detect passenger characteristics including one or more forces or pressures of the passenger against the seat,” according to the document.
open image in galleryOne of Universal’s patents, titled Seat Assembly Sensors and Controls, shows seats embedded with sensors that monitor riders body position and automatically adjust the restraints during operation (WIPO)
open image in gallerySensors placed in the seat and harnesses are configured ‘to detect passenger characteristics including one or more forces or pressures of the passenger against the seat,’ according to the document (WIPO)Another device, robotic rails that move along and monitor roller coaster tracks, can identify safety concerns in real time.
The filings indicate that the patents were filed in April, approximately four months before Zavala’s death.
It comes after his family said that “multiple warning signs” had been missed before his death, and an investigation into the incident had been launched.
Multiple eye-witnesses said that Zavala was slumped over with blood everywhere and that park staff seemed unprepared for such an emergency and were panicked.
open image in galleryThe technology is designed to detect problems before and during ride operation, and comes following the death of 32-year-old Kevin Rodriguez Zavala at the Epic Universe park in Orlando on September 17 (Orlando Sentinel)
open image in galleryMultiple eye-witnesses said that Zavala was slumped over with blood everywhere and that park staff seemed unprepared for such an emergency situation and were panicked (WESH 2 News)His cause of death was later determined to be from “multiple blunt force impact injuries,” but was ruled an accident by the Orange County Medical Examiner.
Ben Crump, who is representing Zavala’s family, said that several witnesses had come forward, including people who were on the rollercoaster and others who had suffered injuries while on the ride, to offer evidence.
“The Stardust races just opened on May 22 2025, yet in just a few months there have already been multiple complaints of injuries long before Kevin's death, even before the ride opened,” Crump said at a press conference in late September.
He noted that another woman had recently filed a lawsuit, claiming that she had sustained injuries after her head “shook violently and slammed again into her seat’s headrest throughout the duration of the ride.”
open image in galleryBen Crump, who is representing Zavala’s family, said that several witnesses had come forward, including people who were on the rollercoaster and others who had suffered injuries while on the ride, to offer evidence (GoFundMe)The Independent has contacted Universal Studios for comment about the investigation, as well as its new patents for safety devices and other technology.
Theme park analyst Tharin White, from EYNTK.info, told Fox News 35 that the new tech would be a “big time and money saver” for Universal.
"It adjusts not only for comfort, but for safety aspects, and it allows the ride itself to check and make sure that the people who are in the seat — or in the seat as comfortably and as safely as they can," he told the outlet.
"Having a vehicle… that's attached to kind of crawl the track, that's going to be a big time and money saver for Universal. They'll be able to use it potentially for all of their rides."
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