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No Reports, No Photos, No Notes: Questions Grow Around State Inspectors’ Role After Epic Universe Coaster Death
A new report from Orlando’s News 6 is raising fresh questions about what exactly state ride inspectors did (and didn’t do) after the death of a guest on the Stardust Racers coaster at Universal’s Epic Universe. While inspectors were present at the park for more than 15 hours over several days, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) now confirms that the department has no documentation of their visit. Not a single note, report, photo, email, or internal communication.
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The explanation from the state is straightforward on paper. Universal invited FDACS to observe ride testing after Kevin Rodriguez Zavala was found unresponsive on September 17. Observe is the word doing the heavy lifting here. Because Universal is a major theme park with its own full-time safety inspection team, FDACS has no legal authority to conduct ride investigations on property. They cannot inspect, cannot interview, cannot collect evidence, and cannot initiate any kind of enforcement action unless the law gives them jurisdiction.
In other words, they weren’t there as investigators, only as guests of a company choosing to share information.
But this is where things get complicated. Even if FDACS inspectors were not acting as investigators, they were still there on official state time, representing a state agency, gathering observations, and ultimately contributing to a public statement FDACS leadership issued five days later. That statement said the agency’s “current findings align with Universal’s,” even though, according to FDACS, no documentation of those findings exists.
That discrepancy is now at the heart of News 6’s report. If the inspectors were present in an official capacity — even strictly as observers — how is it that there is no record whatsoever of their work, especially when those observations helped inform a public statement?
Meanwhile, FDACS was never the lead investigative body for this incident. The only agency with true governmental investigative authority was, and still is, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. That criminal investigation remains active, and it is the reason both the Sheriff’s Office and the medical examiner have withheld public records, including the full autopsy report. Under Florida law, criminal investigative information can remain sealed if investigators reasonably anticipate an arrest or prosecution.
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Those records could eventually show whether negligence, human error, or a medical complication contributed to Zavala’s death.
What we do know right now is that Universal reopened Stardust Racers on October 4, citing its own internal review and days of testing that FDACS staff watched but could not formally participate in. The attraction reopened with updated disability access guidelines and strengthened warnings for guests with back and neck conditions.
Zavala’s family, represented by attorney Ben Crump, continues to call for greater transparency and accountability, arguing that reopening the coaster before full investigative findings were available was premature.
In the middle of all of this, the state’s lack of documentation remains an unresolved question. FDACS inspectors had no legal power to investigate, but they were still there representing the state. And when a deadly incident occurs at a brand-new, high-profile attraction, the absence of any written record — even from observers — is unusual enough to raise eyebrows.
For now, the only official investigation with legal teeth continues at the county level. Until those findings are released, the full picture of what happened on Stardust Racers remains incomplete.
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