A disabled man falls to his death from an amusement park ride at Six Flags.

BOSTON (AP) – State safety officials have concluded an onsite inspection of a roller coaster that flung an amusement park enthusiast to his death at Six Flags park, and plan to issue a report shortly on the accident.

Stanley J. Mordarsky, 55, of Bloomfield, Conn., tumbled from the Superman Ride of Steel roller coaster at about 3 p.m. Saturday as the ride neared the end of its run. Mordarsky, who had cerebral palsy, was pronounced dead at a Springfield hospital about 45 minutes later, according to the park.

Christine Cole, spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Public Safety, said state inspectors finished their work late Saturday night. A report on their findings and recommendations would be complete in the “very near future,” she said, although there was no definite timeframe for its release.

“You never want to think that something like this will happen on an outing,” she said.

Cole said inspectors looked at everything about the accident: the ride, the harness Mordarsky was wearing, the operator, and other factors. Cole said the ride would remain closed until the park provided information that state safety officials requested, though she did not specify what that information was.

She said the last time there was a fatality on a Massachusetts amusement park ride was in 1988. Permanent amusement parks do their own daily inspections, and must give the state inspection reports by independent, state-certified inspectors at the start of each season. Otherwise, state safety inspectors are called in when there is an accident or a fatality, she said.

Mary Ann Burns, a spokeswoman for the park, said Six Flags was cooperating with the investigation.

“We’re doing everything we can to help them,” she said. “We’re going to just wait and see what they conclude.”

Park officials also said Sunday that workers are not allowed to help patrons get on rides and that Mordarsky was able to get into the roller coaster by himself, according to broadcast reports. The park must allow disabled people on rides if they can get in them by themselves, under the federal Americans With Disabilities Act, park officials said.

Witnesses described Mordarsky coming out of his harness as the ride hit a curve, spinning through the air, and hitting a rail before falling down on the ground. A scene of mayhem ensued, with panicked witnesses screaming to be let off the ride.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who has worked for federal oversight of theme parks, on Sunday renewed his call for more regulation.

“Six Flags is a national chain,” Markey said. “If there is an identical Superman roller coaster ride in five other states, those five other states might never find out that there was an accident in Massachusetts.

Germaine Mordarsky, the victim’s 82-year-old mother, said a Six Flags official called her Sunday. The conversation was brief, she said, and she did not bring up her concerns as to why her son, who used a motorized scooter because he could hardly walk, was allowed onto the roller coaster.

“They said they’d be glad to give me anything I needed, whatever that means.”

She said Stanley’s twin brother was arriving from California Monday to help with the funeral arrangements.

“The police came (Saturday), but what do they know? They were very nice. They couldn’t be any nicer. I guess there’s going to be an investigation,” Mordarsky said.

She said she knew nothing more about her son’s death than what she read in the newspaper.

“How could anybody as heavy as he was go up and spin up in the air like a yo-yo? It doesn’t make any sense. He was over 200 pounds, maybe 225 pounds,” she said.

In August 2001, 22 people suffered minor injuries when a car on the ride rear-ended another at the park outside Springfield, about 90 miles west of Boston.

The Superman ride opened in 2000 to much acclaim, and has been praised as the top roller coaster in the world by Park World Magazine, according to the park’s Web site.

The mile-long ride is one of the tallest and fastest coasters in the world. It is 20 stories high at its highest, riders reach speeds of up to 80 mph and experience 10 seconds of weightlessness, according to the Web site.

The Agawam park is owned by Oklahoma City, Okla.-based Six Flags Inc., which operates 31 parks in North America and Europe.

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Associated Press Writer Matt Apuzzo in Hartford, Conn. contributed to this report

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On the Net:

http://www.sixflags.com/parks/newengland/index.asp

AP-ES-05-02-04 2021EDT