SANDUSKY, Ohio – Cedar Point is reversing a controversial policy and will again allow visitors waiting in line for Steel Vengeance to carry cellphones.

The park is adding zippered pouches to the bottom of the roller coaster seats, to hold phones and other loose items.

Last summer, park officials raised the ire of many coaster fans by prohibiting cellphones in the queue for Cedar Point’s new record-breaking ride Steel Vengeance.

The coaster, which debuted in May, features four inversions. During its early weeks of operations, numerous guests lost cell phones and other items on the wild ride.

In an email Sunday, park spokesman Tony Clark said: “Standard safety rules still apply - the only change is that cell phones can be brought into line. Zippered pouches are being added to the trains for their cell phones.”

He added: “It’s the result of our evaluation of the existing policy and consultation with the manufacturer.”

The park has long prohibited the use of cellphones on rides, but guests were allowed to – even encouraged to – bring phones in line with them. The park promoted the use of phones by creating a game called the Battle for Cedar Point, to be played via the Cedar Point phone app.

Just before boarding a ride, guests could either deposit phones in bins or keep them securely inside a pocket or fanny pack.

But Steel Vengeance, because it’s such a wild ride, was different. Numerous riders reported that phones, keys and other items were falling out of pockets.

It’s unclear whether anyone at Cedar Point was ever injured by flying debris from Steel Vengeance. But there was a well-publicized injury last summer at Kings Dominion, a Cedar Point sister park in Virginia, where a woman was hit by a cellphone on Twisted Timbers, a ride similar to Steel Vengeance.

Both were manufactured by Rocky Mountain Construction, a company that transforms wooden coasters into steel-wood hybrids. Steel Vengeance, voted best new ride by several publications last year, is the coaster formerly known as Mean Streak.

Starting in late July, guests who wanted to ride Steel Vengeance were instructed to empty their pockets, and either leave the contents with a non-rider or rent a nearby locker to stow the stuff.

Many park guests complained that the new policy was a cash-grab. Lockers cost $2 an hour or $10 a day.

Park guests also complained that they needed to be able to communicate with others while waiting in line, which last summer sometimes stretched for three hours or more.

The issue of loose items on rides has long been a problem for amusement parks, but the popularity of cell phones and the increasing intensity of rides has made it worse. Universal Parks now require riders of several intense coasters to pass through metal detectors to make sure they’re not carrying cellphones, keys or other items.

Read more: New for Cedar Point 2019: Forbidden Frontier, Italian and barbecue restaurants, Frontier Festival

Cedar Point bans cellphones in Steel Vengeance line