Six Flags’ Goliath roller coaster had reportedly been taken out of service for maintenance only hours before a teacher was fatally thrown from the ride, while records point to hundreds of reported breakdowns involving aging attractions at the amusement park.
Tina Christiansen and Emily Nguyen told the New York Post that they visited Six Flags Over Georgia on Monday afternoon. When they attempted to ride Goliath at about 1 p.m., employees told them the coaster was temporarily closed for maintenance.
Christiansen said an announcement first informed guests that the park was experiencing delays. Minutes later, another message said staff were waiting for maintenance workers to arrive.
While the pair waited, they watched an employee conduct what appeared to be several test runs on the roller coaster.
“One guy rode it and he was in the front row by himself,” Nguyen recalled. “I remember us looking at each other, like, ‘You could not pay me enough to do that job.’”
Although Nguyen said she enjoys riding roller coasters, she added that she would not want responsibility for ensuring one was operating safely. The two women had discussed that very concern while watching the maintenance runs.
Only hours later, Hassan Kariem, 42, was violently ejected from his seat on the Goliath roller coaster as stunned riders looked on.
Police found Kariem unresponsive behind a haunted house attraction prepared for Halloween. He had reportedly struck the ride three times before falling to the ground and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Hassan Kariem, 42, died after falling from the Goliath rollercoaster at Six Flags Over Georgia on Monday. Source: Hassan Jihad Kariem/Facebook
Authorities are now investigating exactly what went wrong on the ride, which has been a staple of the theme park since 2006
Four additional people were taken to the hospital after the incident with injuries described as non-life-threatening.
The Goliath coaster, which has operated at Six Flags Over Georgia since 2006, is now at the center of an investigation into the fatal accident.
State investigators and Cobb County Major Crimes detectives are examining the ride’s lap bars, locking systems and computerized safety sensors, Fox 5 reports.
People who witnessed Monday’s accident said the restraints appeared to make an unusual clicking sound. Park employees reportedly inspected them several times before the coaster car carrying Kariem began its run.
Shortly afterward, Kariem was seen falling headfirst from the coaster in disturbing images, while families and children nearby reacted in horror.
According to accounts from the scene, Kariem was thrown from the train near the ride’s final turn and hit parts of the coaster’s structure several times before landing below.
Logan Conner, who was seated in the same coaster car, said riders had direct eye contact with Kariem as he fell headfirst from the train.
Conner told WXIA that Kariem appeared to “levitate” beside the track during the fall before striking the ride, with blood reportedly splashing onto nearby passengers.
The ride was reportedly closed for maintenance hours before the incident
Park staff were seen escorting riders out of their seats after the ride was shut down
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When Christiansen and Nguyen later returned to the ride, they said they saw a crowd of people and the area near the rollercoaster closed off.
‘There was a security guard standing there and I walked up to him and I said, “Hey what happened?” thinking it wasn’t anything big, I was just curious,’ Nguyen said.
‘He was like, “I can’t tell you,” and I realized it must be something really serious for him to say it like that, it was very gruff.’
The two friends then noticed that people were crying and saw ambulances arriving at the park, before another parkgoer told them Six Flags was being evacuated because someone fell from Goliath.
‘I feel like we dodged a bullet by not being anywhere near when it happened, especially since that’s where we were going,’ Nguyen said.
Six Flags has since closed the Goliath ride and shut down over 10 other rollercoasters across the country ‘out of an abundance of caution’ in response to the tragedy.
It comes as safety records covering more than a dozen parks across three different states now show there was a history of maintenance issues, such as train derailments, faulty restraint bars and guest injuries including dislocated joints and concussions, according to CNN.
The theme park was evacuated and closed for several days following the tragedy
Since 2021, regulators in California have fielded nearly 300 accident reports from Six Flags Parks, the outlet found.
Some of the issues documented included chemical burns and hydraulic fluid that leaked from a ride into someone’s eye, dislocated joints, concussions and broken bones.
Two investors filed last year also allege that prior to a merger with competitor Cedar Fair, Six Flags officials had put off basic maintenance, infrastructure repairs and ride updates as it slashed staff.
In investor calls last year cited in the lawsuits, an executive at the amusement park giant allegedly described a need to invest in ‘deferred items’ at the parks, while another stated the ‘list is always long’ for improvements.
One investor now claims in a lawsuit that the company ‘failed to make adequate capital investments to conduct routine facility maintenance or improve rides and attractions,’ while another alleges the amusement park operator ‘had for years deferred or foregone necessary repairs.’
Six Flags Over Georgia is now scheduled to re-open on Friday.
Meanwhile, theme park expert Robert Niles told Channel2 that incidents in which a person is flung from a rollercoaster are incredibly rare.
Niles, the editor of ThemeParkInsider.com, told the outlet: ‘This wasn’t obviously a case of something wrong with the guest. That there may have been something wrong with the ride.
‘This isn’t an incident of somebody being on a coaster who shouldn’t have been on that coaster, given the boarding restrictions or health requirements.
‘This sounds like a freak accident that we will definitely need to get the results from an investigation to fully understand.’
Our News Outlet has reached out to Six Flags for comment.
