Six Flags Death Raises Urgent Questions About Ride Safety Screening

It was a scene of unimaginable horror.

Only minutes into his ride on the aptly named Goliath roller coaster, 42-year-old father of two Hassan Kariem was thrown from his seat. He fell from the 200-foot structure, striking the tracks several times before reaching the ground.

Passengers, including many children, watched in shock as the tragedy unfolded Monday at Six Flags Over Georgia, near Atlanta.

To witnesses, it appeared to be a devastating accident. Investigators have yet to determine why Kariem came out of what was intended to be a secure restraint, and the amusement park has been closed during the investigation.

Brian Avery, a ride-safety expert with more than 30 years of experience, told Our News Outlet that the incident highlights the dangers that can accompany amusement park attractions. He described it as the latest in a series of fatal and alarming incidents involving rides.

In stark terms, Avery said the ultimate risk faced by thrill-seekers is death.

Despite his extensive experience and knowledge of amusement park accidents, Avery said he avoids most rides himself.

“When you have people in motion, at these speeds and forces, the tolerances are low for error,” he said. “You’ve got to make sure that you’ve got an appropriate method to mitigate or eliminate the hazards that are known and foreseeable.”

Fatal roller coaster accidents in the United States are statistically very rare, with the odds estimated at roughly one in 750 million rides.

Even so, about four people die each year in roller coaster incidents, while approximately 10 deaths annually occur across amusement park rides and traveling carnivals of all types.

Goliath was previously linked to a death in July 2006, when 45-year-old Michael Corry lost consciousness near the end of the ride and died from an apparent heart attack. An autopsy found that he had a congenital heart condition. The coaster reopened after workers determined that it was operating properly.

In June 2008, 17-year-old Asia Leeshawn Ferguson was decapitated by the Batman roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia after entering a restricted area by climbing over two six-foot fences. Ferguson was struck while on the ground, rather than falling from a passenger seat.

At Universal’s Epic Universe in Florida, 32-year-old Kevin Rodriguez Zavala died from multiple blunt impact injuries after riding Stardust Racers in September 2025.

Investigators classified the death as accidental and found no criminal wrongdoing. Universal said an internal review concluded that the ride’s systems had functioned as intended.

Six Flags Magic Mountain in California announced in September 2026 that it would retire X2 amid lawsuits alleging serious brain injuries. The decision came after the park settled a wrongful-death case involving 22-year-old Christopher Hawley, who died after riding the coaster in 2022.

The park said X2 had repeatedly passed safety tests, while attorneys alleged that more than 100 people had sustained brain injuries after riding it.

Avery said aging attractions, limited regulation and the reliance on passengers to assess whether they are fit to ride have all contributed to the risks associated with amusement park attractions.

In Kariem’s case, Avery said investigators should examine whether his weight or body shape affected how the restraint fit, while emphasizing that neither factor has been established as a cause of the tragedy.

The attraction’s public information does not specify a numerical maximum weight, although Six Flags’ accessibility guide warns that ‘exceptionally large guests or tall guests may not be able to ride’ because of its seat and safety-device design.

‘It’s unacceptable, from my perspective, to have someone leave your train while on a roller coaster, period,’ he said.

A key problem is the absence of any federal oversight or regulations when it comes to rides in fixed-site amusement parks.

‘We have no federal oversight in a fixed-site amusement park,’ said Avery. ‘So, you know, states pick and choose how they want to use those standards, and what applies, and who’s going to be inspected, and there are carve-outs all over the place.

‘This inconsistent approach is causing some gaps. Now, whether that occurred here or not, and whether weight was a factor, is yet to be determined, but it is something to be considered.’

And what inconsistencies exist are only exacerbated by a system that relies on visitors to read restrictions and assess their own suitability in terms of health issues or weight, which in turn puts young attendants in the difficult position of challenging paying customers who may be too large to ride safely.

‘When it comes to weight, I think this is an ongoing discussion that our industry really needs to face head-on, because weight is a problem, and some of these rides were not designed for larger riders,’ he said.

‘They’re just asking people to self-regulate. Sometimes [ride attendees] will intervene and go, ‘Hey, you know, you might be a heavy rider,’ but that’s a difficult conversation for a 15-to 20-year-old to have.’

According to Avery, rides often have height-measuring sticks at entrances, but there are no scales to check passengers’ weight.

The result can be catastrophic. Avery pointed to the 2022 Orlando FreeFall tragedy in Florida when discussing restraints that do not safely accommodate every passenger.

Tyre Sampson, 14, died after riding the 430-foot-drop tower attraction.

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He was six feet, two inches tall and weighed around 380 pounds, while the ride’s safety manual specified a 287-pound rider limit.

An investigation and state report found that a restraint sensor had been manually adjusted to accommodate a larger frame, allowing an unsafe gap through which Sampson slipped.

Avery said the disaster prompted changes to Florida regulations because ‘they weren’t inspecting from an operational perspective; they were just looking at it from a mechanical perspective.’

He argued that inconsistent adoption of safety standards creates gaps across the country, saying states decide which requirements apply and which attractions are inspected.

In Kariem’s case, Avery said, investigators must also consider whether the restraint was inadequately positioned, whether maintenance checks missed a problem or whether a component failed while the train was moving.

Goliath reaches speeds of 70mph and climbs more than 200 feet, with passengers held in place by a waist restraint as they race through the dips and turns.

Witnesses described Kariem floating sideways above other riders before repeatedly striking the coaster and falling onto a haunted attraction below, with his blood splattering over passengers.

For Avery, the question of whether a restraint fits securely deserves greater attention across the industry.

Discussing images that appeared to show a larger man, Avery cautioned that photographs could not establish Kariem’s size or whether he met the ride’s requirements.

‘Now, whether weight was a factor, it’s yet to be determined, but it is something to be considered,’ he said.

He explained that a waist restraint should hold the passenger snugly against the back of the seat, with attendants checking its position before the train leaves the platform.

‘So if there was any play in it at any level, that would have been a real red flag,’ Avery said.

Six Flags has shuttered nine rides across multiple US parks in the wake of the disaster. 

As far as Avery is concerned, there must be separate inspections by state authorities, Six Flags and the ride manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard, with a possible additional review by an independent engineering or operations specialist.

Avery also urged visitors to read medical restrictions carefully, saying broad warnings about heart, neck and back conditions can leave passengers unclear about the specific consequences.

‘But we also don’t go as far as saying you can die on them, either,’ he said.

Avery said that deteriorating equipment presents another challenge, particularly for attractions built during the ‘Roller Coaster Arms Race’ that began in the 1990s, when parks competed to build taller, faster and longer rides.

‘You know, and now we’ve got 20, 30 years on these things, and maintenance is a real nightmare for us.

‘Attractions are expensive to operate, they’re expensive to maintain, and condition is everything. The tolerance and specs are exacting, and you can’t deviate.

‘But sometimes we have equipment that’s in place that isn’t typically going to be inspected, maybe in a manner that would reveal that there is a fracture or fatigue or something going on in metal.’

He said an unexpected failure can expose weaknesses that operators had not previously considered, underscoring the need to examine how equipment was inspected and maintained.

‘Why that happened, we need to understand as an industry so it does not happen again,’ said Avery.

But Avery’s personal concerns extend beyond thrill rides.

For his part, the expert refuses to ride Disney’s Mission Space because of claustrophobia, describing the simulated journey into space as too realistic for his comfort.

He also no longer rides extreme coasters because of his own high blood pressure, history of heart-related issues and back pain.

But when asked which attractions he had walked away from over safety concerns, it wasn’t a 200ft roller coaster or a death-defying drop that he pointed to.

Instead, Avery singled out inflatable bounce houses.

‘Oh my god, they’re a nightmare, because they’re soft, they’re squishy, people bounce around in them, they think they’re safe,’ he said.

‘The reality is that there are more incidents on those than almost any other type of amusement ride out there. I refuse to ever let my children on them.’

He warned that their soft surfaces can give families a misleading sense of safety, while unsecured inflatables can become airborne and also advised parents to keep children out of trampoline parks.

The investigation into Kariem’s death is ongoing.