A 42-year-old Atlanta man was ejected from the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags over Georgia and killed Monday, prompting temporary closures of nine similar rides across North America.
AP reported that Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem was thrown from his seat on the park’s tallest coaster, struck other patrons, and died as families watched from below and from other cars. Cobb County police identified him. Georgia ride-safety overseers and the manufacturer opened reviews while basic questions about the restraints still had no public answer on Tuesday.
Goliath climbs a 200-foot first hill, then races through hills and turns without turning riders upside down. It uses lap bars over the legs and waist. It does not use seat belts. How Kariem came out of that system is the core of the probe, and officials have not said.
Nick Mendenhall had just ridden with his son and was watching cars pass overhead when the scene locked in.
Mendenhall said:
"It looked like he was hovering because the car was moving underneath him,"
He also said:
"It felt like slow-motion, but it happened in an instant,"
And he described what he did next:
"I was just praying in those moments. I was praying: ‘God, please let him stay in that car.’"
Summer Bates was at the park with her husband and three children. Her family had ridden Goliath earlier the same day. She said the sound is what will stay with them.
Bates said:
"One thing I think that will stick with us is the sound of his body coming down,"
She also described the hardware before the fatal ride. Her older children, she said, kept pushing their bars tighter. She told them they were fine, until her own car climbed the incline.
Bates said:
"I noticed they kept trying to push theirs down tighter. I assured them that they were OK. But once my husband, youngest child and I loaded our cart and headed up the incline, I quickly understood why my older two were messing with theirs. It just didn’t feel secure and tight."
Fox News reported the fall happened around 4 p.m. Monday and that other passengers were left stranded high above the ground for about an hour. Six Flags said it was deeply saddened by the guest incident and, out of an abundance of caution, temporarily closed similar attractions across its parks.
The New York Post reported that Kariem was riding with his son, who was right beside him when it happened. One woman on the ride told local station 11 Alive that he did not fall directly onto her group. She said he fell onto a girl two rows ahead and hit the cart three different times. That account also described him landing on a haunted-house roof after the final ejection. Those details remain witness claims inside an active investigation, not a finished official cause finding.
Across AP, Fox News, and the New York Post, the through-line is the same: a man left the Goliath train, other people were struck or stranded, he died, and Six Flags pulled a set of large similar coasters offline while investigators work.
Kariem was an information technology manager at Wesley International Academy, a public charter school, and had been a technology teacher. The school said it was devastated and praised his work with students.
The academy said his
"dedication to our students, and commitment to our school community were evident in everything he did."
After the death, Six Flags Entertainment Corp. temporarily shut roller coasters at six of its theme parks in the United States and Canada. The company did not spell out why those exact rides were chosen or what must be finished before they reopen. Some parks were already set for seasonal midweek closures Tuesday and Wednesday.
The list reached beyond the Georgia Goliath. It included Goliath at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California; Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America in Illinois; Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey; Fury 325 and Thunder Striker at Carowinds in North Carolina; and Leviathan and Behemoth at Canada’s Wonderland in Ontario. That is nine large coasters tied up across the chain’s map.
Swiss firm Bolliger & Mabillard built the Georgia coaster and many others worldwide. The company said it is actively investigating, that its thoughts are with the family and those affected, and that it will not comment further until it has a better understanding of what happened.
Cobb County police and Georgia’s Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner are investigating. The state office oversees annual ride inspections. Spokesperson Garrison Bennett said the office is
"conducting an in-depth and comprehensive review,"
In the United States, major amusement-park rides are not regulated by the federal government the way many other consumer machines are. Responsibility falls to the states. California approves new and modified rides and either inspects them or relies on annual owner inspections. Florida exempts its largest theme parks from state safety inspections and lets those parks run their own protocols. That patchwork is the system families actually get when something goes wrong on a 200-foot hill.
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts has repeatedly introduced legislation aimed at the federal law that lets safety officials regulate mobile carnival-style rides but exempts major amusement parks. Theme-park consultant Dennis Speigel, a past president of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, has said the industry already runs multiple layers of inspection. Layers only matter if the bar holds when the train leaves the station.
No charges, no arrest announcement, and no public cause determination appear in the reporting. Injuries to other patrons who were struck have not been detailed. Whether Kariem’s lap bar failed, was not secured, or came open for another reason is still unanswered in public. Six Flags has not said what inspection or hardware step reopens the nine closed coasters.
A theme park sells controlled fear. It does not get to sell uncontrolled ejections, stranded trains, and a father dead on a Monday while regulators sort out which state form applies. Until the restraint question has a plain answer, “abundance of caution” is the least the chain can do, and far from the most the public should accept.
