Six Flags’ Goliath rollercoaster was reportedly closed for maintenance just hours before a teacher was violently flung from the ride.
Tina Christiansen and Emily Nguyen told the New York Post they were at Six Flags Over Georgia on Monday afternoon and tried to get on the ride at around 1pm – but were told it was closed for maintenance.
‘They made an announcement over the intercom, first saying, “We’re experiencing delays,” and then a few minutes later, they said, “We’re waiting for maintenance to get here,”‘ Christiansen recounted.
They were then left waiting to get on the ride and saw an amusement park staffer doing ‘a couple of maintenance runs.’
‘One guy rode it and he was in the front row by himself,’ Nguyen said. ‘I remember us looking at each other, like, “You could not pay me enough to do that job.”‘
‘Like, yeah, it’s fun to ride rollercoasters, but I wouldn’t want to be the one in charge of making sure that they work,’ she said. ‘We literally had that conversation.’
Just a few hours later, Hassan Kariem, 42, was violently thrown from his seat on the Goliath rollercoaster in front of horrified passengers.
He struck the ride three times before police found him unresponsive behind a haunted house attraction that had been set up for Halloween, 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 others were also rushed to the hospital in the aftermath for non-life threatening injuries.
Authorities are now investigating exactly what went wrong on the ride, which has been a staple of the theme park since 2006.
As part of the investigation, state officials and Cobb County Major Crimes detectives are evaluating the coaster’s lap bar restraints, locking mechanisms and computerized safety sensors, Fox 5 reports.
Witnesses to the gruesome incident on Monday have said that the restraints on the rollercoaster were making a ‘weird clicking’ noise – prompting park staff to check the restraints ‘multiple times’ before the car Kariem was in took off.
Moments later, he was caught in horrific photos falling headfirst over other riders and off of the rollercoaster, as families and small children recoiled in horror.
He was said to have been thrown from his seat on the Goliath ride near the final turn, and he struck the frame of the roller coaster several times on his way to the ground.
Logan Conner, a man on the same ride carriage as Kariem, said passengers made ‘direct eye contact’ with him as he fell head-first out of the roller coaster.
He described Kariem ‘levitating’ by the side of the track as he fell, before he struck the ride and his blood ‘splattered over everybody,’ reports WXIA.
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
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.
However, the company said Six Flags Over Georgia will re-open on Friday.
The theme park was evacuated and closed for several days following the tragedy
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.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to Six Flags for comment.
