On Monday, October 12, a man fell to his demise from a rollercoaster at around 4 p.m. at Six Flags Over Georgia amusement park in Austell, leaving other visitors horrified.
When cops arrived at the scene, they found the man unresponsive on the ground beneath the ride.
Videos and images soon began circulating on social media, showing the man dropping headfirst and hitting other cars and riders on his way down.
The Six Flags website describes the ride as a “hypercoaster” that reaches a height of 200 feet, tops out at 70 mph, and runs for 210 seconds.
“As a former maintenance employee, this should NEVER happen! There are like six safety redundancies for the safety harness alone,” one user reacted.
While it is still unclear exactly how the man fell—whether due to a mechanical failure or human error—an investigation into the accident has uncovered his identity.
The deceased was a 42-year-old father of two and a respected educator
On Tuesday, October 13, the Cobb County Police Department identified the deceased as a 42-year-old father of two, Hassan Kariem, from Atlanta, Georgia.
He was a teacher and technology professional at Wesley International Academy.
Kariem’s family members described him as “a passionate educator who loved his city and was invested in bringing families back together,” according to 11Alive.
He was allegedly riding the rollercoaster with his son when the tragedy struck, and his wife and young daughter watched on from the ground.
A relative told the Daily Mail that his passing was a “terrible shock” to his family, and said they “just want to know what happened.”
One visitor, who was also riding when he fell, told 11 Alive that it happened on the part of the rollercoaster that passes a souvenir photo camera: “He was in our pictures. He fell and hit the car three different times.”
Several riders said Kariem’s blood “splattered over everybody” when he collided with the ride’s frame.
At least three other riders were hurt as Kariem fell and crashed into the roof of a haunted house attraction below. The status of the injured visitors is unknown.
Multiple eyewitnesses shared their accounts of the horrifying tragedy
Zachariah Aussi/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Kariem’s fatal drop was witnessed by several other stunned parkgoers, who later opened up about what they saw to the media.
A husband and wife told 11Alive that they “saw it all.”
“We were having a great time and [then went] to just screaming, ‘Oh my God, what is happening?’” the wife said.
@aves_4872 @𝔱𝔞𝔶𝔩𝔬𝔯 prayers for his family 🙏 #sixflags #goliath #fall #manfalls #rollercoaster ♬ take my breath away – user29757336941
“You don’t see things like this happen. It should never happen,” the husband said, adding that ride workers checked both their safety harnesses beforehand.
Logan Conner, another witness who was riding the rollercoaster with his fiancé, told the outlet, “The man started levitating in the air sideways. We made direct eye contact with him.”
“He came up out of his car. He was in his seat, and went forward and just came down head first,” said Nicholas Mendenhall, who rode with his son ten minutes before the incident.
Another witness said, “The ride hit him, and then he flew back up again, and it hit him again, and then that’s when he was, I guess, flung from the ride.”
Vanessa Sowemimo, who was with her husband Fred and friend Sebastian, told NBC that they saw a girl with blood on her white skirt from when Kariem supposedly clashed with her when his safety harness “dislodged” and he fell.
Videos showed the rollercoaster paused mid-ride after the accident, and other riders were forced to walk down a steep incline before the entire park was evacuated.
The Goliath rollercoaster may lack a crucial security measure, according to an expert
Six Flags has closed nine rides across its parks since the incident “out of an abundance of caution,” a company spokesperson said, offering “heartfelt condolences” to Kariem’s family.
The morning after, Six Flags Entertainment Corporation’s stock fell 12% in early trading, and by late morning, was down 16.3%/
This comes weeks after Six Flags was named in multiple lawsuits in September filed by riders who alleged they suffered brain injuries on the X2 rollercoaster, which has 360-degree rotating seats, a 215-foot drop, and sudden flips and rotations, at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California.
The Goliath rollercoaster, manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard, a Swiss engineering company, has a “stellar” safety record, Brian Avery, a professor at the University of Florida who specializes in ride safety and risk management, told CNN.
However, the ride notably lacks a secondary safety restraint. The “scalloped-like bucket seat” has a waist restraint that sits on the thigh and waist, but it lacks an over-the-shoulder harness like some other rollercoasters.
Marwan Abdalah/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
“It’s really a design consideration,” Avery explained, adding that every ride goes through a “hazard containment assessment” during manufacturing to determine the best mechanism to keep riders safe while not compromising speed and transition forces.
However, he believes that a secondary restraint is necessary: “If you have your primary fail, what are you left with? Yeah, nothing. And it’s an impossible feat to stay contained if it did fail, because of the forces and the speed.”
“I hope the family gets a full settlement,” one user said
