Six Flags' Goliath rollercoaster was closed for maintenance in hours before teacher's fatal fall, witnesses say, as records reveal malfunctions on aging rides

Six Flags' Goliath rollercoaster was reportedly closed for maintenance just hours before a teacher was violently flung from the ride, as records reveal numerous malfunctions on the amusement park's aging rides.

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.

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 how Kariem 'levitated' briefly before he fell.

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. Six Flags Over Georgia is now scheduled to re-open on Friday.

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.

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. 

State records from New Jersey showed similar problems, with park officials reporting a train derailment due to an equipment failure that caused minor injuries in 2024 as well as repeated instances of lap bars opening mid-ride, sometimes due to broken bolts.

Riders have also had to evacuate the New Jersey amusement park's log ride on seven separate occasions because of issues including boats colliding or becoming jammed and smoke coming from a malfunctioning part of the ride. 

A child was once even transported for medical treatment after hitting his head multiple times on a rollercoaster's restraint bar.

The El Toro ride, a wooden rollercoaster that goes up to 70mph with a steep 176-foot drop, has been the subject of repeated safety reports and ongoing lawsuits over the past five years in the Garden State. 

In August 2022, more than a dozen people were injured after experiencing a violent jolt on the ride, and one month later the state deemed the ride 'structurally compromised,' CNN reports.

It then remained closed until June 2023. 

Meanwhile, in Texas, state regulators received many injury reports related to Six Flags' water park attractions, such as incidents in which riders were thrown from inner tubes, resulting in head injuries and other trauma.

Other reports obtained by CNN detail an eight-year-old breaking his arm after his legs got caught in the seat of a children's ride, a 21-year-old who couldn't move after riding on a rollercoaster due to a back injury and a 37-year-old man who felt his neck 'pop' after riding an attraction and saying he felt his hands go numb before he almost fainted. 

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 filed in California federal court 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' in a lawsuit obtained by the Daily Mail.

Six Flags has not responded to the lawsuits' claims in court.

But a spokesperson for the park told CNN it was 'committed to rigorous ride inspection, maintenance and safety procedures that meet or exceed industry standards.'

The spokesperson said all reported guest injuries are 'taken seriously' and reviewed, noting that the incidents reviewed by CNN 'span multiple parks, attractions, years, jurisdictions and circumstances and may reflect differing state reporting requirements as a wide range of incidents and outcomes.

'As a result, broad conclusions drawn from a compilation of reports may not provide the full context surrounding any individual event or our overall approach to safety.' 

But just last month, Six Flags Magic Mountain in California announced it was demolishing its notorious X2 roller coaster, following a series of lawsuits alleging it had caused severe injuries to riders.

The theme park operator had settled a wrongful-death lawsuit from the family of 22-year-old Christopher Hawley, who died after riding the coaster in 2022, and three other lawsuits alleging traumatic brain injuries were filed.

The ride had then been closed since the evening of July 12, after two women who rode the coaster less than a week apart needed to be rushed to the hospital.

Still, 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.