Six Flags closes nine rides after fatal Georgia roller coaster fall

Six Flags has temporarily closed nine rides at six U.S. parks after a man fell to his death from a roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia on Monday. Several other people were injured, police said.

Police identified the man as Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, 42, of Atlanta. The cause of the fall remains under investigation, and authorities have not said how the others were injured or described their conditions.

Witnesses told CBS News that Kariem fell from his seat on Goliath, a roller coaster that reaches 70 miles per hour and rises 200 feet. The Guardian reported that authorities and Six Flags had not identified the ride, though video footage showed passengers being evacuated from Goliath.

Nick Mendenhall, who told CBS News he had ridden the coaster with his teenage son minutes earlier, said he saw Kariem “come straight up out of his seat.”

“Everything felt like it was happening in slow motion,” Mendenhall said. “It was just surreal seeing it happen.”

“Out of an abundance of caution, we have temporarily closed similar attractions across our parks,” a Six Flags spokesperson said Monday. “The safety of our guests and team members remains one of our highest priorities.”

The company did not name the rides affected by the temporary closures. CBS News Philadelphia reported that Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey was among them. Six Flags said it was “deeply saddened” by the death and was cooperating fully with authorities.

The Cobb County Police Department’s major crimes unit is investigating. Brian Avery, a legal and risk professor at the University of Florida, told CBS News that investigators would examine video, maintenance logs and accounts from witnesses and ride attendants to determine what happened.

“All of these are clues to kind of build to the root cause and trying to come to an actual understanding as to why this would have occurred,” Avery said. He said roller coaster incidents are very rare but called for uniform federal safety standards for amusement rides.

Kariem was an educator in Atlanta and the father of a 10-year-old daughter, The Guardian reported. Atlanta Public Schools said he began his career at Wesley International Academy as a technology teacher and was later promoted to IT manager.

“He was a cherished member of the Wesley International Academy and APS families whose presence and impact will be deeply missed by our students, staff, and all those whose lives he touched,” the school district said in a statement obtained by The Guardian.

Kariem’s family told Atlanta station 11Alive that he had survived two bouts of cancer, most recently in 2018. They said he and his daughter escaped unharmed from a car fire three weeks before his death.

Six Flags Over Georgia was closed Tuesday on a scheduled non-operating day, the company said. The Guardian reported that the park was expected to reopen Friday under its offseason schedule.

The death follows Six Flags’ permanent closure of the X2 coaster at Magic Mountain in Southern California amid lawsuits alleging the ride caused serious brain injuries. Six Flags declined to comment to CBS News on the pending litigation.