Hassan Kariem, 42, fell to his death while riding the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia near Atlanta on Monday, shortly before 4 p.m. According to his niece, who was celebrating her 13th birthday and rode alongside him, Kariem fainted before his safety latch snapped. Joshua Nelson, the girl's father and Kariem's brother-in-law, reported that she called him in a panic after the incident. He stated, "What she told me on that phone call, she said he fainted, or he passed out. They went up and down, up and down, up and down. It went up again, his latch snapped or came loose, and he fell. She told me he fell off the rollercoaster."
After the fall, the girl was unsure of her uncle's whereabouts. Nelson then contacted Kariem's wife, Eboni, who was waiting outside the attraction and sensed something was wrong. Shortly after, she heard an announcement from authorities regarding a death and feared it was her husband.
The Goliath roller coaster, which opened in 2006, reaches speeds of 70 mph and heights of 200 feet during its approximately three-and-a-half-minute ride. Cobb County police reported that officers found Kariem "unresponsive and not breathing" beneath the ride. Preliminary information from witness and employee interviews indicated that he was ejected from the ride and struck other patrons before falling. Four children sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to a hospital.
E.D. Smith, a Cobb County police public information officer, stated that due to the victims being juveniles, no further information could be shared. Six Flags supervisor KeJuan Taylor, who was the first to find Kariem after the fall, described the experience as “genuinely horrifying.”
Six Flags confirmed that the park would reopen on Friday, but the Goliath ride would remain “temporarily closed.” The Cobb County Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit and Georgia’s Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire are conducting an investigation into the incident.