By KATE BRUMBACK and RUSS BYNUM Associated Press
MABLETON, Ga. (AP) — Six Flags Over Georgia opened its gates Friday evening for the first time since a man fell to his death from one of the amusement park’s towering roller coasters.
A steady trickle of vehicles drove into the park, some of which had lined up outside about an hour before opening. Most of the visitors said they hadn’t thought about canceling their plans after Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, a 42-year-old school employee from Atlanta, was thrown from the Goliath coaster on Monday.
“We didn’t plan on riding that specific ride,” said Alayna Bruce, who was visiting the park with family. “Hopefully, we can enjoy all the other stuff they have.”
Eleanor Adcock, of Griffin, Georgia, said she had second thoughts after hearing about what happened and said she probably wouldn’t be riding any roller coasters. But she said she still looked forward to the park’s Halloween-themed Fright Fest attractions of haunted houses and mazes.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t let an incident like this like scare everybody out of just going out and enjoying yourself,” she said. “But it’s still very alarming.”
Authorities are investigating what led to Kariem’s fall. The park was already scheduled to be closed Tuesday through Thursday. It reopened as scheduled Friday evening, though Goliath was not expected to be running.
Witnesses described seeing Kariem ejected from the coaster, and some people who rode the Goliath before him that day said they had concerns about its restraints.
Six Flags Over Georgia’s park president, Richard Pretlow, issued a statement Friday afternoon thanking patrons for their support, offering condolences to Kariem’s family and reiterating the park’s commitment to safety.
“While serious incidents of this nature are exceedingly rare, we never take responsibility to our guests for granted and remain committed to continuously strengthening our operations and safety practices,” Pretlow said.
Local officials in Cobb County, where Six Flags is located, declined to discuss any investigative findings during a news conference Friday. Assistant Police Chief Damon Ballard said county police plan to wait for state investigators to determine what went wrong before deciding whether criminal charges are warranted.
Cobb County’s elected commission chairperson, Lisa Cupid, was asked what she might say to reassure patrons that Six Flags is safe. She said people should “use their judgment.”
Documents indicate no safety violations related to restraints
The Georgia coaster passed its latest annual state inspection in March with no safety violations found, according to an Associated Press review of documents obtained from the Georgia agency that inspects amusement park rides.
Inspections from 2016 to 2021 found a total of 18 safety violations related to the ride that included corrosion on welds, loose handrails in the waiting area and maintenance needed on grout and padding around the ride’s support structure. Inspectors said Six Flags corrected each violation within days. None of the problems appeared to involve the ride’s restraints.
At least 11 roller coasters in the U.S. and Canada — including the ride on which Kariem died — have been temporarily closed. They were all manufactured by the same company and equipped with similar restraints.
Online photos and videos of the coasters show each equipped with clamshell restraints, which are mounted in front of each seat on a vertical bar that sits between the rider’s knees. The bar locks the padded restraint into place over the rider’s lap and upper legs.
It’s unclear from the images whether any of those coasters also have seat belts or other secondary restraints. Goliath in Georgia has no such backup restraints.
Manufacturer confident of restraint’s safety and comfort
Goliath’s manufacturer, the Swiss company Bolliger & Mabillard, was granted a U.S. patent for its clamshell restraint system in September 2001.
In the patent document, the company states that most roller coasters bind riders in “very tight retention devices” that “detract from their comfort.” It says the company’s clamshell restraints give each rider a sensation “that he is seated on a flying carpet or that he is at the controls of a kind of flying scooter, while still guaranteeing optimum security.”
Bolliger & Mabillard has said by email that it won’t comment on the Georgia death until it has a “better understanding of what transpired.”
Kariem was thrown from his seat and struck other patrons before landing below the ride. Goliath, one of Six Flags Over Georgia’s headline attractions, towers above the park’s entrance. It opened in 2006 and features a series of hills and turns. It doesn’t take riders upside down, but its first hill rises to 200 feet (61 meters) and it has a top speed of 70 miles per hour (112 kilometers).
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This story has been corrected to show all 11 roller coasters shut down in the U.S. and Canada were created by the same manufacturer and have similar restraint systems, instead of nine of the 11 rides. It has also been updated to correct a misspelling of one reference to the company Bolliger & Mabillard.
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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.