Following the death earlier this month of an Atlanta man who fell from its Goliath roller coaster, Six Flags will add seat belts to the ride and other roller coasters with similar restraints.
The amusement park company's CEO said Saturday, Oct. 23, that Six Flags would install seat belts on Goliath and Goliath-type roller coasters.
"We are reinforcing safety precautions at our parks and taking additional measures, including adding seat belts on Goliath and other coasters with a similar restraint," John Reilly, president and CEO of Six Flags Entertainment Corp., said in a statement.
The Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia remains closed "pending necessary safety reviews and clearances," he said.
Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, 42, of Atlanta
died after falling from the Goliath roller coaster at the park on Oct. 12, local news outlets reported.
Six Flags Over Georgia reopened on Friday, Oct. 16. It renamed its Fright Fest show from "Dr. Fright's Dead Man's Party" to "Dr. Fright's Party" out of respect for the recent incident and those affected.
Nine Six Flags rides closed 'out of an abundance of caution'
The Goliath and eight other Goliath-type rides at five other Six Flags parks remain closed "out of an abundance of caution," Reilly said.
Six Flags has independent engineers and ride inspection specialists conducting a comprehensive review of "safety procedures across our entire portfolio of rides and attractions, across all of our parks," he said. "We are committed to carefully evaluating their findings and taking appropriate action to further strengthen our standards and culture of safety."
The Switzerland-based company Bolliger & Mabillard that built the Goliath has about 130 roller coasters throughout the world – including the other coasters that Six Flags has temporarily closed. The hyper coasters the company manufactured, including the Goliath, are as high as 200 feet tall and reach speeds of up to 70 mph.
In 2023, Six Flags merged with Cedar Fair, which owned Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, and King's Island in Mason, Ohio. Prior to that, Cedar Fair had insisted that seat belts be installed on hyper coasters in addition to lap or over-the-shoulder restraints, reported The Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY Network.
The Goliath coaster involved in the mishap on Oct. 12 is at a legacy Six Flags park and used a clamshell-style lap-bar restraint with no traditional seatbelts.
After the fatal incident, SeaWorld Orlando in Florida temporarily closed its Mako coaster, but it reopened on Oct. 20, Fox 35 in Orlando reported. The Goliath roller coaster in the La Ronde theme park in Montreal, Canada, remains shut down, according to the park's website.
Contributing: Greta Cross, Michael Loria, Saleen Martin, James Powel and Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY, and Craig Webb, Akron Beacon Journal.
Mike Snider is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Six Flags: Seat belts to be added to ride after fatal Georgia incident
