ATLANTA (AP) — A growing number of amusement parks have shut down roller coasters as police and state regulators investigate what caused a man to fall out of his seat and plummet to his death at a Georgia park.
Sea World Orlando in Florida and La Ronde theme park in Montreal, Canada confirmed on Thursday they had temporarily closed rides, bringing the total number of roller coasters halted to 12.
Police and a state regulatory agency are investigating
what caused Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, a 42-year-old school employee from Atlanta, to fall from the Goliath coaster on Monday. Witnesses described seeing him ejected from the coaster; some people who rode the Goliath before him raised concerns about its restraints.
Ten of the roller coasters taken out of service have the same manufacturer and a similar restraint system as the Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia.
Erica Billups said her son and daughter rode Goliath about an hour before Kariem’s death and encountered a problem with the restraint on one seat. Her son initially sat in that seat and tried to lock it, but then moved when it repeatedly became unlocked. The roller coaster embarked with the seat empty and the harness up, she said in a post on X.
She confirmed the post in a text message to The Associated Press on Thursday.
She said staff did not tell her kids there was a problem.
Summer Bates, who was at the Georgia park with her husband and three children and saw Kariem fall, told the AP previously that her older two children kept trying to push their restraints down tighter while on the ride. She understood why they were doing that later when she was on the coaster, she said, because the restraints didn’t feel secure.
Six Flags did not immediately respond to an email for comment on any issues with restraints.
La Ronde in Montreal, Canada, said one of its coasters — also named Goliath — is offline “while we conduct a thorough safety review in collaboration with the ride’s manufacturer.”
Neither La Ronde nor Sea World Orlando said why those specific rides were closed. Both were manufactured by the Swiss company Bolliger & Mabillard, which also built the Goliath ride in Georgia and eight of the additional coasters that Six Flags closed. Bolliger & Mabillard declined Thursday to answer questions about the shutdowns.
Online photos and videos of 10 of the closed coasters show each equipped with so-called “clamshell” restraints, 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 the 10 coasters also have seat belts or other secondary restraints. Goliath in Georgia has no such backup restraints.
Roller coaster manufacturers decide what type of restraints to use after considering speed, force and the track’s transitions, said Brian D. Avery, a University of Florida professor and amusement ride safety expert.
He advocates the use of a backup restraint for riders, but there is a long-running debate in the industry over whether that would increase wait times, Avery said.
The company said in an email it would have no further comment until it had a “better understanding of what transpired” on Monday.
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).
Nick Mendenhall, who had just ridden Goliath with his son and was watching the coaster cars passing overhead, said it looked like Kariem was hovering because the car was moving underneath him. He fell headfirst back into the coaster, Mendenhall said, and then was ejected from the ride on its final turn.
The Goliath, however, is not expected to be running.
The park, which has about a dozen roller coasters, is in Austell, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta.
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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press writer Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to this report.
