A man fell from the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia on Monday, October 12, 2026, and died at the scene. He was Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, 42, a father and a schoolteacher from Atlanta.
Cobb County police said officers at the park responded just before 4 p.m. local time to an incident involving a male guest. Preliminary information from witness and employee interviews, the department said, indicated Kariem was ejected from the ride, struck other riders and fell beneath the attraction. News helicopters showed the coaster halted midway along its track.
What witnesses saw
Nick Mendenhall watched the man come out of his seat and drop into another cart before hitting the ground. “It was just super, super bizarre, traumatic,” he told the AP. It took him a few seconds to take in what he had seen.
Connor Thompson was in the queue when people began yelling in distress. He told CBS News he saw the cart roll back into the station with its restraint unlatched. CiCi Nelson, also waiting to ride, told CNN she saw an empty seat with a loose safety bar and a woman covered in blood. A man nearby was “freaking out, saying someone fell off.” One witness told WXIA the moment was caught by the automatic souvenir cameras. The BBC could not verify that.
The man behind the headline
Kariem’s family described him as a father and a passionate educator who had beaten cancer twice, most recently in 2018. Three weeks before he died, the family told WXIA, he was in a car crash with his 10-year-old daughter. A friend said he had also fought Covid-19.
For more than 12 years he worked at Wesley International Academy, a public charter school, as IT manager, technology teacher and robotics coach. Outside work he cooked, watched anime, and made things with a laser engraver and 3D printers. The school said he was “deeply loved and respected” and that his absence would be felt across the community. A cousin, Niama Kariem, wrote in a tribute that his life was “so much bigger than the tragedy that took you from us.”
The ride and the inquiry
Goliath opened in 2006. According to the park’s website it stands 200 feet tall, with a 170-foot plunge, a 540-degree spiral and a top speed of 70 mph. Six Flags rates it four out of five on its thrill scale.
Georgia’s insurance and fire safety commissioner, whose office enforces amusement park rules in the state, is reviewing the incident. Commissioner John King said at a debate that his inspectors had checked every ride before the season began and were now on the ground “looking at every nook and cranny.” No news conference has been held.
Six Flags said it was deeply saddened and sent condolences to the family. As a precaution, the company has temporarily closed nine rides across the US and Canada. The Doan Law Firm, which tracks park accidents, counts Kariem’s death as at least the seventh at Six Flags Over Georgia, though only some of the earlier cases involved a ride failing a passenger: two were medical emergencies, two involved people in restricted areas struck by a ride, two were car-related, and one happened months after a visit to the pool.
Sources
- Six Flags Roller Coaster Victim Survived Cancer Twice, Faced Car Crash Three Weeks Before His Death
- What we know about the deadly Six Flags rollercoaster incident in Georgia
