ATLANTA –– The Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia was shut down for maintenance just hours before a teacher fell to his death from the ride, according to eyewitnesses.
Teacher Hassan Kariem, 42, was killed when he was flung from the high-speed hypercoaster just before 4 p.m. on Monday at the amusement park outside Atlanta.
Two other teachers who were at the park on Monday afternoon told The Post they had tried to get on the Goliath at around 1 p.m. but were told it was closed for maintenance.
The pair said that they saw a park worker conducting a test run on his own in one of the ride’s cars and they even remember commenting on how that would be a “scary job.”
“They made an announcement over the intercom, first saying ‘We’re experiencing delays’ and then, a few minutes later, they said, “We’re waiting for maintenance to get here,” high school teacher Tina Christiansen, 29, said.
Her pal Emily Nguyen, 30, a middle school teacher, said that while they were waiting park staff said they were doing “a couple of maintenance runs.”
“One guy rode it and he was in the front row by himself,” Nguyen said. “I remember us looking at each other, like, you could not pay me enough to do that job.
“Like, yeah, it’s fun to ride roller coasters, but I wouldn’t want to be the one in charge of making sure that they work. We literally had that conversation.”
Christiansen and Nguyen said they later returned to try to get on the Goliath again and saw a crowd of people and the area near Goliath closed off.
“There was a security guard standing there and I walked up to him and I said, ‘Hey, what happened?’ thinking it wasn’t anything big, I was just curious,” Nguyen said.
“He was like, ‘I can’t tell you’ and I realized it must be something really serious for him to say it like that, it was very gruff.”
The friends saw people crying and ambulances arriving before another parkgoer told them the park was being evacuated because someone fell from Goliath.
“I feel like we dodged a bullet by not being anywhere near when it happened, especially since that’s where we were going,” Nguyen said, adding that they later realized they had taken a selfie close by where Kariem is believed to have fallen.
Riders on the Goliath claimed Tuesday that they heard “weird clicking” and staff checked their restraints “multiple times” before the accident.
“It would unlock and lock, unlock and lock. It kept clicking like it was unlocking and re-locking,” a woman who was in the car told WSB-TV, after seeing Kariem fly out from his seat.
“Every time it would click they would come by and push down on the restraint…they triple and quadruple checked,” her male companion told the outlet.
In addition to Goliath, Six Flags closed nine roller coasters across six other parks following the accident, saying it was “out of an abundance of caution.”
The Cobb County Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit said Tuesday that it is investigating Kariem’s death.
Georgia’s Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire, which is responsible for the safety of amusement park rides in Georgia, also said it was “actively investigating” the incident.
Asked for comment about Christiansen and Nguyen’s account, a Six Flags Over Georgia spokesperson said, “The safety of our guests and associates is our highest priority.
“While we are unable to comment on specifics related to the incident or currently closed rides at this time, we are committed to rigorous ride inspection, maintenance and safety procedures that meet or exceed industry standards.”
