Four children were hospitalized after a man fell to his death from a roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia near Atlanta.
Hassan Kariem, 42, a technology teacher, was killed when he was flung from the Goliath hypercoaster just before 4 p.m. On Monday, according to police. The four kids hurt in the tragedy were taken to hospital in ambulances with non-life-threatening injuries, cops said.
“Because they were all juveniles, no further information can be shared,” E.D. Smith, the Cobb County police public information officer, told The Post.
The Cobb County Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit has taken the lead on the probe. Georgia’s Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire, which oversees amusement park ride safety in the state, is also investigating the accident.
Six Flags said it would be reopening the park Friday, but Goliath will remain “temporarily closed,” a park spokesperson said Wednesday.
Kariem’s death has shaken the community around the Atlanta-area theme park, where the Goliath hypercoaster had been operating before the fatal incident. The ride is one of the park’s signature attractions.
The four injured children survived with non-life-threatening conditions, though police have withheld their identities and specific details about their injuries due to their ages. The circumstances of how Kariem was thrown from the coaster and whether the children were struck by him or injured in the resulting chaos remain under investigation.