Hassan Kariem’s niece called her father in a panic from Six Flags Over Georgia, telling him her uncle had passed out on the Goliath roller coaster before his restraint failed and he fell to his death.
The 13-year-old girl, who was celebrating her birthday at the Atlanta-area park, had been riding alongside Kariem, 42, when the incident occurred shortly before 4 p.m. Monday. Joshua Nelson, the girl’s father and Kariem’s brother-in-law, recounted the harrowing phone call in an interview with WSBTV Thursday.
“What she told me on that phone call, she said he fainted, or he passed out,” Nelson said. “They went up and down, up and down, up and down. It went up again, his latch snapped or came loose, and he fell. She told me he fell off the rollercoaster.”
The girl told her father she did not know where her uncle was after the fall. Nelson then contacted Kariem’s wife, Eboni, who had been waiting outside the attraction. She sensed something was wrong but had not yet learned what happened, according to the report. Moments later, Eboni heard authorities announce that someone had died, and she immediately feared the victim was her husband.
Kariem, a beloved technology teacher at Wesley International Academy, was found “unresponsive and not breathing” beneath the Goliath attraction, Cobb County police said Wednesday. The department’s preliminary investigation, based on witness and employee interviews, indicates he was ejected from the ride and struck other patrons before falling beneath the structure.
Four children suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were transported to a hospital, police said. “Because they were all juveniles, no further information can be shared,” E.D. Smith, a Cobb County police public information officer, told The Post Thursday.
Six Flags supervisor KeJuan Taylor said he was the first to find Kariem after the fall, describing the experience as “genuinely horrifying.”
“I have not suffered any physical injuries but it has been on my mind very recently through these past days,” Taylor said.
The Goliath hypercoaster, which opened in 2006, reaches speeds of 70 mph and heights of 200 feet during its roughly three-and-a-half-minute ride, according to Six Flags. The attraction will remain temporarily closed when the park reopens Friday, a park spokesperson confirmed.
The Cobb County Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit and Georgia’s Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire are continuing to investigate Kariem’s death. Nelson added that his daughter was physically unharmed after the terrifying incident.
