Six Flags shuts down some roller coasters amid safety concerns, rider death in Georgia

Hailey Branson-Potts and Fedor Zarkhin, Los Angeles Times on Oct 13, 2026

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Six Flags is closing several rides across the U.S. and Canada after a man fell to his death from a roller coaster at one of its parks in Georgia.

Park officials said Tuesday that the closures were out of an abundance of caution and were temporary.

On Monday afternoon, Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, 42, of Atlanta, was ejected from a roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia and struck other riders as he fell, the Cobb County Police Department said in a statement.

Kariem landed beneath the roller coaster, where police officers found him just before 4 p.m., unconscious and not breathing.

The Police Department’s major crimes unit is investigating.

Park officials closed the Goliath roller coaster after the fatal incident.

“I cannot imagine the horror the patrons and employees witnessed today, and my heart aches for the family who lost a loved one,” Lisa N. Cupid, chairwoman of the Cobb County Board of Commissioners, said in a statement.

The park, in the Atlanta suburb of Austell, is “a significant part of our tourism landscape, drawing visitors from across our county, our state, and the Southeast,” Cupid wrote.

She added: “We are all grappling with how something so devastating could happen at a place that has given generations of families such happy memories.”

Six Flags announced this week that, in addition to Goliath in Georgia, it had closed the following similar rides:

—Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois

—Goliath at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California

—Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, N.J.

—Leviathan and Behemoth at Canada’s Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario

—Fury 325 and Thunder Striker at Carowinds in Charlotte, N.C.

—Orion and Diamondback at Kings Island in Kings Island, Ohio

Six Flags celebrated the 20th anniversary of the opening of Goliath in Georgia earlier this year. It is described on the park’s website as “an intense 70-mile-per-hour thrill ride” that reaches 200 feet in height.

The nationwide closures come weeks after Six Flags Magic Mountain’s famous X2 roller coaster in Valencia was permanently closed in September following a history of injuries, including some that led to deaths.

The ride was first closed temporarily in July following reports of back-to-back brain injuries. Months after the ride, first called X, opened in 2002, it had to be closed to repair design flaws. Then, in 2007, it was closed again to replace the trains with lighter ones and reopened the next year as X2. It has long been one of the park’s main attractions, featuring seats that spin forward and backward 360 degrees. More than 16 million people have ridden X2, Magic Mountain said in its statement.

X2 had long been hailed by ride enthusiasts for its design. The seats are on the side of the track, allowing riders’ feet to dangle below or above them as their seat spins forward or backward. At the beginning, riders are taken up a slope while facing backward and, at the peak, their seats spin forward as they hurtle toward the ground headfirst.

“While X2 consistently passed a multitude of safety tests, we have decided to close the ride because we believe it’s the right thing to do,” Brian Oerding, Six Flags Magic Mountain president, said in a statement last month. “Ride safety is a cornerstone of our business, and when we see guest confidence affected, we take it seriously.”