Six Flags closed nine other roller coasters across six parks after a teacher plunged to his death on its Goliath ride in Georgia on Monday — and the company is saying only that the move comes “out of an abundance of caution.”
But the other roller coasters have a lot in common with the deadly Six Flags Over Georgia ride — they’re all high-speed “hypercoasters” built for extreme thrills. And nearly all were constructed by Swiss ridemaker Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M).
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The shuttered rides are:
- 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, NJ
- Leviathan and Behemoth at Canada’s Wonderland in Ontario
- Fury 325 and Thunder Striker at Carowinds in Charlotte, NC
- Orion and Diamondback at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio
The Goliath at Six Flags Magic Mountain was not built by B&M, but by a different Swiss company. Giovanola. Another Giovanola “hypercoaster,” the Titan at Six Flags Over Texas, was not shuttered.
The coasters are all 200 to 300-feet tall and send riders hurtling at speeds up to 70 mph.
The closures come as experts say safety investigators are likely to look at whether the ride should have had a backup seatbelt in addition to the lap bar.
Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem flew out of his seat on the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia after he slipped out of the lap bar on the ride, according to witnesses. He his three cars on the cpaster before crashing onto the roof of another attraction.
Whether or not a seatbelt would have saved Kariem’s life will be among the first questions for investigators probing what went wrong at the Goliath, said lawyer Daniel Adamson of Dixon-Adamson (formerly the Dixon Firm), a Georgia firm that specializes in amusement park cases.
“That’s definitely something that should be looked at, in addition to whether Six Flags was following the requirements of ordinary care,” Adamson told The Post.
Adamson said the investigation will cover every aspect of the design, maintenance and operation of Goliath — including schematics, maintenance schedules, and video footage of the operation to suss out what, exactly, went wrong.
