Six Flags killed Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem on Goliath for profit
By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit ·
Six Flags prioritized thrill-seeking over redundant safety, leading to the death of Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem and exposing a regulatory void that protects billionaires over families.
Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem could not survive the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia. On October 12, 2026, Kariem was ejected from his seat, struck other riders, and fell to his death. This was not a "freak accident." It was the inevitable result of a corporate culture that treats human safety as a negotiable expense. Six Flags is wrong for selling a "thrill" that lacks basic redundant safety, and the government is wrong for leaving the door open for them to do it.
The cost of a thrill
Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem was 42. He was an IT manager and a robotics coach at Wesley International Academy. Atlanta Public Schools called him a "cherished member" of their family. He was the kind of man who spent his life building things and teaching kids how to do the same. Now, he is a data point in a corporate disaster.
While Kariem’s family mourns, the money is moving. Six Flags Entertainment Corp. shares sank on Tuesday. The incident erased about $170 million in market value. For the investors, the tragedy is a dip in a chart.
Among those investors is NFL star Travis Kelce. He bought a stake in Six Flags with the hedge fund Jana Partners. When billionaires and activist funds move in, the goal is rarely "safety." The goal is "efficiency." Six Flags recently reported a $203 million net loss following an $8 billion merger with Cedar Fair. When a company is bleeding that much cash, the first things to be squeezed are the people on the ground. They squeeze the maintenance budgets. They squeeze the ride operators.
I saw this pattern in Flint. I saw it when the 2008 crash took the houses on my block. The people at the top play with the numbers, and the people at the bottom pay with their lives. This is the same as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, where a corporate giant prioritized speed and cost-cutting over safety protocols. The result is always the same: a catastrophic failure that kills workers and families.
Engineering the failure
The Goliath ride is a beast. It stands 200ft tall and hits speeds of 70mph. According to the BBC, it features a plunge and a spiral. It is designed to "flirt with danger." But there is a difference between flirting with danger and being thrown out of a seat at high speed.
Brian Avery, a professor at the University of Florida, pointed out a fatal flaw. The Goliath ride does not include a secondary safety restraint. "If you have your primary fail, what are you left with? Yeah, nothing," Avery said.
Witnesses describe a nightmare. CiCi Nelson told CNN she saw a cart pull in with an empty seat and a loose safety bar. She saw a young passenger covered in blood. Nick Mendenhall told CBC News he saw Kariem go head-first into another car before falling from the coaster altogether.
This is not an isolated glitch. Six Flags recently closed the X2 roller coaster in California. People alleged brain injuries from that ride. Six Flags even settled a wrongful death lawsuit from the family of a 22-year-old man who died after riding X2 in 2022. They knew their machines were hurting people. They just kept the gates open until the lawsuits became too loud to ignore.
The regulatory loophole
The industry will tell you that amusement rides have "inherent risks." They will argue that no system is perfect and that they follow all state laws. They want you to believe this is just the price of admission for a day of fun.
That argument is a lie. The "risk" is not inherent; it is engineered. The real crime is that these rides are not federally regulated. Because of the 1981 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, fixed amusement rides are outside the jurisdiction of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. This leaves safety to a fractured patchwork of state insurance commissioners. It is a regulatory void that allows companies to prioritize profit over redundant harnesses.
This is exactly the mechanism of the Boeing 737 MAX groundings. In both cases, corporate prioritization of speed and profit over redundant safety systems leads to catastrophic failure and subsequent mass groundings of similar models. Just as Boeing ignored warnings to keep planes in the air, Six Flags operated Goliath without a secondary restraint. Now, Six Flags has temporarily closed 10 roller coasters across the US and Canada. They are acting "out of an abundance of caution" only after Kariem was killed.
This failure to invest in safety infrastructure is a mirror of the 2021 Texas power grid failure. In both instances, companies ignored known risks to maintain profitability, and the most vulnerable paid the price.
Six Flags will likely try to settle with Kariem’s family in secret. They will use non-disclosure agreements to hide the truth from the public. They will wait for the news cycle to turn, and then they will reopen the rides after a cursory audit. They will tell us the "incident" is solved.
But a man is dead. A school lost a teacher. Justice is not a confidential settlement paid by a company that is losing millions. Justice is a federal mandate that no rider ever enters a high-speed coaster without a secondary restraint. Until the government treats a roller coaster like a plane or a bridge, Six Flags will continue to gamble with human lives to protect its stock price. We must stop letting billionaires bet on the survival of our children.
Sources
- CNN: Man who died after being ‘ejected’ from Goliath coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia was cherished teacher, school says
- BBC: Horrified witnesses recount fatal rollercoaster incident at Six Flags
- The Guardian: Man who died in Six Flags rollercoaster fall in Georgia was a father and educator
- CBC News: Man who witnessed deadly roller-coaster fall at Six Flags prays it was 'just a freak accident'
- CNBC: Six Flags shares decline following deadly roller coaster incident