Six Flags Magic Mountain has closed Goliath “out of an abundance of caution” after a rider died when he was thrown from a similar roller coaster with the same name at Six Flags Over Georgia near Atlanta.
The Goliath coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia was temporarily closed on Tuesday, Oct. 13 following a fatal accident on the Goliath coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia on Monday, Oct. 12, according to the Associated Press.
Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, 42, was killed when he was thrown from his seat and struck other riders on the Goliath coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia, according to the Associated Press.
Logan Conner was on Goliath with his fiancee when they saw Kariem come out of his seat, according to WXIA News in Atlanta.
“The man started levitating in the air sideways,” Conner told the NBC affiliate. “We made direct eye contact with him.”
The death on the Goliath coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia comes less than two weeks after Magic Mountain permanently retired X2 following lawsuits alleging riders died and suffered severe brain injuries on the fourth-dimension roller coaster.
Six Flags has temporarily closed 10 similar coasters in the United States and Canada in the wake of the Georgia accident, according to AP.
The closed coasters include:
- Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia
- Goliath at Six Flags Magic Mountain
- Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America (Illinois)
- Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure (New Jersey)
- Fury 325 and Thunder Striker at Carowinds (North Carolina)
- Leviathan and Behemoth at Canada’s Wonderland (Ontario, Canada)
- Orion and Diamondback at Kings Island (Ohio)
All seven of the parks were already scheduled for seasonal midweek closures on Tuesday.