Six Flags’ chief executive says the company will install seat belts on the Georgia roller coaster where a passenger died earlier this month. The company’s rides with similar restraints will also get a safety upgrade.
The theme park operator announced the additional protective measure less than two weeks after Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, 42, of Atlanta, died after being thrown from his seat on the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia.
“We are increasing safety precautions at our parks and taking additional measures, including adding seat belts on Goliath and other roller coasters with a similar restraint system,” John Reilly, chairman and CEO of Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, said in a statement Friday.
Goliath remains closed while state and local authorities investigate the Oct. 12 death.
Reilly did not specify which other Six Flags roller coasters will receive seat belts. But it temporarily closed eight additional roller coasters at five other parks in the United States and Canada. These rides all share the same manufacturer and a similar restraint system.
Six Flags has not said when the roller coaster is expected to reopen. Reilly’s statement said Six Flags used independent engineers and inspectors to review the safety procedures of all rides at its theme parks.
Investigators have not said what happened on the Georgia roller coaster. Witnesses said they saw Kariem get up from his seat and fall headfirst back into the cart before being ejected. Some people who rode Goliath before him that day said they were concerned about his restraints.
The nine Six Flags coasters taken offline were manufactured by Swiss company Bolliger & Mabillard. They also feature similar clamshell restraints that sit atop a vertical bar between each rider’s knees. The bar locks a padded restraint in place on the rider’s knees and upper legs.
The U.S. patent granted to Bolliger & Mabillard for the restraint system in 2001 states that it is designed to give each rider the feeling “that they are sitting on a magic carpet or that they are at the controls of a sort of flying scooter, while guaranteeing optimal safety.”
After the death in Georgia, non-Six Flags theme parks SeaWorld Orlando in Florida and La Ronde in Montreal, Canada, also temporarily closed one roller coaster each using clamshell restraints.
SeaWorld reopened its Mako roller coaster Tuesday after a week-long shutdown. The Associated Press emailed the company Saturday to ask if seat belts or other safety improvements were planned for the roller coaster.
The AP also emailed a La Ronde spokesperson for an update on its closed roller coaster.
In addition to Goliath in Georgia, eight roller coasters remain closed at Six Flags parks in Gurnee, Illinois; Jackson Township, New Jersey; Charlotte, North Carolina; Mason, Ohio; and Vaughan, Ontario.
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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.
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