The Six Flags parkgoer who fell to his death while riding a roller coaster had passed out before his “latch broke,” according to his niece, who was riding alongside the beloved educator.
Hassan Kariem, 42, was riding the Goliath hypercoaster at high speed at Six Flags Over Georgia, near Atlanta, when he was thrown from the ride shortly before 4 p.m. Monday, killing him and injuring four other park visitors.
Kariem’s niece, who was celebrating her 13th birthday at the park, called her father in a panic after the ride.
“What she told me in that phone call, she said he passed out or passed out,” Joshua Nelson, the girl’s father and Kariem’s brother-in-law, told WSBTV Thursday.
“They were going up and down, up and down, up and down. He got back on, his latch broke or came loose, and he fell. She told me he fell off the roller coaster.”
The girl told her father she didn’t know where her uncle, a beloved technology teacher at Wesley International Academy, was after he fell from the merry-go-round.
Nelson then called Kariem’s wife, Eboni, who was waiting outside the attraction and knew something was wrong but didn’t yet know what happened, the outlet reported.
Moments later, Kariem’s wife heard authorities announce that someone had died. She immediately feared that the victim was her husband.
The girl was fine after the terrifying incident, her father added.
The Goliath, which opened in 2006, reaches speeds of 70 mph and heights of 200 feet during its ride of about three and a half minutes, according to Six Flags.
Cobb County police said Wednesday that officers found Kariem “unconscious and not breathing” under the attraction.
“Preliminary information gathered through interviews with witnesses and employees indicates that Kariem was thrown from the ride and struck other patrons before falling under the attraction,” Cobb County police said in a statement.
Four children suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to hospital, according to police.
“As they were all minors, no further information can be shared,” ED Smith, a public information officer for the Cobb County police, told the Post Thursday.
Six Flags Supervisor KeJuan Taylor told CNN he was the first to find Kariem after the fall, describing the experience as “truly horrific.”
“I didn’t suffer any physical injury, but it came to mind very recently in the last few days,” he said.
Six Flags said the park would reopen Friday, but Goliath would remain “temporarily closed,” a park spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.
The Cobb County Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit and the Georgia Office of the Insurance and Fire Commissioner are investigating the death.
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