It was a moment of abject horror.

Just minutes into his ride on the aptly named Goliath roller coaster, 42-year-old father of two, Hassan Kariem was flung from his seat, falling from the structure that stands 200 feet tall, crashing against the tracks repeatedly on his way down.

Passengers, many of them children, recoiled as the tragedy unfolded at the Six Flags Over Georgia amusement park near Atlanta on Monday.

It was, it seemed, to all who witnessed it, a terrible accident. Exactly what caused Kariem to fall from the supposed safety of his seat has yet to be established, and the park has been closed while the incident is investigated.

But, speaking with the Daily Mail, Brian Avery, a ride-safety expert with over 30 years of experience, warned that this sort of accident – just the latest in a slew of horrifying amusement park deaths – simply underlines the real and present dangers which, he said, lurk in every park ride.

Put bluntly, he said, the risk to the thrill seeker taking a seat on a ride is nothing short of 'death.'

Certainly, with his wealth of knowledge and grim library of amusement park tragedies, Avery, for his part, will not set foot on the vast majority of rides.

'When you have people in motion, at these speeds and forces, the tolerances are low for error, so you've got to make sure that you've got an appropriate method to mitigate or eliminate the hazards that are known and foreseeable,' he said.

The odds of a fatal roller coaster accident in the US are roughly one in 750 million rides, making them statistically extremely rare. 

However, there are still about four deaths per year from them, and roughly ten deaths per year across all types of amusement park rides and traveling carnivals combined.

Goliath was previously associated with a death in July 2006, when 45-year-old Michael Corry lost consciousness at the end of the ride and died of an apparent heart attack. An autopsy identified a congenital heart condition and the coaster reopened after workers determined it was operating properly.

In June 2008, Asia Leeshawn Ferguson, 17, was decapitated by the Batman roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia after climbing two six-foot fences into a restricted area. He was struck by the moving coaster while on the ground, rather than falling from a passenger seat.

At Universal's Epic Universe in Florida, 32-year-old Kevin Rodriguez Zavala died from multiple blunt impact injuries after riding Stardust Racers in September 2025. 

Investigators ruled his death accidental and found no criminal wrongdoing, while Universal said an internal review found the ride systems functioned as intended.

Six Flags Magic Mountain in California announced the retirement of X2 in September 2026 amid lawsuits alleging serious brain injuries, after settling a wrongful-death case involving Christopher Hawley, 22, who died after riding it in 2022. 

The park said X2 had consistently passed safety tests, while attorneys alleged that more than 100 people had suffered brain injuries after riding the coaster.

Aging rides, a lack of regulations, and an overreliance on passengers self-vetting their suitability to ride have, Avery said, all contributed to this particularly grim death trap.

In Kariem's case, Avery said, investigators should examine whether his weight and body shape affected the fit of his restraint, while stressing that neither has been established as a cause of the tragedy.

The attraction's public information does not specify a numerical maximum weight, although Six Flags' accessibility guide warns that 'exceptionally large guests or tall guests may not be able to ride' because of its seat and safety-device design.

'It's unacceptable, from my perspective, to have someone leave your train while on a roller coaster, period,' he said.

A key problem is the absence of any federal oversight or regulations when it comes to rides in fixed-site amusement parks.

'We have no federal oversight in a fixed-site amusement park,' said Avery. 'So, you know, states pick and choose how they want to use those standards, and what applies, and who's going to be inspected, and there are carve-outs all over the place.

'This inconsistent approach is causing some gaps. Now, whether that occurred here or not, and whether weight was a factor, is yet to be determined, but it is something to be considered.'

And what inconsistencies exist are only exacerbated by a system that relies on visitors to read restrictions and assess their own suitability in terms of health issues or weight, which in turn puts young attendants in the difficult position of challenging paying customers who may be too large to ride safely.

'When it comes to weight, I think this is an ongoing discussion that our industry really needs to face head-on, because weight is a problem, and some of these rides were not designed for larger riders,' he said.

'They're just asking people to self-regulate. Sometimes [ride attendees] will intervene and go, 'Hey, you know, you might be a heavy rider,' but that's a difficult conversation for a 15-to 20-year-old to have.'

According to Avery, rides often have height-measuring sticks at entrances, but there are no scales to check passengers' weight.

The result can be catastrophic. Avery pointed to the 2022 Orlando FreeFall tragedy in Florida when discussing restraints that do not safely accommodate every passenger.

Tyre Sampson, 14, died after riding the 430-foot-drop tower attraction.

He was six feet, two inches tall and weighed around 380 pounds, while the ride's safety manual specified a 287-pound rider limit.

An investigation and state report found that a restraint sensor had been manually adjusted to accommodate a larger frame, allowing an unsafe gap through which Sampson slipped.

Avery said the disaster prompted changes to Florida regulations because 'they weren't inspecting from an operational perspective; they were just looking at it from a mechanical perspective.'

He argued that inconsistent adoption of safety standards creates gaps across the country, saying states decide which requirements apply and which attractions are inspected.

In Kariem's case, Avery said, investigators must also consider whether the restraint was inadequately positioned, whether maintenance checks missed a problem or whether a component failed while the train was moving.

Goliath reaches speeds of 70mph and climbs more than 200 feet, with passengers held in place by a waist restraint as they race through the dips and turns.

Witnesses described Kariem floating sideways above other riders before repeatedly striking the coaster and falling onto a haunted attraction below, with his blood splattering over passengers.

For Avery, the question of whether a restraint fits securely deserves greater attention across the industry.

Discussing images that appeared to show a larger man, Avery cautioned that photographs could not establish Kariem's size or whether he met the ride's requirements.

'Now, whether weight was a factor, it's yet to be determined, but it is something to be considered,' he said.

He explained that a waist restraint should hold the passenger snugly against the back of the seat, with attendants checking its position before the train leaves the platform.

'So if there was any play in it at any level, that would have been a real red flag,' Avery said.

Six Flags has shuttered nine rides across multiple US parks in the wake of the disaster. 

As far as Avery is concerned, there must be separate inspections by state authorities, Six Flags and the ride manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard, with a possible additional review by an independent engineering or operations specialist.

Avery also urged visitors to read medical restrictions carefully, saying broad warnings about heart, neck and back conditions can leave passengers unclear about the specific consequences.

'But we also don't go as far as saying you can die on them, either,' he said.

Avery said that deteriorating equipment presents another challenge, particularly for attractions built during the 'Roller Coaster Arms Race' that began in the 1990s, when parks competed to build taller, faster and longer rides.

'You know, and now we've got 20, 30 years on these things, and maintenance is a real nightmare for us.

'Attractions are expensive to operate, they're expensive to maintain, and condition is everything. The tolerance and specs are exacting, and you can't deviate.

'But sometimes we have equipment that's in place that isn't typically going to be inspected, maybe in a manner that would reveal that there is a fracture or fatigue or something going on in metal.'

He said an unexpected failure can expose weaknesses that operators had not previously considered, underscoring the need to examine how equipment was inspected and maintained.

'Why that happened, we need to understand as an industry so it does not happen again,' said Avery.

But Avery's personal concerns extend beyond thrill rides.

For his part, the expert refuses to ride Disney's Mission Space because of claustrophobia, describing the simulated journey into space as too realistic for his comfort.

He also no longer rides extreme coasters because of his own high blood pressure, history of heart-related issues and back pain.

But when asked which attractions he had walked away from over safety concerns, it wasn't a 200ft roller coaster or a death-defying drop that he pointed to.

Instead, Avery singled out inflatable bounce houses.

'Oh my god, they're a nightmare, because they're soft, they're squishy, people bounce around in them, they think they're safe,' he said.

'The reality is that there are more incidents on those than almost any other type of amusement ride out there. I refuse to ever let my children on them.'

He warned that their soft surfaces can give families a misleading sense of safety, while unsecured inflatables can become airborne and also advised parents to keep children out of trampoline parks.

The investigation into Kariem's death is ongoing.