Six Flags may avoid liability for the fatal accident that sent a teacher plunging from a Georgia roller coaster—if the amusement park can demonstrate that it complied with applicable state safety laws.
Hassan Kariem, 42, was ejected Monday from the 200-foot-tall Goliath hypercoaster at Six Flags Over Georgia after apparently slipping out of his restraint. He struck other cars before falling to his death in front of horrified passengers.
“The key question is not just what went wrong, but also whether someone knew—or should have known—what might go wrong,” said Daniel Adamson, an attorney with Georgia-based Dixon-Adamson, a firm that handles theme park litigation.
Six Flags has temporarily closed Goliath and nine other roller coasters at six of its parks while investigators examine the deadly incident. The review is expected to cover every aspect of the ride, including its design, maintenance history and daily operation, Adamson told The Post.
“The biggest issue is whether this was a preventable tragedy,” he said.
Investigators will also want to know whether the park had been alerted to any potential problems, Adamson said, including whether there were previous safety complaints and what the inspection logs and maintenance records show.
If the investigation finds that Six Flags rigorously complied with Georgia’s safety codes and regulations, Adamson said the park could potentially avoid legal liability for Kariem’s death.
That possibility stems from the fact that Georgia applies a lower legal duty of care to amusement parks than it does to public transportation operators.
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Under a 1982 Georgia Supreme Court ruling, amusement parks owe guests a duty of “ordinary care.” By contrast, bus and train operators are required to exercise “extraordinary diligence” toward their passengers.
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That distinction can make it more difficult to hold a roller coaster operator responsible for a passenger’s injury or death.
Still, “ordinary care” generally applies to expected risks such as becoming ill on a ride or having one’s head jostled—not being thrown from a seat while traveling about 70 mph.
“When somebody boards a roller coaster, they accept the thrill of the ride, not the risk of being thrown from it,” Adamson said. He added that Six Flags would have to argue that Kariem knowingly assumed the risk of such an extraordinary accident when he entered the park.
“It’s really context-specific,” he said.
“You have to examine the facts of each case and determine what reasonable duty of ordinary care applies in the context of that particular activity.”