Six Flags Over Georgia reopens days after rider thrown from Goliath coaster

Six Flags Over Georgia opens its gates Friday evening for the first time since a rider was thrown from the Goliath roller coaster. Goliath itself is not expected to be running.

The death has moved faster through the industry than through the park. At least 11 roller coasters in the United States and Canada have been temporarily closed since Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, a 42-year-old Atlanta school employee, was ejected from Goliath on Monday. Nine were built by the same manufacturer, Bolliger & Mabillard, and carry similar clamshell restraints — a padded bar locking over the rider's lap and upper legs. Goliath has no backup restraints, such as seat belts, and some guests who rode it before Kariem that day had already voiced concerns about the restraints, according to witnesses. The manufacturer said it would comment no further until it had a "better understanding of what transpired."

No regulator ordered any of the closures. Fixed-site amusement parks sit outside federal consumer-safety jurisdiction in the United States, so the shutdowns are operators auditing themselves — each park checking its own Bolliger & Mabillard coasters because no agency will. The disciplines that do reach Six Flags are juries, insurers and the market: shares fell as much as 14 percent this week to their lowest level since December 2009.

Kariem was thrown from his seat, struck other guests and landed below the ride. Goliath, which opened in 2006 and towers over the park's entrance, drops riders from a 200-foot first hill at 70 mph without ever turning them upside down.

The park describes Friday's reopening as proceeding "as scheduled." It had been scheduled to close Tuesday through Thursday anyway.