Six Flags Goliath Death: A Coaster Veteran Weighs In

You heard about what happened down at the Six Flags in Georgia. I did. Terrible. I mean, just a terrible thing. Just in case anybody didn't hear about it, it was a 42-year-old teacher and robotics coach remembered by his school as a beloved colleague and mentor. Well, he died yesterday after he fell or was somehow ejected from the ride. It's called the Goliath down at the Six Flags in Georgia. It kind of had an aftermath of some of the roller coasters all across the country, including right there in Jackson, New Jersey, that also were closed down. We wanted to expand on this a little bit, talk a little bit more about what may have gone wrong, what the experience is like to be on this coaster, the Goliath. So we're talking to Darius Jones, a roller coaster enthusiast who's literally ridden major roller coasters around the world, across the country. I mean, if there's a big roller coaster that's in the country, Darius has ridden it, including the Goliath including Nitro including Kingda Ka, Darius thank you so much for zooming in with us i guess first when you heard this happened were you shocked uh Darius i think you're muted you're muted you're muted uh i think you're muted yeah unmute yourself there sorry i was on mute listen B&M the company who who made this roller coaster they made 136 roller coasters of which i've ridden the majority of them so it's always a shock uh given they have a stellar track record They have they've had some incidents in the past where people have walked into a secure area and been struck by a train. But this is catastrophic. Not only is it catastrophic because it's a member of our roller coaster community, but any time there's a loss, it brings a ton of emotion. And we also see that we're looking at some video there of Nitro, which, of course, is in Jackson, New Jersey. Why did they close these other roller coasters as well? Is it because they're all made by the same company? Yeah, not only are they made by the same company, but they're the same ride model. They're the B&M Hypers and Gigas, of which there are 11 in North America with the same seating style and restraint style. So I applaud all of the parks for, you know, exercising an abundance of caution until we figure out what's going on. But I definitely support them shutting down similar rides until they know exactly what happened. And when we look at what happened, it's so difficult at this point to really put it together. You know, was the harness properly secured? Was there something that was specific about this particular gentleman? I mean, what do we know about what actually happened? Because it seems like if there was something wrong with the seats, it would have affected a couple of the other ones in the row or something like that. I wasn't sure about that. Yeah, it's definitely understandable how people would think that it could impact the entire car. But this is a testament to the safety systems of this particular type of ride. Usually, if something happens, it's isolated to a single seat. Obviously, it could impact the entire train. But if failure, which no one knows, the fact that it impacted one passenger is by design. um but i think that uh i think that time will tell you think it could be something with the staff or something with the actual mechanics of the ride itself i mean was there a safety check i guess all that's going to be part of the investigation yeah there are three likely outcomes one is that it was a mechanical failure two is that it was a ride operations mishap uh the operators and in the station made a mistake and and three unfortunately is it could have been something related specifically to the passenger uh but once again i think this investigation is something that we're all looking at from an industry standpoint uh and we're eagerly awaiting what the answer will be um all right well speaking with uh Darius Jones roller coaster enthusiast literally ridden major coasters uh all around the world some of our viewers may remember Darius because around this time last year uh they dismantled the King da Ka roller coaster um and uh i know that you and uh some others actually transported the King da Ka from Jersey down to Texas to bring it to the roller coaster um hall of fame so you're very familiar with this just just talking in in general you know does this incident change the way you think about riding coasters because it seems like such an outlier but also just terrifying yeah any anytime there's a catastrophe like this it makes you think about you know what's important to you i for one always check my restraints and usually you know give a look over to the people who are with me uh but yeah this is this is definitely going to uh to impact how we feel about what is supposed to be a very joyous experience um i'm hoping all turns out well in terms of what even And that's an isolated incident, but it'll definitely be topical as we go to parks. All right, Darius, thank you very much. If anybody wants to check you out on social media, because I know you're very active, especially documenting some of your trips all across the country, where should people go? They should check out Coaster Jones on Instagram. All right, Darius Jones, much appreciated. Thank you very much.