Video taking off 203x its usual first day

"Three clicks down": a former Goliath operator explains the coaster's restraints

On a TMZ clip, the former Six Flags Over Georgia employee walks through the safety checks and offers one cautious theory about how a restraint could open.

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TMZ Clips Story of October 16, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 543,713 views a day, 203 times a normal first day on this channel (2,673).

Former Six Flags Operator Explains How Goliath Restraint Could've Opened on Fatal Ride | TMZ

Things we can learn from the video

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0:22Pre-season inspections, test cycles and twice-daily maintenance checks of brakes, restraints and control panels.
1:02Each seat must register at least three clicks down to show green, and the ride cannot dispatch otherwise.
2:13A yellow alignment line on the restraint's lower pivot serves as a second, visual check.
2:56How the redundant pin-and-gear mechanism is meant to keep a lap restraint locked.
4:09A comparison with the restraints on other tall coasters, including Mako and Orion.
5:12His theory of gear slipping between notches, which he says would need very high force.

A seat on Goliath does not turn green on the control panel until its lap restraint has been pushed down at least three clicks. That is one of the first things a former Six Flags Over Georgia ride operator explains in a TMZ interview recorded after the coaster's fatal incident. Until every seat shows green, he says, "there is no way to even dispatch the ride."

Harvey Levin and Charles Latibeaudiere ask him how the safety system works, and he starts well before any rider boards. He describes pre-season inspections, test cycles and maintenance checks twice a day on the brakes, restraints and control panels. He also describes a second, visual check: a yellow alignment line on the restraint's lower pivot that confirms its position.

The question in the title comes later. He explains that the restraint relies on a pin-and-gear mechanism working alongside a hydraulic system, and he compares the design with other tall coasters such as Mako at SeaWorld Orlando and Orion at Kings Island. Asked what might have failed, he names one possibility, gear slipping between the ratchet notches. He presents it as a hypothesis, not a finding, and stresses that forcing a secured restraint all the way open would take a very large amount of force and is very unlikely.

The clip passed 280,000 views in its first nine hours, a rare audience for a TMZ Clips upload. Its comment section filled just as quickly. Many viewers point to how clearly the former operator explains the mechanism, and many others ask whether rides like this should carry a second, independent restraint, with some citing the backup systems used on airplanes.

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