So, with it becoming pretty clear that this is the result of negligent maintenance, I think it's time we really start to talk about how complacent Six Flags has been with ride maintenance. This is now the third ride in recent memory where Six Flags hasn't properly taken care of the ride, and it's led to an accident; it's the second time it's killed someone.
This was pre-merger, but El Toro was clearly not running as intended leading up to the derailment that sent people to the hospital. The ride progressively got rougher in a short period of time, and guests regularly complained about it. The park continued to operate the ride even as things got worse and didn't stop to check if there was some issue; spoiler alert: there was. Six Flags is honestly lucky that these injuries caused by Toro were as mild as they were. I thought in a post-merger world that would be the end of this, but unfortunately it wasn't.
The final turn on X2 was clearly an issue; it was rough and uncomfortable, and because of the ride's unique nature, guests didn't know how to brace for that moment. Six Flags had plenty of opportunities to address the situation, but instead decided to kick the can down the road. Fast forward to this year and X2 has caused more than one death, and by the time they finally stopped to try and address the problem, it was far too late to do anything.
Now Goliath has caused a death. While we don't officially know the cause of this accident, it doesn't appear to be an issue from B&M with other hypers getting the clear to reopen; the restraint is clearly not in a locked position, and even if it could lock in that position, although the SFOG ops are negligent at best, I find it really hard to believe nobody would've caught that as the train left the station, considering just how open it is. The only other scenario that makes sense is that some critical component of the restraint broke, and judging from what Ryan the ride mechanic said in his video, there would have been signs of this being an issue before it happened. Meaning that the ride maintenance team either A: saw it and did nothing or B: were negligent and didn't notice it at all.
If the Goliath accident happened on its own in a vacuum without any of these prior incidents, I would be willing to believe it was a fluke accident. But because this is just one in a string of incidents over a short period of time, seemingly caused by negligent maintenance of these attractions... it's becoming very clear at least to me, that Six Flags, as a company, isn't taking maintenance of their rides seriously enough, and something has to change, like it should've a long time ago before this man lost his life.
