ATLANTA -- The Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia was shut down for maintenance just hours before a teacher fell to his death from the ride, according to eyewitnesses.

Teacher Hassan Kariem, 42, was killed when he was flung from the high-speed hypercoaster just before 4 p.m. on Monday at the amusement park outside Atlanta.

Two other teachers who were at the park on Monday afternoon told The Post they had tried to get on the Goliath at around 1 p.m. but were told it was closed for maintenance.

6 Riders are escorted off the Goliath roller coastwr at Six Flags Over Georgia following the incident. 11Alive

6 Hassan Kariem, 42, seen in an undated Facebook photo, fell to his death from the roller coaster. Facebook/Hassan Kariem

The pair said that they saw a park worker conducting a test run on his own in one of the ride's cars and they even remember commenting on how that would be a  scary job. 

 They made an announcement over the intercom, first saying  We're experiencing delays' and then, a few minutes later, they said,  We're waiting for maintenance to get here,  high school teacher Tina Christiansen, 29, said.

Her pal Emily Nguyen, 30, a middle school teacher, said that while they were waiting park staff said they were doing  a couple of maintenance runs. 

 One guy rode it and he was in the front row by himself,  Nguyen said.  I remember us looking at each other, like, you could not pay me enough to do that job.

 Like, yeah, it's fun to ride roller coasters, but I wouldn't want to be the one in charge of making sure that they work. We literally had that conversation. 

6 Eyewitnesses Tina Christiansen, left, and Emily Nguyen, center, pose for a photo with a third friend at Six Flags Over Georgia. Courtesy of Emily Nguyen

Christiansen and Nguyen said they later returned to try to get on the Goliath again and saw a crowd of people and the area near Goliath closed off.

 There was a security guard standing there and I walked up to him and I said,  Hey, what happened?' thinking it wasn't anything big, I was just curious,  Nguyen said.

 He was like,  I can't tell you' and
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