Six Flags Magic Mountain quietly shut down one of its roller coasters without saying why, but a new investigation found that the coaster left riders with life-altering disabilities, at least one coma, and two deaths.
According to CNN’s review of medical records, depositions, and legal filings, X2 is linked to more than a dozen serious injuries and hospitalizations since it opened in 2002. Originally named X, the ride was the world’s first “fourth-dimension” roller coaster. Its seats rotate a full 360 degrees independently of the track as the train travels at speeds of up to 76 miles per hour and plunges through a series of sudden drops.
X2, located in Valencia, California, has an average rating of 4.7 out of five stars from riders, but several negative reviews share a common complaint that the ride was enjoyable until its violent final moments.
“Terrible, avoid this coaster,” one rider wrote. “It started off really fun until the last ‘raven drop,’ where it forces your head forward and then slams you back hard against the seat.”
Another rider said, “The ride was fine until the last bit where it shakes you up. I felt like I was in a car wreck.”
“I don’t know how this ride continues to operate,” another person added. “It seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen.”
The ride officially closed on July 12, after two riders suffered brain hemorrhages in less than a week. Doctors told CNN that the injuries observed were typically seen in patients after high-speed crashes, not after riding an amusement park ride. Three neurosurgeons who treated the women wrote in an email reviewed by CNN that the injuries were “the result of a traumatic rapid acceleration-deceleration event experienced while on the X2 ride.”
One of the women, 40-year-old Pamela Guillen, required emergency skull surgery after losing consciousness on the platform. Guillen immediately began vomiting after the ride, and paramedics said they found her unresponsive with her pupils looking “sluggish.” The other woman, 25-year-old Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, lost consciousness shortly after exiting the coaster and remains in a coma, according to her family.
But X2’s history of incidents predates this summer. In 2022, 22-year-old Christopher Hawley died less than 10 hours after riding X2, with a neurosurgeon comparing his injuries to “shaken baby syndrome.” Hawley rode the ride with his cousin and brother, and court records stated that the three of them were flipped around like “rag dolls.” When the three exited the ride, Hawley said he felt lightheaded and then slumped to the ground. CNN reported that Six Flags had received over 70 complaints involving head and neck injuries linked to X2 from 2019 to Hawley’s death.
State regulators shut down the ride after Hawley’s death, but days later, it reopened. According to CNN, regulators did not interview witnesses or medical experts but relied on safety data provided by Six Flags. Twelve years before Hawley’s death, 28-year-old Hilda Farias died after riding the coaster. She had a preexisting brain abnormality when she rode the coaster. Farias’s family settled in court for an undisclosed amount.
Six Flags has defended the ride in litigation by arguing that it warns people about the coaster’s “inherent risks” and that the physical forces involved are not strong enough to cause brain injuries in a “normal” rider. But not every expert agrees.
“I personally don’t think head injury should be an expected risk from going on a roller coaster ride, and there is no reason a ride can’t be properly designed to prevent injuries like this,” Lyndia Wu, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of British Columbia who studies roller coasters’ effects on the brain, told CNN.
Six Flags has not said when, or if, X2 will reopen.
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