Six Flags Magic Mountain’s popular X2 roller coaster is permanently closed following injuries, some of which resulted in death, park officials announced Tuesday.
The ride was first temporarily closed in July following reports of subsequent brain injuries.
“Although X2 has consistently passed a multitude of safety tests, we have decided to close the ride because we believe it is the right thing to do,” Brian Oerding, president of Six Flags Magic Mountain, said in a statement. “Travel safety is the cornerstone of our business, and when we see customer confidence being affected, we take it seriously. »
A few months after the ride, originally called X, opened in 2002, it had to be closed to repair design flaws. Then in 2007 it was closed again to replace trains with lighter ones and reopened the following year as X2. It has long been one of the park’s main attractions, with seats that rotate 360 degrees forward and backward. More than 16 million people have ridden the X2, Magic Mountain said in its release.
Anne Hawley, whose son died in 2022 after riding X2, was emotional Tuesday morning after learning the ride was permanently closed. Christopher Hawley was 22 years old when he was driving the X2, stumbled after getting out, lost consciousness and died shortly after. His family sued Magic Mountain and settled the case in August.
“We’ve been trying for four years to do our best to raise awareness,” Hawley said. “They finally listened.”
Hawley was just one of several people who took Magic Mountain to court over brain injuries.
Hilda Farias was 28 when she was piloting the X2 in 2010 and developed a brain hemorrhage that led to her death, according to court records. Sheila Katerelos claimed in another lawsuit that she suffered a head trauma in 2020 after riding an X2. Lucy Alvarez claimed in a third lawsuit that she suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2021 after riding X2, causing her “great physical, mental and nervous pain and suffering.”
The X2 has long been praised by touring enthusiasts for its design. The seats are on the side of the track, allowing riders’ feet to dangle below or above them as their seat rotates forward or backward. At first, riders climb a slope facing backwards, and at the top, their seats rotate forward as they hurtle toward the ground headfirst.
CNN reported in August that X2 had been linked to more than a dozen reports of serious injuries and hospitalizations over the past two decades, including the deaths of Hawley and Farias. The report said two people suffered brain hemorrhages in July after riding the X2, requiring surgery.
The ride was temporarily closed shortly after those injuries, and the state agency that oversees amusement parks, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, launched an inspection. That inspection is ongoing, agency spokeswoman Denisse Gómez said in an emailed statement.
Martin Lewison, a roller coaster enthusiast and professor at Farmingdale State College in New York known for riding thousands of roller coasters around the world, said that while X2’s closure was “a sad day for the world of roller coaster enthusiasts,” he believed that if the ride had caused injuries and exposed the company to legal risk, it made sense for Magic Mountain to close it. Lewison is a shareholder in Six Flags.
Concerns about injuries on roller coasters have been going on for decades.
A 2001 Times report noted that several studies suggested that specific brain damage was linked to thrill rides, although the data, the Times noted, was inconclusive. That same year, a passenger on Magic Mountain’s Goliath roller coaster died of a brain aneurysm. The Los Angeles County coroner concluded that the ride did not cause the aneurysm “but only caused the rupture of a pre-existing, severe and fragile aneurysm.” The rider’s family then filed a complaint.
Magic Mountain is set to open Thrill Glider next year, a roller coaster featuring “a suspended glider train design combined with more than a half-mile of twisting, turning and swooping track built into the park’s unique mountainside,” Six Flags wrote in its release announcing the coaster’s construction.
“Where else but in the thrill capital of the world would you expect to find a next-generation roller coaster, the first of its kind? »wrote the company.
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