Six Flags said on Tuesday it will permanently close X2, its well-known rotating-seat roller coaster at Magic Mountain in Southern California, about a month after a CNN investigation documented years of injuries and deaths linked to the ride.
Magic Mountain President Brian Oerding wrote in a blog post that the ride has “consistently passed a multitude of safety tests, we have decided to close the ride because we believe it’s the right thing to do.” He added, “Ride safety is a cornerstone of our business, and when we see guest confidence affected, we take it seriously.”
CNN’s investigation, published last month, documented more than a dozen reports of serious injuries and hospitalisations associated with X2, including at least two deaths, with allegations dating back more than a decade. Most recently, two women arrived at the same Santa Clarita emergency room with brain injuries after riding X2 six days apart in July; the ride was temporarily closed a day after the second injury. Last week, attorneys said at a news conference that more than 100 additional people have come forward alleging X2-related brain injuries of varying severity in the last two years alone.
X2 had been Magic Mountain’s marquee attraction for nearly two decades, drawing enthusiasts from around the world for what the park calls its 4th-dimensional quality: seats that rotate 360 degrees as trains reach nearly 80 miles per hour over a ride of roughly two minutes.
Three lawsuits filed last week by riders who suffered life-threatening injuries this year allege Six Flags had ample notice of the ride’s dangers and should not have kept it running. One plaintiff, 26-year-old Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, remains in a coma. She boarded six days after another rider, Pamela Guillen, lost consciousness leaving the ride and underwent emergency brain surgery.
“This is long overdue,” Greer-Wilkinson’s parents told CNN. “Six Flags knew years ago that X2 was putting people at grave risk and chose to continue gambling with their lives anyway.” Guillen, now out of the hospital, told CNN on Tuesday: “I’m relieved that X2 is closing for good. I never should have been hurt, and neither should the others who were.” She said she had to relearn how to talk and walk and still suffers headaches and brain fog and takes medication to prevent seizures.
The family of Christopher Hawley, 22, who died of a traumatic brain injury hours after riding X2 four years ago, have pressed for the closure for years and reached a tentative settlement with Six Flags last month. Neurosurgeons who treated Hawley likened his injuries to those of “shaken baby syndrome,” and the medical examiner ruled his death was caused by blunt head trauma from “a park ride accident,” according to the coroner’s report. Attorney Timothy Loranger, who represents the family, said he has taken on new clients harmed by the ride, including the family of a young man who attorneys say died after riding X2 in late 2025, the third death allegedly linked to it.
“This ride should have been closed long before our son Christopher was injured, and it certainly should have been closed after he died,” said Anne Hawley, his mother. “Instead, it took more than four years and dozens of other injured riders for Six Flags to do the right thing.”