More than 100 people have come forward claiming that the notorious X2 roller coaster at Six Flags caused brain injuries, just weeks after an investigation connected the ride to devastating injuries and reported deaths.
At a news conference Tuesday, civil attorney Christopher Bulone accused Six Flags Southern California of “willingly gambling with people’s lives.”
Bulone made the remarks while announcing three lawsuits against the company, declaring that “no ride like that should be allowed to exist.”
Lawyers said they had also spoken with hundreds of additional riders. Some could not pursue legal action because the statute of limitations had expired, while others reported injuries unrelated to the brain or lacked medical records documenting treatment.
Two of the lawsuits filed Monday represent riders whose cases were previously highlighted in an August investigation by CNN.
Pamela Guillen, 40, of Hawaii, and Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, 25, from Los Angeles, both rode the X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, in July, according to CNN.
Disturbing images showed both women unconscious with shaved heads as they underwent treatment for traumatic brain injuries they allegedly sustained on the roller coaster.
Photographs showed the women in hospital gowns, connected to tubes, after undergoing serious medical procedures described to CNN.
Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, 25, reportedly collapsed after riding the X2, just six days after Guillen’s ride. Doctors performed emergency brain surgery to save her life, but she remains in a coma.
Pamela Guillen, 40, suffered severe brain hemorrhages after riding the X2 at Six Flags in Valencia, California. Her daughter, Camille Marquez, told CNN: “We got off the cart and we saw my mom. She looked lifeless. Not a thought behind her eyes, nothing.”
The X2 at Six Flags in Valencia, California, has been closed since July 12. Six Flags has not explained the closure and has issued no public statement about the investigation.
Greer-Wilkinson has remained in a coma with a severe traumatic brain injury since the incident.
Her father, Joshua Wilkinson, told CNN that the ride’s violent motion damaged part of her brain, which then began to bleed.
Surgeons were able to keep her alive by carrying out emergency brain surgery.
Her mother, Artemis Greer, recalled a surgeon rushing through the emergency room and shouting: “How many is it this month? They’ve got to shut that ride down!” She said the doctor was furious.
“Naomi should have never, ever in a million years, even had the option to get on that ride. It’s absolutely insane,” Greer said.
Doctors have attributed the injuries suffered by both Guillen and Greer-Wilkinson to their rides on the X2.
“In our professional opinion, the severe brain injuries requiring emergent neurosurgical attention were the result of a traumatic rapid acceleration-deceleration event experienced while on the X2 ride,” the doctors wrote in an email reviewed by CNN.
The roller coaster has remained shut down since July 12.
The X2 reaches speeds of nearly 80 miles per hour while rotating riders’ seats 360 degrees around the track.
Christopher Hawley (center), 22, died after riding the X2 roller coaster at Six Flags Mountain Magic with his brother and cousin in 2022
There are only three X2 roller coasters in the world. One in Valencia, California, one in China and another in Japan
Greer-Wilkinson is one of over 100 people who have come forward claiming they suffered severe brain injuries on the ride in recent months, according to Dordick Law, which has filed a series of lawsuits against Six Flags.
The plaintiffs had ridden on the X2, the world’s first fourth-dimension roller coaster. It is known for hitting speeds of nearly 80 miles an hour while flipping seats 360 degrees as it makes its way around the track.
The roller coaster is widely regarded as one of the most intense models of its kind in the world and there are only two more, in China and in Japan.
The X2 ride has been linked to more than a dozen reports of injuries and hospitalizations in the past two decades, according to medical reports seen by CNN.
A 22-year-old college graduate, Christopher Hawley, died about ten hours after getting off the ride with his brother and cousin in 2022, the outlet said.
A coroner’s report found he suffered blunt head trauma during a ‘park ride accident,’ CNN reported.
His father, William Hawley, told Fox 11 that a surgeon said the X2 ‘hit his head so hard that it had basically ruptured his brain.’
Attorneys for Hawley’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against park operator Magic Mountain LLC and replacement coaster train supplier S&S Worldwide Inc.
The Hawley family reached a settlement with Magic Mountain LLC and an accord with S&S, the terms of which remain undisclosed, just this August.
In 2010, 28-year-old Hilda Farias also died after riding the roller coaster. Doctors believed an existing brain abnormality ruptured because of the ride’s intensity. Her family later settled a lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.
Six Flags did not reply to Our News Outlet’s request for comment.
