More than 100 people now claim that the notorious Six Flags X2 roller coaster caused brain injuries, just weeks after an investigation connected the ride to devastating injuries and deaths.
Civil attorney Christopher Bulone said at a news conference Tuesday that Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California “has been willingly gambling with people’s lives.”
“No ride like that should be allowed to exist,” Bulone said of the X2 roller coaster as he announced three lawsuits against the company.
The attorneys said they had also been contacted by hundreds of other riders. Some could not bring legal claims because the statute of limitations had expired, while others reported injuries that were not brain-related or lacked documentation showing they had received medical treatment.
Two of the lawsuits filed Monday represent riders featured in a CNN investigation published in August.
Pamela Guillen, 40, of Hawaii, and Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, 25, of Los Angeles, took rides on the X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, in July, CNN reported.
Disturbing images showed both women unconscious, with shaved heads, after undergoing treatment for traumatic brain injuries they allegedly suffered while riding the roller coaster.
Both were photographed in hospital gowns and connected to tubes after undergoing serious medical procedures, details of which were shared with CNN.
Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, 25, collapsed after riding the X2, reportedly just six days after Guillen. Doctors saved her life with emergency brain surgery, 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 provided a reason for the closure and has not issued a statement about the investigation
Greer-Wilkinson has remained in a coma with a severe traumatic brain injury ever since the incident.
Her father, Joshua Wilkinson, told CNN: “The jarring had damaged part of her brain and it had begun to bleed.”
Doctors saved her life by performing emergency brain surgery.
Her mother, Artemis Greer, recalled one surgeon storming 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 believe the X2 caused the injuries suffered by both Guillen and Greer-Wilkinson.
“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 been closed 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 the Daily Mail’s request for comment.