Six Flags Magic Mountain is one of the most popular amusement parks in the United States, but its flagship attraction and most popular ride, the X2 roller coaster, has come under fire for allegedly causing more than eight dozen severe brain injuries in the past two years. Now, a series of lawsuits has put the future of the ride in jeopardy.
What are these lawsuits about?
The three lawsuits represent more than 100 clients who allegedly received brain injuries while riding Magic Mountain’s X2. The ride, which has been operating since 2002 at the Los Angeles County amusement park, has “seats that rotate independently as the train travels along the track, spinning riders as much as 360 degrees,” said The New York Times, sending “riders through dives, flips and twists.” The 200-foot-high attraction can reach speeds of up to 76 miles per hour.
The lawsuits accuse Six Flags and Magic Mountain of knowingly operating a “defectively designed ride and failing to adequately warn passengers about the risk of serious brain injuries,” said the Times. The allegations come less than a month after a CNN investigation documented numerous instances of injuries on the ride. Two of the lawsuits represent people featured in the investigation, including a pair of riders who “both fell unconscious after getting off the roller coaster and underwent emergency brain surgery for severe traumatic brain injuries,” said CNN.
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Attorneys are “actively investigating these incidents and representing individuals who allege they suffered traumatic brain injuries after riding X2,” Dordick Law Corporation, which filed the three lawsuits, said in a statement. The lawsuit also references a 22-year-old man who “died from a traumatic brain injury after riding X2 four years ago,” said CNN, with Six Flags later reaching a settlement with his family. The outlet also reportedly heard from people who “had injuries that were not brain-related or did not have proof of medical treatment.”
What comes next?
X2 has reportedly been closed since July 12, which was “nearly a full day after the latest injury there, and park officials have remained silent about what necessitated the closure,” said CNN. Six Flags’ website still lists the ride as closed, with no timeline listed for its reopening. The company has denied that it was negligent; in court filings related to a different X2 case, Six Flags “said testing showed that the ride operated within accepted acceleration limits and argued that the rider’s injury, a brain bleed, was instead caused by a preexisting condition,” said the Times.
But lawyers for the alleged injured riders are not backing down. “We want transparency. We want the public to know about the dangers of riding these rollercoasters, and in particular, X2,” attorney Gary Dordick said during a press conference. Magic Mountain “seems to think that it’s okay that if people voluntarily choose to ride a rollercoaster, then they’ve assumed the risk.” Ultimately, the “fate of X2 remains unknown, as Six Flags officials remain tight-lipped on the attraction’s future,” said KTLA-5.
Despite the injuries, U.S. amusement parks “typically have high safety standards, with many requiring daily inspections of roller coasters and other attractions before they can operate,” said Entertainment Weekly. Every ride at a Six Flags park “undergoes extensive inspection and maintenance procedures designed to meet or exceed manufacturer requirements and industry standards,” according to the company’s safety statement. They are “designed with sophisticated control systems, advanced restraint technologies, redundant safety features and multiple layers of monitoring.”
