Three people who say they suffered catastrophic brain injuries after riding X2, a roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California, are suing the amusement park, their lawyers said on Tuesday.
Three lawsuits, filed on Monday against Six Flags and S&S Worldwide, a manufacturer of the X2 ride’s vehicles, accuse the companies of operating a defectively designed ride and failing to adequately warn passengers about the risk of serious brain injuries.
X2 is a 200-foot-high roller coaster with seats that rotate independently as the train travels along the track, spinning riders as much as 360 degrees. It reaches speeds of up to 76 miles per hour and sends riders through dives, flips and twists, including what Six Flags describes as “half-loops that change their minds midway and become sheer drops.”
Six Flags, which operates amusement parks across the United States, currently lists X2 as closed on its website.
Six Flags Entertainment Corporation and S&S Worldwide did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuits. In court filings last month in an earlier case involving X2, the company denied that the roller coaster had caused a rider’s fatal brain injury. It 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 pre-existing condition.
The lawsuits follow an investigation by CNN last month that documented more than a dozen reports of serious injuries and hospitalizations associated with X2, including at least two deaths.
Two of the lawsuits announced Tuesday involved women who rode X2 less than a week apart in July and later underwent emergency brain surgery.
Pamela Guillen, 39, was riding X2 to celebrate her daughter’s 16th birthday on July 5 when she repeatedly hit her head against the ride’s headrest, according to Dordick Law Corporation, the law firm that represents her and the two other riders who have sued the theme park.
After the ride, she needed help getting out of her seat, began vomiting and lost consciousness, the firm said.
Surgeons needed to remove part of her skull to treat her and she did not regain consciousness for two weeks, according to the lawyers.
Six days after Ms. Guillen’s ride, Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, 25, lost consciousness after riding X2, according to lawyers. Her lawsuit accuses Six Flags of knowing about Ms. Guillen’s injury before Ms. Greer-Wilkinson rode X2 and operating the coaster without warning riders.
The third lawsuit was brought by an attorney, Michael Wilk, who rode X2 on Feb. 7. The lawsuit says that in the weeks afterward, people who worked with him noticed a decline in his cognitive function and urged him to seek medical care.
An M.R.I. revealed massive intracranial bleeding and swelling, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says Mr. Wilk has permanent cognitive impairment and is no longer able to practice law, and that he continues to experience headaches, confusion, dizziness, memory loss and personality changes.
Lawyers for the three said they also represent more than 100 other riders who say they suffered brain injuries of varying severity after riding X2. Those claims have not been independently verified.
The new lawsuits are not the first to argue that people sustained brain injuries after riding X2. Sheila Katerelos sued after saying that she suffered a traumatic brain injury on the coaster in 2020. A trial court dismissed her claims against S&S companies that designed and manufactured the ride’s vehicles, but a California appeals court reversed that decision this year, allowing the case to proceed.
Christopher Hawley, 22, had trouble walking and complained of a headache after riding X2 in 2022, according to a lawsuit filed in August 2023 by his parents. He lost consciousness and was rushed to a hospital where doctors found a large subdural hematoma, Dordick said. He died the next day.
Mr. Hawley’s parents sued Magic Mountain and S&S Worldwide. The case was settled last month, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court records.
In court filings in the Hawley case, Magic Mountain and Six Flags disputed that X2 had caused his brain injury. They said the coaster had passed industry-standard acceleration tests in 2008, 2018 and 2023, including testing conducted after Mr. Hawley’s injury that found the ride was operating within its intended forces.
The companies also cited testing by a biomechanical engineer who concluded that X2 did not generate enough force to cause Mr. Hawley’s brain bleed. The companies argued that the bleeding had resulted from the rupture of a pre-existing arachnoid cyst in his brain. The companies also argued that the headrests had multiple layers of padding sufficient to protect properly positioned riders and that signs warned riders about high speeds, steep drops, sudden stops and the possibility of aggravating pre-existing conditions.
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