Six Flags roller coaster shuts down after two deaths and multiple injuries as victims speak out

Six Flags closed down one of its most popular roller coasters back in July following a CNN investigation about alleged injuries people sustained on the ride.

The infamous roller coaster in question at California's Six Flags Magic Mountain, where a reported 3,000,000 people visit each year, is X2. According to the company's website, the 'downright scary' ride reaches top speeds of 76mph and boasts seats that rotate a full 360 degrees.

"Feel your sense of direction disappear as you fly through an unreal assortment of dives, flips and twists plus two ultra-rare 'raven turns' — half loops that change their minds midway and become sheer drops," the site says.

"To make things even better, your 360° seat extends on wings far off the track, so your body will be flipping around the entire time. Quite simply, you will be spun into another dimension."

A spokesperson for the park confirmed to The Guardian that the ride has been shut since July 12, though they did not comment on CNN's investigation.

According to the investigation, two women have undergone emergency brain surgery for serious brain injuries after going on the ride.

X2 first opened in January 2002 (Mathew Imaging/WireImage)

The type of injuries they sustained are usually associated with violent accidents or high-speed collisions, neither of which the women – who have been named as Pamela Guillen, 40, and Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, 25 – had experienced.

With Guillen and Greer-Wilkinson's similar injuries in mind, surgeons believe that their respective brain haemorrhages were caused by X2.

Three neurosurgeons who treated them both told CNN in an email as part of its investigation into the popular roller coaster: "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."

Guillen has spoken out following her health scare. She had visited the park to celebrate her daughter Camille Marquez's 16th birthday. The pair went on X2, and shortly after, Guillen says she fell unconscious.

Two weeks later, she woke up in hospital with a shaven head and multiple staples in the scalp.

"You go in as yourself, and then when you come back, you’re a medical emergency. Like I still can’t wrap my head around that," Guillen said.

"There’s a difference between being jerked around and brain damage."

"I’m very lucky to be alive," she added. "I’m taking it a day at a time to not overwhelm myself and to not go into a dark hole of mourning who I was and what I was able to do before this."

Greer-Wilkinson had surgery just days after Guillen and remains in a coma.

The popular attraction has been closed since July (Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Her parents, Joshua Wilkinson and Artemis Greer, spoke to the news outlet and explained that their daughter is hooked up to a ventilator and feeding tube that are keeping her alive.

"This is the hardest thing a human being could go through," her mom Artemis said of seeing her daughter in a coma.

Lawyers for Six Flags Magic Mountain have had to defend the attraction in the past after other people have reported injuries linked to the roller coaster.

They argued that there are warning signs informing theme park-goers that 'there are inherent risks in the participation in or on any amusement ride or attraction'.

The attorneys have also insisted that the forces people experience on X2 are not strong enough to cause brain injuries and that the ride is regularly tested.

The company has previously faced legal challenges relating to X2, including settling a lawsuit on August 27 in relation to the death of Christopher Hawley, which was allegedly linked to X2. Hawley was a 22-year-old college graduate and went on X2 in June 2022.

After exiting the ride, Hawley said he felt lightheaded and then fell unconscious. He was then taken to hospital and had surgery. Those operating on the young man opened him up to discover that his brain was severely swollen, with one surgeon saying his injuries were similar to those sustained by 'shaken baby syndrome', CNN reported.

Hawley died 10 hours later. Six Flags has denied the allegation that Christopher's death was linked to the rollercoaster.

The precise terms of the settlement which was reached have not been shared.

His untimely passing followed that of 28-year-old single mother Hilda Farias, who died in 2010 after riding X2. Medical experts allege the forces of the ride caused a pre-existing brain abnormality to rupture. Her family also settled out of court.

UNILAD has approached Six Flags for comment.