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Roller coasters are designed to give riders a massive adrenaline rush to the point where it can feel like you’re cheating death on a ride where you shouldn’t actually be in any real danger. However, one attraction at Six Flags Magic Mountain has been shut down after doctors blamed it for causing multiple traumatic brain injuries in less than a week.
The origins of modern roller coasters can be traced back hundreds of years. The original structures relied on wooden designs that limited the thrills they could provide, but the attractions entered a new era after the Matterhorn Bobsleds, the first permanent installation made of steel, opened for business at Disneyland in 1959.
That development sparked a roller coaster arms race that’s still unfolding close to seven decades later. Designers are constantly pushing the limits when it comes to height, speed, and length, and there is no shortage of options to pick from around the world if you want to get your fix.
People who head to Six Flags Magic Mountain in California normally have 17 they can pick from during their visit, but that number has dropped by one after one of them was linked to some potentially deadly injuries.
Doctors say the X2 roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain was responsible for causing two brain hemorrhages in July
In 2002, Magic Mountain hyped up the debut of the X2 by marketing it as the world’s first 4D roller coaster (one featuring seats that rotate while the ride is making its way around the track).
Last year, X2 ended up at the center of a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a 22-year-old man they claimed died after riding it in 2022 after suffering a “catastrophic right subdural hematoma.”
That case was settled out of court earlier this week, but it doesn’t appear that’s the only serious injury it’s been responsible for.
According to CNN, X2 has been dormant at Magic Mountain since July 12th after it was seemingly responsible for two emergency surgeries that were conducted at a hospital in California on riders who ended up with what the outlet described as “alarmingly similar brain hemorrhages.”
A 40-year-old Hawaiian woman named Pamela Guillen spent two weeks in a coma after she was rushed into surgery toward the start of July, where doctors treated “a severe subdural hematoma and brain compression” that they believe was induced after her skull repeatedly slammed against the headrest during the ride.
Six days later, Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, a 25-year-old woman from Los Angeles, suffered a similar fate after riding X2, as she is still in a coma and listed in critical condition after being treated for a “severe traumatic brain injury.”
CNN notes that those cases are just a few of “more than a dozen reports of serious injuries and hospitalizations over nearly two decades” where X2 has been painted as the culprit, and it seems like it may not have the chance to be responsible for more going forward.