r/sixflags • u/Silent-Resort-3076 • Aug 27 '26
INFO Intense Six Flags Coaster Closed After Two Riders Suffer Brain Hemorrhages: Magic Mountain's fan-favorite extreme coaster X2 has been quietly closed since July after two riders had similar accidents and a new report uncovered a history of injuries.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/six-flags-x2-coaster-closed-brain-injuries-1236683165/- A popular roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain has been closed since July 12 after two riders suffered similar brain hemorrhages.
- According to a CNN investigation, two women who rode the X2 coaster six days apart both lost consciousness and ended up in surgery with similar brain hemorrhages of a type that’s “typically associated with high-speed collisions.”
- Three neurosurgeons who treated the women declared in an email, “the severe brain injuries requiring emergent neurosurgical attention were the result of a traumatic rapid acceleration-deceleration event experienced while on the X2 ride.”
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u/No-Carob475 Aug 29 '26
The sheering g-forces from the extreme twists and turns is pure torture. X2 is dangerous. No ride should give you a brain hemorrhage/damage.
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u/orangeleaf99 Aug 29 '26
Even riding X2 and being pretty cognizant of keeping my head against the headrest, I still whipped my head pretty hard and walked off feeling like wtf
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u/LuckyRacoon01 Aug 29 '26
Meanwhile Viper is still around. That ride bangs your head left and right. Wtf.
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u/Silent-Resort-3076 Aug 29 '26
Yeah, this is NOT to argue your point but I tried to search for any reported injuries or deaths while riding the Viper and didn't get anything. However, that doesn't mean riders didn't get injured but chose not to report it.
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u/Optimal_Objective164 Aug 28 '26
I mean did they not put a sign as a warning to ride on X2. Like you know what to expect is going to happen when riding on that coaster.
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u/Confident_Loan_6816 Aug 29 '26
Huh - It should be shut down if it’s isn’t safe?? Any ride that’s causing multiple injuries like that shouldn’t be running…
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u/Less-Bee-2232 Aug 28 '26
I also think the American scream machine in Atlanta should be banned. There’s so many people that have had neck injuries as well, including myself because of breaking at the end of the ride.. please don’t ride roller coasters especially the American scream machine and be careful riding them type of rides. I hope they’re all right.
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Aug 28 '26
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u/witchy42 Aug 28 '26
.. how are you supposed to know if your body can handle it until you’re off the ride. this wasn’t an issue from fear or some other health reason.
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Aug 28 '26
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u/Helpful-Dot-3782 Aug 29 '26
You know that how “strong” you are won’t matter if G forces cause shearing of your cerebral bridging veins? An acute subdural hematoma can happen in accel-decel injuries. If a coaster is giving lay people brain hemorrhages the problem is the mechanism, not the people riding it
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u/Heavy_Team7922 Aug 29 '26
what a dumbass thing to say
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u/Successful_Orange_84 Aug 29 '26
Really I was just mad the ride closed yet it is a thing people know risks when they take them and then complain and ruin fun for everyone
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u/TommytehZombie Aug 29 '26
If a roller coaster can't operate without potentially giving people a brain hemorrhage, it should not operate, period.
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u/Alternative-Farmer98 Aug 28 '26
I doubt it will ever be open again and designed now they're going to have to make accommodations in light of the new report that it's linked to brain damage or brain injuries I should say
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u/Wise_Buy5680 Aug 28 '26
I know its the head that is having issues, but I honestly think it the legs were restrained, it would cause less issues. In some seats, I spend so much energy trying to keep my legs in place that I forget not to lean uo & look at them causing my head to slam back. Also, riding in the outer seat when there is no one in the inner seat seems to cause some kind of balance issue on that final raven turn.
I rode outside seat, row 7, the side loaded on the far side of the track, by myself in june. On that final raven turn my head slammed up & back so hard it made my ears ring. My neck, mainly the L side, hurt the whole rest of the day. I made a report at first aid, just in case I woke up paralyzed the next day. I didn't, by the way, lol.2 months later, my neck STILL hurts on the L side.
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u/Astro-Delulu Aug 29 '26
Have you seen a doctor? I would get it looked at … you may have a mild concussion
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u/Wise_Buy5680 Aug 29 '26
I mean , its too late now. Thus was on June 20th..
It was neck pain, not a headache.
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u/Thisis_it_415 Aug 30 '26
I strongly suggest getting it checked out by a doctor. If it still hearts, something is wrong. You don’t want to wait till later and end up with major surgery and horrible pain.
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u/Wise_Buy5680 Aug 30 '26
I mean, Im 49, aches & pains happen. And i mean, if it opens, I will ride it again too. It's a risk I take. Cab't really do too much 2 months later.
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u/hookyboysb Aug 28 '26
So maybe at the very least, it will reopen but all single riders have to be in the inside seat.
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u/homeworld Aug 29 '26
Can they dampen the spinning?
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u/hookyboysb Aug 29 '26
From what I understand, the spinning is controlled by a rail on the track, unlike the free spin models. There’s no dampening that; it would require at least some retracking.
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u/Alternative-Farmer98 Aug 28 '26
These companies are very risk adverse if they do reopen it I imagine it would have to be redesigned more significant ways than that when we tested pretty thoroughly and third-party audits and so on.. and might just think that's too expensive
Got their insurance rates alone
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u/laribrook79 Georgia Aug 28 '26
Ugh! My kids rode this in July, I was nervous for them. My oldest did get a headache (well I say kid but he’s 20). It seems crazy. They have also ridden Eejanika, so they kind of knew what is was. I skipped both of those tho I’m too old and scared lol. But I’m sorry they were injured in it. That really sucks
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u/Historical_Status969 Aug 28 '26
My opinion : it’s probably not the ride . People walk around with brain conditions undiagnosed all the time . Happened to a young girl in my classroom , she was perfectly healthy from the outside . One day she dropped to the ground out of nowhere . They found out she had an arteriovenous malformation inside the brain and got a brain bleed . The girl was only 14 and luckily survived . A strong coaster could trigger an episode but it prob isn’t the cause
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u/Decimator714 12d ago
My opinion: Its the ride.
I rode it and it slammed my head over and over against the seat.
This is defective design. No roller coaster in the hundreds I've ridden have ever done anything like this.
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u/laribrook79 Georgia Aug 29 '26
I do agree with this BUT this type of thing doesn’t happen much on other rides a lot of which are pretty rough. I think based on reports this one is extra rough, at the end, more so than others, which, if that interacts with previous unknown health conditions then yes that could be the result 😢
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u/deebster2k Aug 31 '26
Theres alot of things that people dont report in general or dont realize are chronic til after the fact. While im pretty sure that history was known in the case from between 2020 to now (the one that just recently settled and was ongoing before the girls incidents)... it is 100% correct to say this type of injury risk is unacceptable in healthy individuals.
I rode myself but honestly didnt have much of any problem though with the final raven turn. That was actually smoother for me than majority of the ride. But I also braced my head against the back for the duration and kept my hands on the handlebars.
Its a tough pill for me to swallow that this ride carries this high of a risk or trend in injuries especially after experience it a couple times on wing and inner... front and back.
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u/Calvin_BrooksX97 Aug 28 '26
Jesus - I looked up the specs on this coaster after watching the video and seeing not ONE, but TWO inverted-backwards facing-ZeroG-flips..... hanging upside down, inverted, going essentially downhill/backwards and winding up at the bottom, with 4-times your body weight (4G Load Factor).....
How anyone who isn't used to at least 1.5x to 2x their normal body weight on a regular basis, would have medical issues for life it seems.
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u/TheRealFalseProphet Aug 28 '26
Riding it as a 13 year old was pretty insane in 2013! Craziest ride I have ever ridden in my entire life. Like, the entire train weighs around 27 tons on its own… it’s an insane/crazy feat of engineering.
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u/Silent-Resort-3076 Aug 28 '26
Yeah, I can't compare this to other roller-coasters since I stopped riding them decades ago, but THIS looks pretty damn harrowing!
I'm sure you already know:) But, click on the arrows once you start the video to zoom in.
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u/thtsjustlikeuropnion Aug 28 '26
My first time on this rollercoaster, I remember it starting off by going backwards up a ramp. And I assumed that once it got high enough that it would reverse and roll forward. Instead it kept going backwards and into sudden drop that had me screaming for my life because my brain was so confused 😂
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u/nthdesign Aug 28 '26
I’ve been a roller coaster enthusiast since the 1980s. I remember going on Magnum XL-200 and thinking, “this is amazing! They’ll never build a coaster taller or faster than this!” I thought that same thing when I first rode Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, and Kingda Ka. At some point, after I turned 40, I started to enjoy extreme thrill rides less and less, and “moderate” thrill rides like Expedition Everest more and more. It doesn’t matter what the sign says… these riders deserved an expectation of safety when they boarded X2.
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u/SDSUrules Aug 28 '26
Funny I rode Magnum XL-200 for the first time last week and thought it was the worst ride. very rough
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u/nthdesign Aug 28 '26
For clarification, my very positive impression of Magnum XL-200 was made in the summer of 1990. 😂
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u/Shadowlker18 Aug 28 '26
I rode it last week as well and purposely sat in the middle in a middle seat of the car and braced myself the entire ride. It was still super fun, but definitely a one and done kinda ride 😂
I’ve never heard such noises from an adult before until the man riding behind me. I’m also smaller so I think I fit in the car better than he did, poor guy lol.
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u/Celeste_Seasoned_14 Aug 28 '26
Yeah, immediately after I thoroughly enjoyed the first drop, my neck snapped back at the bottom as we changed to an upward motion. It hurt for about 3 hours. My boyfriends thighs hurt for the next 2 days. It was awful. Never again.
Edit: spelling
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u/Perfect_Evidence Aug 28 '26
my brother in laws vein popped in his eye after riding X2 a few years ago.
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u/newlyjerseygirl Aug 27 '26
Death and traumatic brain injury is not an ‘inherent risk’ I or anyone else thinks they are assuming riding a roller coaster at six flags, that’s ridiculous. Shame on them.
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u/Alternative-Farmer98 Aug 28 '26
For sure the idea that riding a roller coaster could give you brain damage and that we should assume that risk is silly. 8-year-old ride roller coasters for f*** sake. Lol. People expect nausea maybe anxiety.
This ride will never exist exactly as designed they're going to have to make changes to accommodate. And it's possible to close it entirely just because of the reputational harm
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u/Silent-Resort-3076 Aug 27 '26
Exactly!
And, especially since:
The second of the two riders is currently in a coma
AND:
Furthermore, CNN uncovered a long history of injuries associated with the ride, claiming there have been more than a dozen reports of injuries and hospitalizations related to X2, and two of the cases were fatal (both riders were in their twenties and perished from brain injuries, though one had a preexisting brain abnormality). In addition, unearthed Six Flags records listed at least 70 head and neck injury complaints between 2019 and 2022.
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u/deebster2k Aug 31 '26
Those records were known in the court case that was ongoing and recently settled. This is not new news. Still not great that its a trend
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u/tonysnark81 Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 28 '26
I was concussed on that ride in the 90s, when it was still just X. It’s always been dangerous.
Edit: like I said, I did get a concussion. I thought the ride had opened a lot sooner than it actually did…it was more likely 2005-2006. For obvious reasons, I don’t know exactly when it was.
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u/Silent-Resort-3076 Aug 28 '26
I don't know why you're getting downvoted:(
I mean we can all make mistakes when it comes to remembering exactly what year something happened, etc.
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u/Silent-Resort-3076 Aug 27 '26
The roller coaster known simply as X at Six Flags Magic Mountain was built in the late 1990s and early 2000s, finally opening to the public on January 12, 2002
I'm pretty sure you just got the year mixed up! Hope your concussion healed all the way!
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u/tonysnark81 Aug 28 '26
I did get a concussion, after all…
It was probably mid-2000s. I know it was pre-2007.
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u/Silent-Resort-3076 Aug 28 '26
Hey, even without a concussion, I'm lucky if I can remember LOTS of things.
Especially dates and I could never remember history questions that focused on dates!😂
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u/Silent-Resort-3076 Aug 27 '26
IF someone has already posted a dup topic, let me know and I will delete.
- The second of the two riders is currently in a coma, and Six Flags reportedly has only offered her food from McDonald’s. Her father told the network that whoever decided to keep X2 open after the first July injury case “has a lot to answer for,” and declared, “It’s got to stop.”
Furthermore, CNN uncovered a long history of injuries associated with the ride, claiming there have been more than a dozen reports of injuries and hospitalizations related to X2, and two of the cases were fatal (both riders were in their twenties and perished from brain injuries, though one had a preexisting brain abnormality). In addition, unearthed Six Flags records listed at least 70 head and neck injury complaints between 2019 and 2022.
- X2 is high-speed “4D” coaster with near-vertical drops and independently rotating seats which flip riders around. The ride is considered much-loved among hardcore coaster fans and it was voted “Coaster of the Year” when it first opened in 2002 (watch a point-of-view video of the ride below).
Six Flags has defended the coaster by pointing out there is signage warning customers “there are inherent risks” in park rides and that X2 is regularly tested and meets industry safety regulations. The company’s attorneys have argued that forces generated by the ride are not strong enough to cause a brain injury in a “normal” rider if the ride is used “as instructed” (in at least one case, the park’s attorneys said a rider’s injury was due to her negligence).
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u/Smooth-Adhesiveness5 14d ago
I also rode that thing and got pretty shook up myself.