Six Flags to close world-famous roller coaster after CNN investigation exposed years of injuries and deaths

By Blake Ellis, Melanie Hicken, Kyung Lah, CNN

(CNN) — Six Flags announced Tuesday it will permanently shutter its most famous roller coaster, roughly a month after a CNN investigation exposed a long history of life-altering injuries and deaths linked to the ride.

Six Flags Magic Mountain President Brian Oerding wrote in a blog post Tuesday that while its X2 roller coaster has “consistently passed a multitude of safety tests, we have decided to close the ride because we believe it’s the right thing to do.”

He added, “Ride safety is a cornerstone of our business, and when we see guest confidence affected, we take it seriously.”

Allegations that the roller coaster has injured riders date back more than a decade but had been largely kept under wraps until CNN’s investigation last month documenting more than a dozen reports of serious injuries and hospitalizations associated with the ride, including at least two deaths. Most recently, two women ended up in the same Santa Clarita emergency room with brain injuries after riding X2 just six days apart in July.

The ride had been temporarily closed a day after the second woman’s injury.

And just last week, attorneys held a high-profile news conference where they reported that more than 100 new victims have come forward alleging X2-related brain injuries of varying severity sustained after riding the roller coaster in the last two years alone.

X2, the marquee attraction at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California for nearly two decades, has long drawn roller coaster enthusiasts from around the world for its so-called 4th-dimensional quality, featuring seats that rotate 360 degrees around the track as trains reach speeds of nearly 80 miles per hour for roughly two minutes.

In three lawsuits filed last week, three different riders who suffered life-threatening injuries this year — including 26-year-old Naomi Greer-Wilkinson who remains in a coma — allege Six Flags officials had ample notice of the alleged dangers of the ride and never should have allowed it to keep running.

Greer-Wilkinson boarded the attraction six days after another woman, Pamela Guillen, lost consciousness when she got off the roller coaster and was rushed into emergency brain surgery.

“This is long overdue,” Greer-Wilkinson’s parents told CNN. “Six Flags knew years ago that X2 was putting people at grave risk and chose to continue gambling with their lives anyway. This should have happened long before Naomi’s brain injury but we’re happy to hear that now finally no one else’s daughter or sister will ever be hurt on this ride again.”

Guillen, meanwhile, is out of the hospital but previously recounted to CNN how she had to learn how to talk and walk again, and she said she still battles terrible headaches and brain fog and needs medication to prevent seizures.

“I’m relieved that X2 is closing for good,” she told CNN on Tuesday. “I never should have been hurt, and neither should the others who were. … I also hope Six Flags will put better safety and inspection measures in place across all of its parks and rides.”

The family of 22-year-old Christopher Hawley, who died from a traumatic brain injury hours after riding X2 four years ago, have been fighting for X2’s closure for years. The6 neurosurgeon who treated Hawley likened his injuries to those sustained during “shaken baby syndrome,” and the medical examiner ruled his death had been caused by blunt head trauma from “a park ride accident,” according to the coroner’s report.

The family sued Six Flags and reached a tentative settlement last month. Timothy Loranger, one of the attorneys representing Hawley’s family, told CNN he has also recently retained new clients alleging harm from the roller coaster, including the family of a young man who attorneys say died after riding X2 in late 2025, the latest in at least three deaths allegedly linked to the ride.

“This ride should have been closed long before our son Christopher was injured, and it certainly should have been closed after he died,” said Hawley’s mother, Anne Hawley. “Instead, it took more than four years and dozens of other injured riders for Six Flags to do the right thing.”

Do you have information to share about a Six Flags theme park or ride? Email us at melanie.hicken@cnn.com or blake.ellis@cnn.com.

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This story was updated with additional information.