Six Flags closes its X2 roller coaster after brain-injury lawsuits

VALENCIA, CA - The Six Flags theme park company announced on Tuesday that it would permanently close the X2 roller coaster at its Magic Mountain park in Valencia, Calif., following allegations of serious brain injuries linked to the ride.

The closure has renewed questions about how the intense forces generated by extreme roller coasters can affect the brain. Experts told TIME that abrupt acceleration, twisting, and changes in direction can stretch brain tissue and blood vessels, potentially increasing the risk of concussions and bleeding.

Three lawsuits filed in late September allege that riders suffered brain injuries after riding X2, and attorneys told CNN that more than 100 people have contacted them with similar allegations. The suits came in the wake of a CNN investigation published in August about the ride's long history of incidents, including at least two deaths.

X2 was a two-minute thrill ride that reached a top speed of 76 miles per hour and opened in 2002, according to a Six Flags webpage about X2, which is no longer online. In July 2026, two women—six days apart—were hospitalized after riding X2, CNN reported. Both suffered from a subdural hematoma, or bleeding on the brain.

Billed by Six Flags as a “fifth-dimension wing roller coaster,” X2 ran along 3,610 feet of track. Its seats did not sit directly on the track. Rather they were mounted on wings on either side of the track—essentially suspending riders in space—and rotated 360 degrees. “Your body will be flipping around the entire time,” the now-removed Six Flags website says. “Quite simply, you will be spun into another dimension.”

What roller coasters can do to the brain

The shearing, tearing, and torquing forces at work on extreme roller coasters affect the brain, experts say.

“Brain tissue has very low rigidity (similar to jello), so it is prone to shearing and twisting during head motion,” wrote Lyndia Wu, an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering at the University of British Columbia who studies the mechanics of brain injuries, in an email to TIME. “The tissue shearing and twisting can be amplified when the head rapidly accelerates or decelerates, such as when it moves in one direction and then abruptly whips in another during a roller-coaster turn, or when it strikes a headrest or another object. Blood vessels can also be experiencing stretching and twisting, posing risks of rupture and bleeding.”

The high levels of acceleration the coasters generate are a complicating factor. The head, which moves and swivels throughout a ride, may take more of a pounding than, say, the relatively stationary torso. G-force calculations, Wu says, only apply to “whole body accelerations that can be measured [or] estimated at the seat level when the roller coaster is designed. The head can be experiencing different acceleration profiles during a ride, which bring about additional brain injury risk considerations.” (Source: Time)