A family is suing Six Flags for the wrongful death of their 22-year-old son, alleging design defects, negligence, and “failure to warn riders of potential injury.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, Christopher Hawley was enjoying a day at Six Flag’s Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, in June, 2022, with his younger brother and cousin. After stepping off the X2 roller coaster, Hawley collapsed. He passed away the following day.
“Me and my cousin Kyle and Chris—we had no idea that this was gonna happen,” Christopher’s younger brother Alex Hawley told the Times.
L.A. County Medical Examiner’s records showed that Christopher’s cause of death was blunt head trauma, reported ABC 7. The complaint states Hawley was perfectly healthy before riding the rollercoaster and claimed his injury was sustained from “a park ride accident.”
The defendants in the suit are listed as Six Flags, Magic Mountain, and S&S Worldwide, the copyright owner for the four dimensional coaster style with 360 degree rotating seats like the X2. They have all denied the claims.
According to the Six Flags website, the X2 barrels across the tracks at 76 miles per hour with multiple dips and dives. Alex remembering coming to a sudden stop on the ride and their heads jolted forward then “slammed back really hard.”
The family’s attorney Ari Friedman said in a statement that the “X2 has been linked to previous incidents, where people received whiplash, head and leg injuries, and more,” due to the ride’s sudden jolts. In 2014, Six Flags was sued after two park goers sustained injuries when its Ninja roller coaster struck a fallen tree on the tracks and derailed.
“The type of injuries that Christopher suffered and the timing of when he got off the ride gives us strength and confidence to believe that at the time of trial, we’ll be able to show this was not an injury he suffered earlier in the day or some time prior in his life, but happened during the X2 ride,” Friedman added in an interview with ABC 7.
According to Friedman, the trial is set to begin on Oct. 13 in L.A. County Superior Court.
