Three people who say they sustained “catastrophic” brain injuries riding the X2 roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California have sued the amusement park and the ride manufacturer for damages, court records show.
And, according to their lawyers, more than 100 other people also sustained brain injuries in the last two years riding what is billed as a roller coaster that “will have even the most hardened thrill seeker screaming.”
“These families, these people, went to Magic Mountain for some entertainment, for some family fun, and they suffered catastrophic brain damage,” attorney Gary Dordick said Tuesday at a news conference.
The lawsuits, filed Monday in California Superior Court, name as defendants Six Flags, several other people and S&S Worldwide, the manufacturer of the roller coaster. The injured riders are seeking unspecified damages.
Six Flags and S&S Worldwide did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The X2 has been closed since July 12, according to NBC Los Angeles.
“The design of this ride makes it inherently dangerous and makes it dangerous in a way that no reasonable rider would expect,” said attorney Christopher Bulone, who works with Dordick.
The X2 is a 200-foot-high roller coaster in Los Angeles County with rotating seats that spin as the ride twists and dives and flips along a track at speeds of up to 76 mph, according to Six Flags.
“Quite simply, you will be spun into another dimension,” the park promises.
Pamela Guillen was celebrating her daughter Camille Marquez’s 16th birthday at the park on July 5 when “she boarded X2 at her daughter’s urging.”
During the ride, Guillen repeatedly hit her head against the ride’s headrest, Dordick said.
“When X2 returned to the station, Camille looked at her mother and saw her sitting with a vacant stare and her mouth open,” the lawsuit says. “Camille initially thought Pamela was joking. She quickly realized that something was wrong.”
“Confused and unstable on her feet,” Guillen landed in the hospital, where surgeons had to remove part of her skull to treat her, and she did not regain consciousness for two weeks, according to the lawsuit.
Six Flags knew Guillen had been hurt but “continued to operate X2 without adequately investigating the cause of her injury or warning subsequent riders,” the lawsuit says.
And six days after Guillen was injured, Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, 25, “lost consciousness” after having ridden the X2 with her siblings on July 11.
Wilkinson underwent “multiple” operations to relieve the pressure on her brain but remains bedridden and barely conscious and is described in the court papers as “an incompetent adult.”
“Naomi had no idea, when she was going to Magic Mountain with her siblings and her friends, that she was signing up for something that could potentially rip the veins in her skull, cause catastrophic bleeding, and lead to a coma,” Bulone said.
The third lawsuit was filed on behalf of lawyer Michael Wilk, who said he was injured after he rode the X2 on Feb. 7.
“Michael’s head began slamming violently against the headrest of his seat,” the lawsuit says. “Immediately upon exiting the ride, Michael felt ill.”
In the weeks that followed, the suit says, Wilk’s co-workers noticed he was struggling and told him to see a doctor. An MRI examination revealed massive brain bleeding and swelling, according to the lawsuit.
Wilk underwent two operations to “relieve the pressure the bleeding was placing on his brain.”
Wilk, according to his lawsuit, can no longer practice law and “continues to suffer debilitating headaches, confusion, dizziness, memory loss and personality changes.”
Word of the lawsuits came in the wake of an investigation by CNN last month that documented at least two deaths and more than a dozen reports of serious injuries and hospitalizations by X2 riders.
