A California family is suing Six Flags Magic Mountain for the death of their 22-year-old son, who suffered fatal brain injuries on the park's X2 roller coaster, and the ride has since been shut down after yet another incident.
Christopher Hawley had just graduated from San Diego State University when he visited the Los Angeles County theme park with his family in the summer of 2022. He rode the X2, a coaster whose seats rotate 360 degrees, and collapsed shortly afterward. His face turned deep red before he dropped. Emergency responders rushed him to a nearby hospital, where he died the following day.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner ruled the death an accident caused by blunt-force head trauma sustained on the X2 attraction. A CT scan confirmed extensive intracranial hemorrhage, the New York Post reported. The coroner's report attributed his death to "head trauma" from a "park ride accident." The family says Christopher was in excellent health before he boarded the ride.
Now the Hawley family wants a jury to decide whether Six Flags, the unnamed manufacturer of the X2 coaster, and park employees bear responsibility for a young man's death.
Alex Hawley, Christopher's younger brother, rode the X2 alongside him that day. He described the experience to Fox 11 Los Angeles in blunt terms.
Alex Hawley told Fox 11:
"It was very rough. It just jerked us. It just jerked us all around."
He added that the ride "jolted us all the way forward and then our heads just swung all the way back into the headrest." Both brothers endured the same forces. Only one walked away.
Their father, William Hawley, relayed what the surgeon told the family about Christopher's injuries:
"The surgeon had said, he likened it to shaken baby syndrome, that the ride hit his head so hard that it had basically ruptured his brain."
That comparison, shaken baby syndrome, puts the alleged violence of the ride in terms any parent can understand. The family's lawsuit accuses Six Flags of defective ride design and failure to adequately warn the public about the coaster's risks. The wrongful death suit seeks $10 million in damages.
The family's legal filing does not hold back about what they say happened aboard the coaster. The suit states that "the entirety of the X2 ride was extremely rough and jerked its riders around like rag dolls." The ride allegedly jolted to a halt with enough force to cause the catastrophic brain injury that killed Christopher within 24 hours.
William Hawley told reporters his family's motivation extends beyond their own loss. "We want to make sure that that ride isn't going to kill somebody else," he said.
Six Flags Magic Mountain declined to comment directly on the litigation when contacted by Fox News Digital. The Los Angeles County Fire Department and the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A jury trial is scheduled to begin September 8. The specific year was not confirmed in available reporting, but the case appears to be moving toward courtroom resolution. The defendants include Six Flags, the ride's manufacturer, whose name has not been publicly identified in the reporting, and unnamed park employees.
The Hawley family's lawsuit gained new urgency after a separate incident on the same ride. On July 5, 2026, a rider was found unconscious on the X2, prompting the attraction to close. Six Flags confirmed the ride has remained shut down since the evening of July 12, 2026, more than a month as of the most recent reporting.
"The ride remains closed at this time. It has been closed since the evening of July 12th," Six Flags said in a statement to Fox 11. The park offered no further explanation for why the closure extended well beyond the initial incident date.
Whether the July 2026 incident involved the same kind of violent forces the Hawley family described remains unclear. The identity and condition of the unconscious rider have not been publicly disclosed. But a second serious event on the same attraction, years after a young man died riding it, raises an obvious question about whether the ride's design problems were ever addressed.
Sudden, unexpected deaths have shaken communities across the country in recent months, from theme parks to the halls of Congress, as Americans were reminded after the sudden passing of Sen. Lindsey Graham earlier this year.
Several critical details remain unresolved heading into the September trial. The exact date of the 2022 incident, identified only as June 23, 2022, in one account, and the hospital where Christopher died have not been widely reported. The manufacturer of the X2 coaster, named as a defendant, has not been publicly identified in the coverage. The specific court and case number have not appeared in available reporting.
Most important: what warnings, if any, did Six Flags provide to riders about the X2's risks before Christopher Hawley boarded? The lawsuit alleges the park failed to warn the public adequately. If the jury agrees, it could establish that Six Flags knew, or should have known, the ride posed a serious danger and chose to keep running it anyway.
Christopher Hawley was 22. He had just earned his degree. He went to a theme park with his family on what should have been an ordinary summer day. His family now says the ride that killed him was defective from the start, and that the people who operated it failed to tell anyone.
When a company collects your money and straps your kid into a machine, the least it owes you is a ride that doesn't end in a coffin.