Their son died after a Magic Mountain roller-coaster ride. Now they’re suing

A popular ride at Magic Mountain caused a severe head injury that killed a 22-year-old, according to a lawsuit filed by a Garden Grove family.

The fatality occurred June 23, 2022, after Christopher Hawley rode the X2 roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia. He was in a row by himself with his cousin and younger brother in the row behind him, the lawsuit says.

“The entirety of the X2 ride was extremely rough and jerked its riders around like rag dolls,” according to the complaint. At the end of the trip, “the ride suddenly, abruptly, and violently jolted to a halt, jarring Decedent Christopher Hawley and the other two boys in their seats.”

“Me and my cousin Kyle and Chris — we had no idea that this was gonna happen,” Hawley’s brother Alex, now 21, told The Times on Tuesday.

Christopher Hawley at graduation from San Diego State University. Hawley died June 24, 2022, a day after he collapsed at the exit of the X2 roller coaster at Magic Mountain. A wrongful death lawsuit alleges the roller coaster could be dangerous.

(Hawley Family via Newsroom Public Relations)

Six Flags Magic Mountain denied the claims in the lawsuit, which was updated from an earlier complaint filed in 2023.

Immediately after getting off the ride, Hawley stumbled on the offramp, complained of head pain, collapsed and became unconscious. Hawley was in good health on the day of the trip, the lawsuit stated.

Doctors found Hawley had severe brain bleeding and a poor prognosis. He died the next day from what the coroner’s office said was head trauma caused by “a park ride accident,” the complaint said.

The ride was shut down for a time after Hawley’s injury, the lawsuit says, but was reopened that day.

Hawley’s parents Anne and William are suing, alleging wrongful death, negligence, a design defect in the coaster and failure to warn riders of potential injury.

“There’s no outlet for this grief because, I mean, it’s such a loss,” Anne Hawley said in an interview Tuesday. “We went from a happy family of four to a grieving family of three because of tickets that I purchased for them to go have a fun day.”

Listed as defendants are Magic Mountain and Six Flags as separate entities and S&S Worldwide as the copyright owner for X2’s style of coaster, a “fourth-dimensional” ride with seats that can rotate 360 degrees. The defendants have denied the claims.

“So while you are careening down the rails at 76 miles per hour through an unreal assortment of dives, flips and twists, as well as two ultra-rare ‘raven turns’ — half loops that change their minds midway and become sheer drops — your body will also be flipping around 360-degrees over and over again,” the ride’s description reads on Six Flags’ website. “Quite simply, you will be spun into another dimension.”

“This is not the first time someone has sustained a serious injury as a result of riding X2,” the family’s attorney, Ari Friedman, said in a statement. “X2 has been linked to previous incidents, where people received whiplash, head and leg injuries, and more, from the ride’s sudden shuddering and jolts.”

The park was sued in 2014 after a Ninja roller-coaster car struck a downed tree on its tracks and partially derailed, causing minor injuries to passengers. A woman in 2001 died after a preexisting aneurysm burst while she was riding the Goliath roller coaster, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said.

“Somebody at Magic Mountain should be able to explain to us — and everybody who goes to their park — what happened, why it happened,” William Hawley said.