Christopher Hawley’s family is pursuing a lawsuit over a Six Flags roller coaster brain injury after the 22-year-old San Diego State University graduate collapsed shortly after riding X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain and died the next day.
The case now moves toward a jury trial set to begin on September 8 in Chatsworth. The family says the ride left Hawley visibly unwell, while the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner ruled his death an accident caused by blunt head trauma in a park ride accident.
Alex Recalls X2 Ride
Hawley was at Six Flags Magic Mountain with his younger brother Alex and their cousin on June 23, 2022. Alex said the coaster was unusually rough: "It was very rough. It just jerked us. It just jerked us all around," he said.
He also described the end of the ride as a violent jolt. "It just like jolted us all the way forward and then our heads just swung all the way back into the end to the head."
Medical Examiner Ruling
The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner ruled Hawley’s death an accident. Its finding tied the death to blunt head trauma in a park ride accident, which is central to the family’s claim that something in the ride’s design failed to protect passengers.
William, Hawley’s father, said a surgeon compared the injury to shaken baby syndrome. "The surgeon had said, he likened it to shaken baby syndrome, that the ride hit his heard so hard that it had basically ruptured his brain," he said.
Six Flags And Trial
The lawsuit targets Six Flags Magic Mountain, the manufacturer of the X2 roller coaster, and several individual park employees. Timothy Loranger, who represents the family, said, "If you're going to operate that and you're going to invite the public to ride as passengers, you have to take every step that you possibly can to ensure that they're going to be safe, that they are not going to suffer an injury that could potentially kill them."
Six Flags said the ride remains closed and has been closed since the evening of July 12. For the family, the September 8 trial is the point where the account of what happened on X2 will be tested against the medical ruling and the claims of defective ride design and failure to warn.
