Roller Coaster Brain Injuries: X2 Ride Safety Investigation

Within a single week in July 2026, two women arrived at a Southern California hospital with nearly identical life-threatening brain hemorrhages. Both Pamela Gillen, 40, and Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, 25, had just ridden the X2 extreme roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia. Their injuries resembled those typically seen in severe car accidents, according to medical staff.

Gillen lost consciousness and required emergency surgery to remove part of her skull to relieve pressure on her brain. Greer-Wilkinson fell into a coma and was placed on life support. "You go in as yourself, and then when you come back, you're a medical emergency. I'm still not processing it," Gillen said after her hospital release, adding, "I'm very lucky to be alive."

A CNN investigation has uncovered a troubling pattern spanning nearly two decades: the ride has been associated with serious injuries, hospitalizations, and two deaths. In 2022, Christopher Holly, 22, died hours after experiencing the attraction's violent movements. A surgeon who treated Holly compared his injuries to shaken baby syndrome, and the pathologist determined he died from blunt force trauma.

Internal documents revealed during litigation showed park management received at least 70 complaints about head and neck injuries in the three years before Holly's death. Another fatality occurred in 2010 when Hilda Frias, 28, died from a brain aneurysm rupture following her ride.

Additional victims over the years reported brain damage and concussions after riding the attraction, including Selena O'Neill in 2014, Sheila Catarelos in 2020, and Loki Alvarez in 2021. One rider wrote on an online forum that "it literally felt like a boxer punched me in the head twice."

The medical team treating the two women injured in July stated unequivocally: "In our professional opinion exclusively, the severe brain injuries requiring urgent neurosurgical treatment were the result of rapid acceleration and deceleration traumatic events they experienced during the ride on the X2 attraction."

Professor Lyndia Wu noted, "I personally don't think head injury should be an expected risk from riding a roller coaster, and there's no reason a ride can't be properly designed to prevent such injuries." Greer-Wilkinson's parents called for the ride's permanent closure. Her mother, Artemis Greer, said, "Naomi should never have even had the option to get on this ride," adding, "It's cruel." Her father, Joshua Wilkinson, stated simply, "This has to stop."

Following the recent incidents, park management closed the attraction on the evening of July 12, 2026, nearly 24 hours after Greer-Wilkinson's injury. Park representatives declined to answer detailed questions, stating only that the ride remains closed, while park attorneys argued in legal proceedings that riders bear personal responsibility for disclosed risks.

Families of the injured reported that a company representative offered them McDonald's meals when they arrived at the emergency room, but has had no contact with them since.