It’s been four years since the Hawley family lost their 22-year-old son Christopher, who suffered a fatal brain injury following a ride on the X2 roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain. The family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Valencia amusement park a year ago, and now the trial date, set for Sept. 8, is finally in sight.
Anne Hawley, Christopher’s mother, said the experience has taught her a lot about patience, as the family has endured a painful ordeal coupled with the long legal process to get to this point. It’s been difficult coping with the loss of her son, and the lawsuit has also taken a lot of the family’s energy already depleted from their grief.
They are continuing to push forward, however, as they hope the suit will find Six Flags liable for its role in Christopher’s death.
Six Flags Magic Mountain calls itself the “Thrill Capital of the World,” for its large number of extreme roller coasters that are described as the “tallest, fastest and steepest.”
But for the Hawley family, the risk is too steep.
“We want the rides shut down,” said Anne. “In my mind, there should never be injuries on a roller coaster or an amusement park ride. That I will never understand.
“It’s definitely about accountability and [bringing] awareness to what happened and somehow stopping it so that it never happens again,” Anne said.
She added, “I know the trial will not achieve all of that, but for now, [we want] accountability. They’re not going to be allowed to hide and pretend that this did not happen because it did happen.”
It was on June 23, 2022, when Christopher went to Six Flags with his younger brother, Alex, and their cousin. The trio had just come off the X2 ride – a 4th-dimensional roller coaster designed with 360-degree rotating seats that move independently as the ride travels through intense head-first, face-down drops and inversions, reaching up to 76 miles per hour.
Alex described the ride as exceptionally rough. In previous media interviews, he said it jerked passengers aggressively and ended with a violent jolt, jarring the three boys in their seats.
After exiting the ride, Alex said that his brother walked “haltingly” down the ramp, using a handrail for support. His face was red, and he mumbled that his head hurt. Christopher then slumped to the ground and fell into unconsciousness.
It was around 4 p.m. when Anne got a call from Alex. At first, she assumed he was just checking in, but she quickly noticed the fear in his voice. He then told her that Christopher had collapsed and wasn’t waking up.
“I didn’t know what to think,” Anne recounted. “I just remember telling Alex, ‘I’m sure he will [wake up]. He’s going to be OK.’ I never thought in my mind that he got hurt from a ride. I figured he must have passed out, but … I didn’t think it’d be the devastating news that it became.”
Paramedics transported Christopher to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Valencia. His parents made the roughly two-hour journey from their home in Garden Grove, getting updates from Alex and his cousin along the way.
When they arrived in the emergency room, the parents were told by a neurosurgeon that Christopher was having brain surgery and that he had been hurt from riding the roller coaster.
“We didn’t get more information until the surgeon came out and told us that he tried his best, but the bleeding would not stop, and Christopher was not going to make it,” Anne said.
He passed away the following day. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner ruled his death an accident caused by blunt head trauma sustained in a park ride accident. A CT scan showed he suffered a catastrophic right subdural hematoma.
The news was devastating. Christopher had just graduated from San Diego State University with a bright future. He had a passion for water sports, including sailing and wakeboarding.
Anne described her son as a warm and caring person – someone who loved doing things as a family and was the epitome of a person who enjoyed life.
“He was just a joy, always willing to do things with us and for us,” Anne said. “Something that I miss about him is just the way he would laugh and find joy in things. If I were ever taking myself too seriously, he would have a way of laughing me out of it. … That was Christopher.”
Demanding Accountability
Not once through this ordeal did anyone from Six Flags reach out to the family, Anne said. In fact, as far as she knows, the ride was temporarily shut down after Christopher collapsed, but then reopened shortly thereafter.
Not having the strength or capability to find out what happened on her own due to the grief she was experiencing, she started to look for an attorney to help her get answers.
“I wanted the world to know what happened,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do. … I wanted to at least get [the story] out to the media.”
The family eventually connected with Wisner Baum LLP, a Los Angeles-based law firm that will represent them in the trial with attorneys Timothy Loranger, senior partner, and Brent Wisner, managing partner.
“We’re going to present to the jury the evidence that’s been gathered from an investigation and inspection of the ride and testing of the ride … so they can evaluate it and then come to a conclusion about the ride having caused this very serious injury to Christopher,” said Loranger.
A History of Incidents
Six Flags Magic Mountain, which sees an average of 3 million guests each year, is no stranger to controversy or injuries. Dating back to 1978, a rider fell from the Colossus roller coaster, shutting the ride down for a year. Also in 1978, a couple fell 50 feet to the ground from a park gondola.
In 2014, the front car of the roller coaster Ninja hit a tree limb on the track, causing the front car to detach, leaving 22 passengers suspended 40 feet above the air for around three hours; four people sustained minor injuries.
Most recently, on July 5, the Los Angeles County Fire Department responded to a call about an unconscious passenger on X2. To date, park officials have not commented on the incident. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) opened an investigation into the ride and, since July 12, X2 has remained closed. X2 is described as the park’s most intense roller coaster that is “downright scary,” and “carefully designed to keep you in total sensory overload the entire ride.”
When asked about this latest incident, Loranger said that other reports of people being injured by the ride are “very concerning,” and the fact that X2 has been shut down seems to be a reaction to those injuries.
“Magic Mountain hasn’t come out and taken any position on the closure of the ride,” Loranger said. “But with that in mind, the focus is going to be on what happened with Christopher and the investigation and testing of the ride that has occurred since then. … We don’t know the details of those [other incidents], so we wouldn’t be speaking to those specifically.”
Citing ongoing litigation, the amusement park’s authorities have not commented on the lawsuit.
The trial will begin on Sept. 8 at the LA County Superior Court in Chatsworth. Jury selection will begin on Sept. 14.
The park has not offered a public statement on the lawsuit, citing the ongoing litigation.
Editor Diana Martinez contributed to this article.
“…suspended 40 feet above the air…” What?