The Six Flags Magic Mountain roller coaster has remained closed since July 12 as Cal/OSHA investigates a reported incident
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NEED TO KNOW
- California officials are investigating a reported incident involving the X2 roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain
- The ride has been closed since July 12 following a series of events, including an EMS call earlier that month
- A fire broke out beneath the roller coaster in June burning nearby brush but did not cause injuries or structural damage
Six Flags Magic Mountain’s X2 has been closed for more than a month, and California officials are now investigating a reported incident involving the popular roller coaster.
The ride has been closed since the evening of July 12, a Six Flags spokesperson tells PEOPLE. The park has not provided a reason for the continued closure.
“The ride remains closed at this time,” the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s (Cal/OSHA) Amusement Ride and Tramway Unit has opened an inspection into a “reported incident involving the X2 roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain,” a spokesperson for the agency tells PEOPLE.
Credit: Shutterstock
The investigation comes amid a series of incidents involving the ride this summer.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department says in a statement shared with PEOPLE that it was dispatched to Six Flags Magic Mountain for an EMS call on July 5 at 9:11 p.m. local time. Fire Station 76 was the first unit on scene at the 26100 block of Magic Mountain Parkway in Valencia.
The fire department did not provide additional information about the patient or whether they were transported to the nearest area hospital.
Cal/OSHA said its inspection remains ongoing and declined to provide further details at this time.
In June, a fire broke out beneath the roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
Los Angeles County fire crews responded to the theme park at around 12:21 p.m. on June 11 after a fire ignited underneath X2.
The fire spread to other trees and nearby brush, burning about half an acre and blanketing the area in smoke, according to KNN. No evacuations were issued, and no guests or firefighting personnel were injured, according to the report.
The cause of that fire remains unknown. “There were no injuries or structural damages,” Six Flags spokesperson Sara Gorgon told The California Post at the time.
The ride has also been the subject of a wrongful-death lawsuit stemming from the death of a 22-year-old man, Christopher Hawley, who suffered a fatal brain injury after riding X2 in 2022. After getting off the ride, which his family alleged “jerked its riders around like rag dolls,” Hawley complained that his head hurt before losing consciousness.
He was taken to a Six Flags medical tent before being transported to a local hospital, where he died the next day, according ot his family’s complaint filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 2024 and previously obtained by PEOPLE.
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A coroner’s report determined Hawley had suffered a brain injury and that his death resulted from “head trauma” from a “park ride accident,” the complaint claimed. His family alleged Six Flags and other defendants were aware of previous injuries associated with the ride.
“We want to make sure that that ride isn’t going to kill somebody else,” Hawley’s father, William Hawley, told the O.C. Register in 2025.
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A final status conference is scheduled for Aug. 28, with the jury trial set to begin Sept. 8, The Signal reported.
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