VALENCIA, Calif. — A CNN investigation has found that X2, the marquee thrill ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain, has been linked to more than a dozen serious injuries and hospitalizations over nearly two decades, including two deaths and multiple cases of traumatic brain injury, raising new questions about why the ride remained operational despite years of documented harm.

The park closed the roller coaster the evening of July 12, according to a Six Flags spokesperson, nearly a full day after the most recent reported injury. Park officials have not disclosed what prompted the closure, and the ride remains shut down.

Two women hospitalized in the same week

The investigation's findings come after surgeons at a Southern California hospital treated two women within days of each other in July for severe brain hemorrhages consistent with high-speed collisions, despite neither woman having been involved in a crash or fall. Both had ridden X2, known for its rotating seats, near-vertical drops and unpredictable movements during a roughly two-minute ride that reaches speeds close to 80 miles per hour.

Three neurosurgeons who treated the two women wrote in an email reviewed by CNN that the injuries were the result of "a traumatic rapid acceleration-deceleration event experienced while on the X2 ride."

A ride unlike any other

X2's defining feature is its so-called fourth-dimensional design, in which riders' seats rotate a full 360 degrees around the track independently of the train's motion. Only two similar roller coasters exist elsewhere in the world — one in China and another in Japan, the latter of which closed........

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