this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2026

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-24

Theme park enjoyers: How do you feel about the Six Flags X2 rollercoaster permanently closing down amidst claims it's deadly, even though 4 G's isn't remotely enough to cause bleeding on the brain? (lemmy.cafe)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by coasterrider@lemmy.cafe to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

https://edition.cnn.com/six-flags-rollercoaster-brain-injuries-invs

It isn’t the most extreme rollercoaster in existence, like people seem to be implying. At a peak of 4 G’s, that’s in the median for a rollercoaster. Meaning, there’s nothing unusual about the G-forces of the X2 and nothing out of the ordinary was found about it. There are rollercoasters that go up to 6 G’s which aren’t causing people’s brains to explode.

Isn’t it more likely the deaths are coincidences? If 4 G’s was enough to cause fatal brain bleeds, then I’d assume stunt pilots, astronauts, and fighter pilots wouldn’t exist. And you can’t train your brain *not *to bleed.

The ride was announced to be retired earlier today, as well, due to the pressure of the lawsuits: https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/six-flag-magic-mountain-x2-roller-coaster-closure/

top 27 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] chuckleslord@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Both articles lay the likely culprit on the 4D chairs, not on any turn. The chairs spin riders end-over-end while the coaster runs the track. If the chair had a rider's head facing out during a reverse loop (this ride has one) then the negative Gs could cause the injuries being discussed. It doesn't take many negative Gs to be dangerous or fatal.

I think the bigger smoking gun is the number of identical injuries, rather than anything from the numbers. This coaster was passing safety inspections, so the injury causing parameters are probably pretty uncommon.

No mention of 4G in either article, so no idea why you brought that up.

[–] coasterrider@lemmy.cafe -2 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I bought 4 G's up since the articles are trying to spin it as the G forces causing the deaths. In reality, the X2 at 4 G's falls in the median for peak G forces in terms of rollercoasters.

[–] chuckleslord@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Sure. Issue is that positive Gs can't cause these injuries, though. So discussing the positive Gs is like talking about how altitude sickness can't be the cause of surfing accidents. The two are never correlated regardless.

[–] coasterrider@lemmy.cafe -2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Then what is? Because the articles mention it's the G-forces. And the X2 does not feature any prominent negative G's. Additionally, modern roller coaster safety standards cap negative forces near a brief -1.5 G to -2.0 G peak.

[–] missingno@fedia.io 4 points 5 days ago

Because the articles mention it's the G-forces.

Where does either article say that?

[–] missingno@fedia.io 5 points 6 days ago

I don't see that mentioned anywhere in either article you linked.

[–] crandall@lemmy.today 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

IDK anything about this, but I would assume its more complex than max G force

[–] missingno@fedia.io 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Reading through the CNN article and the investigation linked, I think it's hard to dismiss all of the reported injuries as coincidence. I won't speculate on the cause, maybe it's something more than just G-forces alone, but something is clearly an issue here.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 3 points 6 days ago

In a time of enshittification and punching pennies I don't know how anyone is surprised that this eventually happened. These are corporations trying to squeeze everything out of their parks.

Disneyland had consultants come in and literally said "why are you paying so much for safety staff, you haven't had any accidents". That literally happened. The disconnected mind losing stupidity is insane to me. Disney then cut the budget of their safety teams.

[–] marighost@piefed.social 6 points 6 days ago

Are you the same Lemmy user that posts about people drowning in shallow canals?

[–] Bongles@lemmy.zip 3 points 5 days ago

I don't care.

Assuming the investigation is true and more people are coming off the ride with injuries than you would expect from just random chance, then your ride is almost certainly causing it, regardless of if the G force isn't out of the ordinary. I'm not attached to any particular ride so I don't care what gets shut down.

[–] Jajcus@sh.itjust.works 6 points 6 days ago

In some circumstances 4g is deadly (human resistance to negative vertical g-force is lower than that), in other hundred of gees can be survived. G number alone says nothing.

In fact even 1g can kill you, e.g. when being suspended for a long time in inapropriate safety harness.

And it is not enough that the device is safe enough for average person. It must be safe for practically anyone that gets in. Rollercoaster users do not go the same health checks and training as fighter pilots (yes, they are trained how not to get killed by g-force).

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

1G can kill you if the stop is sudden enough...

Like, you found one metric and think it's everything, which is just wildly uninformed.

And instead of actually a question to actually find out if you're missing someone, you're trying to start a slap fight about it.

[–] BandanaBug@piefed.social 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I don't think you understand how G-force works..

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (2 children)

32ft/sec squared ...

Falling out of an airplane is 1G...

And if you hit the ground, that's pretty much all of it.

[–] BandanaBug@piefed.social 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

So if you hit the ground the G-force spikes. Significantly..

Edit: Thats why F1 drivers for example experience 50+ G during a high speed impact

[–] Illecors@lemmy.cafe 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That's not how physics works.

[–] BandanaBug@piefed.social 2 points 5 days ago

Because? When you suddenly stop you experience deceleration, the opposite of acceleration. Which is measured in m/s^2 otherwise known as G where one G is 9.81 m/s^2? So if you stop from 29.43 m/s to 0 in 1 second you experience 3 G?..

[–] wolfpack86@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

The fall is 0G as there's nothing providing resistance. Standing on the ground is 1g. The impact is never

[–] BandanaBug@piefed.social 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The fall is still 1 G. That's why you fall. In space there's 0 G. Thats why you float.

N.B. you can experience 0 G on earth but only when you're pushed up and suddenly let go for a brief moment (swings, airplanes diving or roller coasters for example)

[–] GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The vomit comet, which simulates 0g, literally flies in parabolic to achieve the effect. Freefall, which is what astronauts experience in low earth orbit, is effectively 0g.

When talking about forces experienced by your body, we are talking about forces that are opposed. When I'm standing on the ground, 1g of force is being applied by gravity and 1g of force is being resisted by the ground. I feel pressure on my feet and my body feels that pressure transmitted though its structure to my brain resting in my skull. When I am in freefall, 1g of force is being applied to my body, with some small portion being resisted by air moving by, unless I'm in a structure blocking the air moving around me, such as the vomit comet. So I experience 0g. Centripetal force on a roller coaster ride can apply more g's, which are counteracted by the structure of the roller coaster causing me to feel pressure. Similarly, slamming into a cliffside at 50 km/h will cause very high g's as my body decelerates from 50 km/h to 0 km/h in a few 10s of centimeters in a time span of less than a second. F=ma or F= 1/2 mv^2^.

[–] BandanaBug@piefed.social 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Apologies free fall would be. Terminal velocity wouldn't. Then air resistance is in perfect balance with gravity. But then free fall wouldn't be 0 G since air resistance builds up quickly anyway just less than 1 G.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca 1 points 5 days ago

You start at something close to 0g with wind resistance building until you reach terminal velocity, at which point you're at 1g again. But you're right, I should have clarified that in my comment.

[–] disregardable@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

To be fair, 16 years is old enough for a replacement. Universal just tore down Rip Ride Rockit, and it wasn't because they claimed it killed anyone. They just think they can replace it with a better coaster. If they can add a new cool thing to the park, and also spin it to look good in their lawsuits, where is the loss?