LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

16 people in a carriage on the ride "Smiler" crashed into the back of an empty carriage left on the track. 4 people seriously injuried and others injured, 0 deaths thankfully! ...going to be a lot of big claims for whiplash that's for sure and I expect it'll put a lot of people off from going.

dpb

2 years profit gone straight away

Excluding claims

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

Yep this will really tarnish their reputation. For a business that needs to focus completely on health and safety, it's crazy how they could have let this happen. Where were the fail safes?

Ant

From what I've been reading , the smiler broke down and when they kicked it backed up they sent an empty carriage and didn't wait for it to complete its run before sending the full one

wrx300scooby

My grandkids were there just the other day I believe that there have been problems with the Smiler ride for a while now. Sending a group on their way knowing there was carriage stuck is beyond me or was it a mechanical error.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

As I understand it they shouldn't have been able to release the second carriage with the first one stopped. There are failsafes built in for that. A massive system failure has occurred it would seem.

DanGlennon

Beyond stupid, someone will be sacked for this that's for sure. A business as big as Alton towers really has no excuse as to why this has happened. There is literally no explanation they could give that would render them not guilty. In this day and age accidents like this shouldn't be happening.

Dirk Diggler 75

This ^^^ Hope the injured have a speedy recovery ...

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Sacked? That's the easy way out!

People should be getting prosecuted for it once the investigation is complete. There are rumours going round that said fail-safe was manually overrided in order to send the second cart out.

davyboy

Broke down a fair few times when I was there. Hopefully all recover.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

THEME PARK CLOSURE

The decision has been taken that Alton Towers theme park will not open tomorrow Wednesday 3rd June following the dreadful incident on The Smiler today. All guests with pre-booked tickets, or those who arrive at the theme park, will have the choice of either having their tickets revalidated for an alternative date or a full refund.We will be posting regular updates on the theme park closure on both our website and social media channels.

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

Shares dropped 3% already.

Bean592

I was there Monday, didn't go on the smiler though, our lass won't go on it again as she said last year it didn't feel safe. :/ feel sorry for the people on it as it could have been literally anyone as it always a busy ride

urban

iTrader: (1)

Don't you get on these rides solely at your own risk?

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

No. You expect to be 100% safe on these rides! It's not as if they are required to have signs saying "people must ride these rides at their own risk- We can not be liable for any injuries caused" etc etc . According to the telegraph, someone has lost a leg!

EddScott

From internet gossip so pinch of salt required - from a ride engineer you could make this happen if you ran the ride in test mode and over-ride failsafe but even then there would be lots of warning indicators alerting the operator.

IMO - There is an interaction between machine and computer. Would only one actuator or something to fail and the corresponding sensor not to register for this to happen.

I live near Oakwood Theme Park and one of the rides was closed for ages after a girl fell out at the top (it's not exactly a short fall)



This was the suns photo of the ride at the time - with handy guide for those who are not sure which direction things fall.

A while ago I was on the ride and every time the lad pressed go, the harness bars came up. Lots of people got off (was proper Final Destination moment)

On the same day at another ride there was obviously some kind of release valve for the ride buried near the little operator hut. This valve went off and the operator jumped out of his skin. I then watch him on the walkie talkie and it's clear he's asking someone if it should do that. All the while the ride is still going and folk getting on and off.

Does make you wonder - you have these very sophisticated machines and low paid summer monkeys pressing the buttons. Makes you wonder how there aren't more incidents tbh.

Still at least there will be one ride without a massive queue

davyboy

Seriously?

^Qwerty^

I'll be amazed if there even is a manual override option that would allow the operators of any ride at Alton Towers or any other Theme Park for that matter to let it do what it did yesterday as there is no reason to have it that I can think of?

I'll punt for a software fault that by some bizarre circumstance has allowed two trains to occupy the same section of track.

stilover

If that is the case, then you're right, prosecutions should happen.


However, if the fail safes failed, then Alton Towers will then just sue the manufacturer.

hodgy0_2

Yes, one reason amongst others I never go on these things

Jonnys3

It's a bloody good ride when it's working !

borat52

A witness said the empty carriage was stuck inside one of the loops after failing to make it through the loop, presumably the system should not allow for the release of the next carriage unless the current carriage is back at the load/unload station.

So either the sensor failed, and the operator did not manually check if the carriage had returned (human error, negligence on behalf of operator and thus Alton Towers for failure to train correctly)

OR

the ride has a manual over-ride which was used, which is probably more serious as it goes into, who authorised the over-ride, how are low level staff allowed to do so and why are there not proper safety proceedures in place forbidding people to ride when the over-ride is activated.

If it's the second H&S could close all merlin parks until it's clear that this cannot happen again.



Havins said all of that, the rarity of the incident does go to show how safe these attractions are as a rule.

Jonnys3

And the fact there were no fatalities, which probably would have been a dead cert (excuse the pun) years back.

lozgti1

No its not imho,lol

It is a crap ride,not fun,not scary (it is now) and a waste of 1.5 hours of your life queing

Utterly rubbish hype

^Qwerty^

That ride will have hundreds if not thousands of sensors so the failure of one should not be able to cause an accident. Just for arguments sake if there were two measuring the same thing and they fed back different values then the ride should shut down. I can't believe anything else would be permitted.
If as you say the first carriage failed to complete a loop then a condition of the controlling software should have prevented the release and progression of the second carridge at multiple points before the collision occurred at lifts and release points. On many occasions I have been on rides where your carridge is held until the track section in front is clear and I don't see how anything else would be permitted in this day and age. Even if the smiler is a non stop ride from start to finish I would still expect emergency braking points to exist.
Time will tell anyway, but if a manual override was available and turns out to be the cause then I would expect a mass shutdown of all such rides until that function is removed.

ScoobyWon't

It's not the first time the manufacturer have had a problem. They have a ride at a Six flags site in the US, where a rider died.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

From what I've read the second carriage reached the loop and the emergency brakes applied locking it above the stranded first carriage, then for some reason it released.

Geezer

Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, but surely no ride is scary, or they all are?

As for fun, I suppose it depends on what your definition of fun is!

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Terrible incident. Condolences to those involved; not what one expects when they're off on what should be a fun day out! We'll have to wait and see what the Health and Safety Executive say about the cause; just a lot of speculation so far.

One must keep things in perspective though: you're far more likely to be injured/killed on the way to a theme park than at the theme park. If memory serves it's statistically safer to spend 4 hours riding rollercoasters than spend the equivalent period at home! Most accidents on them park rides are attributable to rider error (clearly this one wasn't)

These rides are all about creating the "feeling" of danger in very controlled and safe conditions. They are well over-engineered and have multiple saftey redundancies built in; it's in the designer's best interests to be paranoid about safety as the legal and financia implications if they don't are scary! Oddly enough it's not unheard of for rides to get a boost in popularity after such incidents :-S

Ns04

PS I've ridden it and it was an impressive ride, although I did think that it was one of those "Design being lead by the desire to have a record" designs rather than what would make for the best ride per se. Anyone remember the Black Hole that formerly occupied the site of the Smiler? That think used to kick the crap outta you and at one point had NO safety restraints!

hodgy0_2

alton towers (after a bit of obfuscation) have admitted it took 11 minutes to get any medical help to the scene (or indeed any help at all)

that is pretty lame if you ask me