The Smiler Incident 02/06/15

Thu Jul 02, 2015 9:04 pm

Why the hell did it happen?? I'm sorry but in the wake of the Smiler why weren't staff being extra careful?? The media are going to have a field day about this. They milk a breakdown out of altons control but a second crash... They will absolutely love it. And tbh, a second crash regardless of how minor it is does make you begin to doubt the training of altons staff and the safety of the park

Thu Jul 02, 2015 9:23 pm

stealthsmiler wrote:Why the hell did it happen?? I'm sorry but in the wake of the Smiler why weren't staff being extra careful?? The media are going to have a field day about this. They milk a breakdown out of altons control but a second crash... They will absolutely love it. And tbh, a second crash regardless of how minor it is does make you begin to doubt the training of altons staff and the safety of the park

It wasn't a "crash"

Two cars bumped into each other at a very slow speed around the station area. It wasn't the full speed collision that The Mirror are reporting it as.

While I can appreciate people will say "they shouldn't be able to come into contact" the cars will have been going no quicker than for example, the boats on Loggers Leap at Thorpe as they are returning to the station. This happens with virtually every boat yet is accepted as normal.

The ride was closed temporarily and re-opened later in the afternoon. If there was any question of guest safety being compromised the ride would have stayed closed.

Thu Jul 02, 2015 10:20 pm

Haven't the Spinball / Fury cars always nudged each other as they re-align on the brake run. I'm sure I've taken a few bumps before, but it's all part of the experience. At that stage they're travelling at about 5 miles an hour.

Thu Jul 02, 2015 10:31 pm

That's wouldn't cause them to be treated for two hours and some go to hospital. It was obviously travelling faster than it should.

YouTube · Thu Jul 02, 2015 11:05 pm

Can you ever believe the timings the media give? 2 hours of being stuck "upside down" on air changed to 20 minutes on the chain lift. I bet '2 hours' was a quick check up and then they were advised to go to Hospital if they felt they needed to.

Thu Jul 02, 2015 11:29 pm

They do seem to be looking very hard at Alton Towers atm, and Being journalists rather than theme park enthusiasts or even folks who just like theme parks they don't understand the way the rides run and how those pauses are all part of the safety mechanisms. Being sensationalist is all part of the tabloid ethos but they're now just feeding of the initial attention that was generated by the smiler crash and unfortunately will just run none stories from folks who say the right words regardles of truth. Thankfully the majority of comments on Facebook seem to indicate folks are getting sick of it and with any luck the whole tepid but overblown aaftermath will be allowed to fizzle out.

Fri Jul 03, 2015 10:34 am

I can't help feel that the papers are sensationalising this latest non-incident on Spinball with
inaccurate and completely misleading information, such as this one in the Trinity Mirror owned Birmingham Mail yesterday:

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/mi ... -Birm-main" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fri Jul 03, 2015 12:14 pm

Anyone think that the Alton Mouse 1991 accident sounds eerily similar to The Smiler's recent incident?

Fri Jul 03, 2015 4:25 pm

I'm 33 years old. Sadly I probably own some pairs of trainers that are older than some posters on here.

Some of you may remember the good old days when Sky News was actually a credible news site. Now it's no better than Fox News (widely laughed at across America for being a sensationalist news outlet that regularly gets it all wrong).

Now they have the headline that ANOTHER incident has happened at Alton Towers.

"Three women and a man are seen by theme park medics after two carriages collide on the Sonic Spinball ride."

Shock!
Horror!
Safety!

Let's completely over-dramatise everything!

Then we get to the comments section that shows you how the sheep are easily lead these days.

"Obviously haven't learnt anything as the same thing has happened!"
"It makes no difference the past record, it is happening now in 2015. One in June one in July."

So here we have people trying to equate a genuinely terrible accident to two cars shunting each other. I hope these people have never been on or intend to go on the dodgems at the funfair. Where a collision on them is much worse than two carriages shunting.

And my personal favourite:

Why NOW all of a sudden after years of relative safety? I wonder if there is any Language barrier anywhere (Foreign Workers)?

For any younger readers - the above comment comes from the Daily Mail generation. One where everything in life is the result of foreigners.

Alton Towers has a long and bumpy road ahead of it - everyone is out to get a bit of compensation out of them it would seem. Rant over.

Fri Jul 03, 2015 4:29 pm

The quote that got me was the guy who said he was holding bags for someone and saw the spinball cars collide at full speed.

Sat Jul 04, 2015 2:19 pm

Leah posted this photo, hearing about it and seeing it are two different things. Really hits home how serious the impact must of been on these poor people. It is nice to see them getting back to some normality though with another photo with Leah and boyfriend enjoying a meal? with friends.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/al ... on-6000132" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sat Jul 04, 2015 2:55 pm

It's good to see all the victims have started to recover now but I don't understand how it's relevant to have the whole story after it. Whilst readers go need to be informed the gist of the story, it feels like they are consistently bringing up bad memories.

On the plus side, it's least it's not an article ranting about a minor bit of downtime that makes the news...

Sat Jul 04, 2015 9:52 pm

stealthsmiler wrote:That's wouldn't cause them to be treated for two hours and some go to hospital. It was obviously travelling faster than it should.

They properly just felt the bump and saw pound signs so they where milking their 'injuries'

Sun Jul 05, 2015 11:55 am

http://airgates.co.uk/2015/07/04/mirror ... tionalism/

This article features an interview with a journalist from The Mirror who attempts to justify the over-exaggeration and shock "accident" stories that they keep producing. The first section is mostly on the inaccuracies which some of you will probably know about, the interview isn't until later on.

I personally do not think their scaremongering behaviour is in line but there are no regulations against it.

I picked out a few points from the interview; firstly from the section on the Sonic Spinball "accident":

“Obviously we all know that rides break down now and again – obviously it’s more prominent after the incident involving the Smiler. What may class as minor stories are more in the spotlight now.”

More prominent? The tiny bits of normal downtime we associate with theme parks never entered the news until now. They didn't get any attention at all, let alone a news article.

Next the story about Alton Towers being haunted:

“I’m hoping it’s written with a fair amount of scepticism. That should be the tone. If we’ve given any credibility to [her] comments then that isn’t appropriate and I’d probably need to have a look at the story in this case.”

Does this sound to anyone else like he doesn't even read the articles before they go out? Are they not double checked for accuracy? That's just my interpretation anyway.

And in regards to Air being stuck upside down:

“I don’t think it’s accurate to say they were upside down, they were sort of lying at an angle, I’ve seen the pictures on that.”
“I’ve not written any of the stories myself but I’m sure we’ve quoted various people in the stories. We’ve done a lot of stories on Alton Towers, so I’m sure there are experts that we’ve spoken to.”

Again, this reads very much like he doesn't check articles. He doesn't even seem sure if he himself has spoken to a journalist! This makes me believe that he didn't in reality.

It seems like the news reporting is a shambles, the sooner they stop the better (and apologies for the gigantic post :lol).

Sun Jul 05, 2015 12:53 pm

When you see such inaccurate reporting about a subject you know something about it makes you realise just how wrong all the other stories they constantly print are.

I mean you know a lot of it is nonsense, but just how much in quite eye opening

Sun Jul 05, 2015 3:28 pm

Why mirror, why... ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,)

Sun Jul 05, 2015 5:11 pm

Whilst what happened on The Smiler is truly horrifying, I am now sick and tired on the media 'making the most' (if that is even the correct term) of the incident for click-bate for the internet and social media. As a journalism student, I am truly disgusted.

Leave Merlin alone. If the same incident occurred on Saw at Thorpe Park, I doubt the place would even be open judging by their reliability record.

Mon Jul 06, 2015 2:23 am

There was a rollercoaster in America built by gerstlauer also thay had problems. But worse off. with a fatality. Maybe the blame should be looking to manufacture? As not tested right? Or not every scenario thougjt off.

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk

Mon Jul 06, 2015 9:20 am

That was where a woman was too large to be on the ride so her restraint wasnt as far down as it needed to be and unfortunately the G forces threw her from the ride.

Mon Jul 06, 2015 9:28 am

Can I just say to all that by submitting links to stories it increases the click rate of that story and therefore makes it artificially popular. Articles like these should be boycotted to reduce exposure and therefore profitability. If we find a story im sure we can quote from the story without providing the source in this case. It would be pretty ironic for a false theme park article to sell because of an enthusiast protest.