The Smiler Incident 02/06/15

[ASturge21]

have the towers said anything on the reopening of the ride?

This season no exact date given.

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[xylyx]

With regard to the abusive responses in the face of reason I agree with Sawboss, they got too defensive and shouting abuse at the first sign of different opinion smacks of a weak argument. They sound like Trolls.

[Aidan Lowe]

Well the debate continued and the security personnel I think they got a bit defensive because they believed we didn't know there was a second person involved and they saw it unfair to put blame solely on the operator of the ride that day.

While she was the one mentioned being sacked it also had to be someone with the authority & access to keys.

[Sawboss]

Well the debate continued and the security personnel I think they got a bit defensive because they believed we didn't know there was a second person involved and they saw it unfair to put blame solely on the operator of the ride that day.

Ah so another case of misunderstanding causing conflict, the world would go a lot smoother if we could read each others minds or maybe not..

[stealthsmiler]

have the towers said anything on the reopening of the ride?

This season no exact date given.

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Not that I expect anyone to believe me as I can't remember who it was, but after an interview at the resort I was told by a higher up member of staff that it's reopening with the rest of the resort in March. So I expect it to be opening day with the rest of the park. Which makes sense as doing it later in the year would be more of a bigger deal


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[xylyx]

Not really any reason to hold off unless the HSE say they can't. And I suspect it's all either been, or is close to being, resolved.

Lol being able to read minds would bring down society lol

[Max]

I think it will be in the first week, but not on the first weekend. I believe that there will be some media on park that day expecting it, looking to make a story out of it. Opening it quietly during the week before the school holidays would give them time to sort out any issues. Going to have major downtime this year IMO, I feel as if every slight concern will result in a shutdown.

[jackcullen]

Opening day will be fun in if it's not open with the park. Especially when the public get in and realise they've been duped and galatica isn't a new ride and Air is now off the list.

[xylyx]

The best thing that could happen is to have a perfectly trouble free opening month see everything is back to normal and let those who are still hesitant see its fine. Hopefully that will be the case but I suspect you are right, they will be hyper cautious however they'll have to balance that with people overreacting to any normal stoppage. Best to just get it open without ceremony and run it smoothly

[stealthsmiler]

Opening day will be fun in if it's not open with the park. Especially when the public get in and realise they've been duped and galatica isn't a new ride and Air is now off the list.

thing is, IMO, not having it open on opening day will lead people to think its still 'broken' and unsafe. They're better off just opening it with the park so it looks like its fine - which it will be - and then let the hype and 'horror' of its reopening die down before Galactica opens. Plus it means that if it has a trouble free few months, people faith will be restored for when Galactica opens. My bet is it opens with the resort of the park

[Liam.W]

I too think that it will open on opening day, although not at 10am like the rest of the theme park. I'm guessing 11/12am so they get more hours of testing and to let the public see it testing perfectly fine. (hopefully!)

[MakoMania]

My bet is opening day 10am sharp no delays. If it is not open with the rest of the park people will begin to question what's wrong.

[Tom170499]

I too think that it will open on opening day, although not at 10am like the rest of the theme park. I'm guessing 11/12am so they get more hours of testing and to let the public see it testing perfectly fine. (hopefully!)

Don't forget that Oblivion will be operating from 9am as part of ERT meaning guests will see The Smiler testing between 9am and 10am so there will be plenty of time to watch it working properly.

[Liam.W]

I too think that it will open on opening day, although not at 10am like the rest of the theme park. I'm guessing 11/12am so they get more hours of testing and to let the public see it testing perfectly fine. (hopefully!)

Don't forget that Oblivion will be operating from 9am as part of ERT meaning guests will see The Smiler testing between 9am and 10am so there will be plenty of time to watch it working properly.

Oh yea forgot about that. Also people who want to ride the smiler can do so straight after riding oblivion when ERT finishes so people will see people eager to ride it and therefore thinking it is safe!

[Master_feedback]

They will have to open it on opening day with so many rises set to be closed at the starr of the season they need it badly

I dont think seeing the smiler running will change the minds of anyone that still thinks its not safe (aka mirror readers)

[Capt.Barnacles]

There are many possibilities as to what decision Alton Towers will take with regards to reopening The Smiler. They may eventually give in and say it'll reopen with the rest of the park. IMO this is very unlikely. What seems most likely in my mind is them reopening on March 19th around midday after multiple test runs. Boom, next thing you know, music is back on, Marmaliser video on, queue opens, ride's running again.

They're going to face some heavy media backlash regardless of when they reopen the ride. Honestly, they're probably better off reopening on March 19th so that the media doesn't make some 'story' out of it not being ready for opening day. Plus the earlier they reopen, the sooner that flood of 'news' articles gets out of the way in time for premiering Galactica with positive response from the media.

We can only hope for the best, eh?

[mezza]

I think their strategy will be to downplay the reopening as much as possible - the last thing they want is more press that refers back to last year's incident. And the best way to downplay it would be to just have it open from opening day - having conducted all their final testing in the closed season. If its not open on open day, it will lead to more questions and more concern.

[Sawboss]

I'm gonna echo what a lot of other people have said and say they'll just open it first thing opening day with no announcement, just back to business as usual sort of thing. I feel that would be the best way to do it, anyway.

[jonny9403]

And they will have to hope for no break downs because that will be mirror head lines. Like airs break down but worse

[bengutt]

For anyone on the Alton Towers SW8 news group on FB a couple of security employees at Alton Towers took to the discussion of The Smiler re-opening.

One of them to some extent defended/sympathized with the people responsible saying "There's so much information that's not been shared and I'm not at liberty to say, but the whole blame being on the ride operator is completely unfair, because it's not." while the other simply called Alton Towers ran by "kids with no life skills what's so ever".

As soon as the news broke of this incident last year experts in the industry couldn't fathom how it happened and there and then said human error was involved.

I merely pointed out to these individuals that it had to be manually overridden by whoever was working that day, its the only logical explanation?! They started replying to me and others with vulgarity and in response said that information has been "filtered to satisfy the general public". Whether there is more to it than first thought I'm not sure and were likely to never find out.



Interesting. :-$

It struck me that he may have been one of those unfortunate to have been made redundant. He clearly had/has a grievance with AT. Quite honestly if he was one of my staff stating how the company put customers at risk "Shut up it was down to how Alton Towers trains and hires staff and they don't care about safety" on a public forum, he'd be in a disciplinary before his feet touched company property again.