The Smiler Incident 02/06/15

[hursty]

The Mirror has a live blog containing comprehensive updates & photos.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/al ... ve-5809187

[Adz]

Black hole....

That wasn't fatal, a serious accident yes but not fatal.

[swfcjambo]

I don't think that there's any way a ride operative can be held accountable for this - I believe that these are people paid minimum wage (or close to it), and as such there is no way the'y have the authority to override the computer system...unless one of the techies had accidentally left the ride in "diagnostic" mode or similar?

be surprised if we see the Smiler operating again this year now.... they will probably spend several months investigating the accident and repairing damage, then have to completely overhaul the safety lockouts on this ride - every system should be duplicated to prevent such incidents, including monitoring of each car's position.....time will tell. Certainly don't expect it to be open at the end of June when i'm going....

[Stan.H]

WOW! When I saw this on the news my jaw completely dropped...

[cinabar]

To the best of my knowledge nobody died on the Black Hole (or any other Alton ride), I thought that was just an urban myth.

[thelem]

There appear to be reports that the second train stopped on the first lift hill mid-way up, as if to suggest that the automatic sensors did work and automatically stopped the second train running. But then the second train set off again over the hill.

This report, combined with the fact that the car before was empty, does lead to the plausible theory that safety systems worked correctly, but were manually overridden by an engineer who had just fixed and reopened the ride. Maybe they used the cameras to check the track was empty, but the camera covering where the car was was broken. Or because the ride had been having problems all day they may have been fatigued and not noticed the stalled car.

Even if this does come down to one person pressing the wrong button, I wouldn't immediately blame that person. Why was the button there for them to press in the first place? Did they have a manager pressuring them to reopen the ride? etc. etc.

[SmilerLover]

The Smiler will probably be shut down for at least a month . It wouldn't surprise me very much if it has a massive investigation by the council, and there's a chance that it will be closed forever :nervious: . Still, Alton Towers will probably state it was the ride operators fault, so they might only get away with a fine.

P.S. Don't take my attitude the wrong way though, my thoughts are with the injured and their family

[Zac]

Sorry, I think I'm getting mixed up with the old black hole at Blackpool where a young boy sadly died,
My mistake!

[TheBeast]

My concern is with the controversy around the problems they had had earlier on in the day? Surely if a ride needs to be closed then the park must close it, even if it is one of the flagship rides? Given, Merlin acted responsibly once the problem was uncovdred, although I believe blame is still at the Tower's door for the failure to close the ride whilst possible

[2pints]

The New Smoother Smiler, opening in 2016?

[thelem]

My concern is with the controversy around the problems they had had earlier on in the day? Surely if a ride needs to be closed then the park must close it, even if it is one of the flagship rides?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Maybe the problems earlier in the day were because some sensor kept reporting a fault. It was repeatedly investigated, and each time everything appeared to be working normally. By the afternoon it would be very tempting just to put the problems down to a faulty sensor and allow the ride to continue operating, rather than explain to your boss why customer services have had 100 complaints that the ride they came to visit was closed all day.

[Ryan.B]

As we now know the park will not open tomorrow, won't it be the only closure of the whole park due to unweather related conditions?

[Danny]

As we now know the park will not open tomorrow, won't it be the only closure of the whole park due to unweather related conditions?

They close the park to the public when John Lewis hire it out for the day if that counts

[Mattybernard]

This is very sad and not good news for AT. I have not been on the ride yet but was looking forward to it. I expect it will not reopen for ages now.

How can they stop it stalling like that ? surely have to make the track higher at the start of that section ? so many times this has happened, they need to get to the bottom of why and sort it for good.

Matt (first time post in years!)

[Jamster42]

I feel that reconstruction of the batwing maybe required. It's a common stalling spot. If a empty train can stall their consistently, the area should be redone. Plus redoing the batwing could make it smoother.

[MakoMania]

Sky news reporting that people have suffered life changing injuries. I.e.- loss of legs etc....

[Ryan.B]

As we now know the park will not open tomorrow, won't it be the only closure of the whole park due to unweather related conditions?

They close the park to the public when John Lewis hire it out for the day if that counts

They go on the rides though

Very bad news for the smiler, my thoughts are with everyone involved. Also a poll in the mirror shows a massive 85 percent of people believe the smiler should be closed down, so that means a lot of people will likely not ride, I am still shocked, it's literally 2 days past 2 years...

Life changing injuries, please, please no, according to my dad there was an air ambulance in Coventry, and one of the people injured have gone there according to news reports.

[lewis97]

Well after reading through an article about a serious incident on a ride, it's not really a surprise that the majority of people aren't rushing to ride. The resort will be looking to handle this in a way which preserves and regains as much confidence as possible, but this no doubt requires the serious investigation that it's getting.

[RIDECRAZY]

Not sure if this video has been published but here's a new angle of the scene just after the accident! The trains are still rocking backwards and forwards and quite high speeds so much of been only seconds after the accident! If you pause the video carefully you can see the sheer difference in the gap between each row and the non-existent gap between the front row of the seance train and the empty car! Those people must've been in incredible pain and my heart goes out to them, I hope they recover quickly!

WARNING: Contains scenes which some people may find upsetting!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVvVI9P ... e=youtu.be

There's been an idea flowing around on social media which I don't believe is a particularly bad idea suggesting that Alton Towers could maybe retheme The Smiler, in order to make the attraction seem safer, renewed and retested etc! Although I love the theme of The Smiler and how brilliant it is all done, I don't think it is a particularly bad idea! It wouldn't be too difficult to do, you could retheme it to fit with Oblivion by simply repainting the fluorescent green the orange colour and creating an updated version of the Oblivion videos to play on the Marmaliser?

[wakey1512]

It's a prototype ride - the only one of its kind - one that is usually a preset layout and lost definition of itself becoming something it isn't. It's not up to the job is it?

In other words the harsh elements and brutal aspects of this ride are unusual to a gerstrauler - I fear the ride materials and parts are that of the less demanding layout and not reinforced or upgraded to suit. I certainly didn't notice any difference in running gear on the trains compared to that of SAW for example. (Another example of a ride that is overworked and has suffered for it but not quite as extreme)

Reminds me of jubilee odyssey in fantasy island - the biggest fastest most extreme SLC. 167ft, 63mph, but still with regular SLC trains and SLC track. As a result it wears out wheels and running gear three times as quick.

Do you think had Alton towers suck with B&M they'd be having this trouble? I think not. Air suffered reliability issues but nothing serious like this. Gerstrauler aren't up to the job.