The Smiler Incident 02/06/15

[Kraken]

A very good & concise post by Morgano (above) of what seem to be the facts (from all the various sources) - and it does not make good reading for Alton Towers. Either there was a huge failure of the ride PLC (Programmed Logic Computer, i.e. the control system) that allowed two trains to enter the same track block, or the system was over-ridden by human intervention.

The Ride Operator is only given one key for the ride - this enables them to turn the ride power on or off. All the other keyswitches that enable things such as transfer track operation, maintenance bypass, system resets etc require additional keys to be present. These should only be held by technical services or possibly a team leader & never be left in the ride operators cabin.

So assuming correct procedures were being followed with regard to the override keys, either the PLC failed spectacularly (unlikely, but possible). Or, someone with override keys was present in the ride operators cabin and forced the loaded train to leave the lift hill.

When a ride has downtime at Alton Towers & technical services attend, the ride is handed over to them on their arrival. The operator has to remain in place, but cannot touch the controls until technical services sign the ride back over to them (having removed all override keys). On all rides there is a green/red sign (green side says "Ride Operations" or "Presentation", red side says "Technical Services") - the operator turns this sign from green to red when technical services arrive at the ride, effectively handing the ride over to them. Technical services turn the sign back to green when they sign the ride back to the operator. All the times the ride is handed over are logged on the ride paperwork, so if this was filled in correctly it should be instantly clear who had "control" of the ride at the time of the incident.

I am sure the Health & Safety Executive will get to the bottom of what happened. I think it's fair to say - as others have - that we won't see the Smiler open for a while.

Finally, I would like to add that I wish all the guests who suffered injury yesterday a comfortable recovery. Also to the staff / guests who saw the events unfold, I hope they can forget these over time as theme parks are inherently very safe places - far safer than the roads you travel on to get to the theme park.

[sw7nutter]

I feel that you seem to be completely unaware of the world of capitalism. The media has to make profits from advertising revenue and selling papers. The report on what the general public want to know which in this circumstance involves shocking pictures. Human nature to know everything means that shocking pictures sell. Is it the media at fault or the people buying/looking at the media?
Accidents don't just happen, they are a chain of events. There is far too much information we don't have to say what happened or what caused what. I feel this is one of those things where we will never know what happened.

[DeadJack5]

I pray for everyone involved in this incident. It's terrible to see this happen to Alton Towers.

A few things I would like to ask:

1) was anyone on the forum there yesterday?
2) do the trains have like a black box system? This could help like detect to see if any sensors did fail and the brakes (heard someone mention it) failed and didn't operate.

[homer22422]

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015 ... taff-claim" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Rider321]

I pray for everyone involved in this incident. It's terrible to see this happen to Alton Towers.

A few things I would like to ask:

1) was anyone on the forum there yesterday?
2) do the trains have like a black box system? This could help like detect to see if any sensors did fail and the brakes (heard someone mention it) failed and didn't operate.

Yes, I was there in the queue. See my post on page 7. Nobody has really picked up on the extra car being introduced. After the first fault was cleared (empty car at bottom of vertical lift), they announced an extra car would be added to help speed things up, but would delay the restart a bit. From memory....... The next to go round was the empty one that stalled. In pretty sure about this because I was watching it to see if it was going to have any problems at the vertical hill like the one they had just cleared and I saw the roll back as it happened. I can remember being really surprised that at this happened that they announced it was reopening and a car went up the first hill fully loaded, it was there 10-15 mins before it went round the track. Could be nothing..... But was the extra car ever introduced? Did this cause the confusion?

[Sr88]

Can somebody give me an insight as to how the brake blocks actually physically stop the carriage and get it going again. I am wondering if maybe there was a complete brake failure.

[sw7nutter]

A brake failure is not an option in this circumstance. When the system detects the block in front is occupied the train on the lift hill is stopped. This is done so by the fins deploying on the brake run and the chain taking the rest of the strain. If for some reason the fins where to disengage the train would roll back down the lift hill (or just increase the tension on the chain and not move at all) rather than entering the next block. For the train to enter the next block the chain drive must have been activated.

[browr020]

the only place you can reset blocks is by walking out onto the track and using the override buttons, positioned next to the block that your trying to reset.

A very good & concise post by Morgano (above) of what seem to be the facts (from all the various sources) - and it does not make good reading for Alton Towers. Either there was a huge failure of the ride PLC (Programmed Logic Computer, i.e. the control system) that allowed two trains to enter the same track block, or the system was over-ridden by human intervention.

The Ride Operator is only given one key for the ride - this enables them to turn the ride power on or off. All the other keyswitches that enable things such as transfer track operation, maintenance bypass, system resets etc require additional keys to be present. These should only be held by technical services or possibly a team leader & never be left in the ride operators cabin.

So assuming correct procedures were being followed with regard to the override keys, either the PLC failed spectacularly (unlikely, but possible). Or, someone with override keys was present in the ride operators cabin and forced the loaded train to leave the lift hill.

When a ride has downtime at Alton Towers & technical services attend, the ride is handed over to them on their arrival. The operator has to remain in place, but cannot touch the controls until technical services sign the ride back over to them (having removed all override keys). On all rides there is a green/red sign (green side says "Ride Operations" or "Presentation", red side says "Technical Services") - the operator turns this sign from green to red when technical services arrive at the ride, effectively handing the ride over to them. Technical services turn the sign back to green when they sign the ride back to the operator. All the times the ride is handed over are logged on the ride paperwork, so if this was filled in correctly it should be instantly clear who had "control" of the ride at the time of the incident.

I am sure the Health & Safety Executive will get to the bottom of what happened. I think it's fair to say - as others have - that we won't see the Smiler open for a while.

Finally, I would like to add that I wish all the guests who suffered injury yesterday a comfortable recovery. Also to the staff / guests who saw the events unfold, I hope they can forget these over time as theme parks are inherently very safe places - far safer than the roads you travel on to get to the theme park.

[thelem]

If we work on the theory that the system was reset, shouldn't the stopped car have been brought back to the station as part of that reset procedure? The riders could then have waited in the station while more test cars were sent round.

[TheBeast]

Yes, I was there in the queue. See my post on page 7. Nobody has really picked up on the extra car being introduced. After the first fault was cleared (empty car at bottom of vertical lift), they announced an extra car would be added to help speed things up, but would delay the restart a bit. From memory....... The next to go round was the empty one that stalled. In pretty sure about this because I was watching it to see if it was going to have any problems at the vertical hill like the one they had just cleared and I saw the roll back as it happened. I can remember being really surprised that at this happened that they announced it was reopening and a car went up the first hill fully loaded, it was there 10-15 mins before it went round the track. Could be nothing..... But was the extra car ever introduced? Did this cause the confusion?

If only five cars were on the track at the time, how was one missed? Surely it is hard to miss a whole car, even if there was no movement on the cams. Was these 5 cars including or excluding this new mystery car? That would explain why one was missed...if the attendants had forgotten about this new car, that explains why the second car was re-sent, although doesn't really explain this braking problem. There seems to be too many coincidences here...

(ftr im not blaming Merlin here, it just seems weird)

[browr020]

A quick way to resolve the stalling issue is to just add some LSM's onto the bat wing element.

[Rider321]

the only place you can reset blocks is by walking out onto the track and using the override buttons, positioned next to the block that your trying to reset.

A very good & concise post by Morgano (above) of what seem to be the facts (from all the various sources) - and it does not make good reading for Alton Towers. Either there was a huge failure of the ride PLC (Programmed Logic Computer, i.e. the control system) that allowed two trains to enter the same track block, or the system was over-ridden by human intervention.

The Ride Operator is only given one key for the ride - this enables them to turn the ride power on or off. All the other keyswitches that enable things such as transfer track operation, maintenance bypass, system resets etc require additional keys to be present. These should only be held by technical services or possibly a team leader & never be left in the ride operators cabin.

So assuming correct procedures were being followed with regard to the override keys, either the PLC failed spectacularly (unlikely, but possible). Or, someone with override keys was present in the ride operators cabin and forced the loaded train to leave the lift hill.

When a ride has downtime at Alton Towers & technical services attend, the ride is handed over to them on their arrival. The operator has to remain in place, but cannot touch the controls until technical services sign the ride back over to them (having removed all override keys). On all rides there is a green/red sign (green side says "Ride Operations" or "Presentation", red side says "Technical Services") - the operator turns this sign from green to red when technical services arrive at the ride, effectively handing the ride over to them. Technical services turn the sign back to green when they sign the ride back to the operator. All the times the ride is handed over are logged on the ride paperwork, so if this was filled in correctly it should be instantly clear who had "control" of the ride at the time of the incident.

I am sure the Health & Safety Executive will get to the bottom of what happened. I think it's fair to say - as others have - that we won't see the Smiler open for a while.

Finally, I would like to add that I wish all the guests who suffered injury yesterday a comfortable recovery. Also to the staff / guests who saw the events unfold, I hope they can forget these over time as theme parks are inherently very safe places - far safer than the roads you travel on to get to the theme park.

Where does the block that the accident happen finish? Reason I ask.... As I've mentioned, the last car to pass through before the one that stalled was the one that got stuck just before the vertical hill. Two engineers were up on the gantry alongside the track at that point and we're doing something with the 'controls' to get that car going and up the vertical hill. Once it set off they came down and I didn't see them again.

[Alex]

A quick way to resolve the stalling issue is to just add some LSM's onto the bat wing element.

You really like LSM's dont you?

[browr020]

A quick way to resolve the stalling issue is to just add some LSM's onto the bat wing element.

You really like LSM's dont you?

maybe , I hear Gerts LSM's are extremely powerful.

[Alex]

Its more likely that the track would be reprofiled rather than LSM's added. Dont think the public would react too well to speeding it up in the area it crashed.

[ROYJESS]

Watching the lunch times news they quoted what the HSE said

“Although the investigation is in its early stages, we will take action to protect the public if we uncover evidence that could affect the safety of other rides at the park or elsewhere.”

They also went on to say that the HSE would determine when/if the park will open again.

To me it doesn't sound great for AT. Sounds like a breach of the H&S and human error which could also affect the rest of the park.

My thoughts goes out to the victims, their families, the guest who witness the indecent and also to the park staff.

Let's hope that lessons can be learned from this and rectified. Either this incident will make or brake AT, hopefully the former and lets hope that this will be a wake up call to improve the standards around the park, especially where H & S are concerned.

[lewis97]

Where does the block that the accident happen finish? Reason I ask.... As I've mentioned, the last car to pass through before the one that stalled was the one that got stuck just before the vertical hill. Two engineers were up on the gantry alongside the track at that point and we're doing something with the 'controls' to get that car going and up the vertical hill. Once it set off they came down and I didn't see them again.

I believe there are effectively two blocks across the MCBR and vertical lift. The train initially goes through what's called a 'Retarding Brake' which will significantly slow it down but not stop it, before entering a brake section where it can be held. Once released from that section it enters into the vertical lift block, with it travelling into a position where it can engage with the lift chain. If that's correct, then the end of the block that starts at the crest of the first lift would be at the end of the holding brake on the MCBR.

[Welsh_Tenor]

A quick way to resolve the stalling issue is to just add some LSM's onto the bat wing element.

You really like LSM's dont you?

What is/are LSMs for the lay-man?!

[Alex]

Linear synchronous motors, basically launching a train using magnets.

[ROYJESS]

Towers will be closed tomorrow

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