The Smiler Incident 02/06/15

[Dan]

By keeping X-Sector closed it allows them to complete their investigation without having to deal with the general public and media that would inevitably gather near The Smiler should that area be open.

The correct decision IMO.

[tallicay2k]

Parks open tomorrow

[Altonaction]

Yep AT is open tomoz at 10am and ive got tickets so all good.

x-sector is closed and sonic spinball.

[ROYJESS]

FROM ALTON TOWERS SENT TO MEDIA (17.32)

Alton Towers Resort will re-open to the public on Monday 8th June at 10am.

Nick Varney, Chief Executive Merlin Entertainments said:

"The accident last Tuesday was a terrible event for everyone involved. We are very aware of the impact it will have on those involved and we are doing all we can to provide our support to those injured and their families.

We closed the Park immediately whilst preliminary investigations took place and to give our staff time to come to terms with the accident and its aftermath. In recent days our management team have been engaged in a thorough review of our operating and safety procedures before making this decision.

Alton Towers has a long record of safe operation and as we re-open, we are committed to ensuring that the public can again visit us with confidence."


X-Sector will remain closed until further notice.

Spinball will be closed until the enhanced safety protocols have been implemented which will take slightly longer than we had hoped due to the design of the ride.

[timmy1372]

Oblivion being closed is a bore but understandable, what with Sonic Spinball closed still too that's a fair chunk of the park out of action.

It's a shame because I thought Oblivion was enjoying somewhat of a renaissance, it was a bit lost on it's own down there for a long time, it has massive rider capacity and most of the time was not being utilised, but with the draw of Smiler nearby it was attracting longer queues, infact X sector has had a bit of a rough ride altogether really, The Black hole got brand new queue lines then closed immediately afterwards, rather unexpectedly, It then stood SBNO for years until it was finally removed and The Smiler came along, I love Oblivion but it was a long walk for a 2 second ride, and enterprise and submission are just terrible fairground rides, literally any of Thorpes flat rides would be far better!

That said, an understandable decision to keep X sector closed following such an unprecedented incident!

[shaundentwilliams]

Sonic is closed because of Heath and safety but why is oblivion I love that ride my second favourite but smiler is my favourite of all time


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[Aidan Lowe]

Alton Towers won't comment just yet as they don't know but I can't see the entire x-sector being closed longer than a week, I'm guessing it may be open by Saturday. I know I'll miss Oblivion for sure so I'm hoping they allow access asap.

[tristan_uk]

One thing that could be a concern here.

Having read some of the articles, it is clear that there will be legal proceedings taken against Merlin (obviously) but there is a clear suggestion of the push for criminal charges. Quote: "It is expected serious consideration will be given to criminal prosecutions". Presumably, given that it seems to be the consensus that there was some degree of human error at play here, the criminal liability will fall down to the person who made the error as they may not have followed 'procedure'?

I really hate this kind of "we need to pin this on someone" and "someone must pay" culture. Yes, Merlin will pay heavily for this event financially, but why is there the suggestion that someone has to be prosecuted criminally? I'm almost certain no ride operator, tech staff or park management meant for that to happen.

they do this to train crew now too.... we had it drummed into us at the last safety brief that since a change in law (typical tories looking after their corporate buddies) if we (guards) injure someone that WE will be the ones to get prosecuted or sued if the injured decides to take it to court.... totally shocking really

I do not know why you think this is shocking. If you are in a position of responsibility and damage someone / something through your own neglect, then you should have the book thrown at you, not the company.

To put it another way, if the operator of the Smiler was playing Candy Crush on his phone and ignored vital safety alarms then he should be held liable for the resultant accident, not Merlin. However if it was known to management that this was a lax worker and there was a general lax attitude in the workplace, which they did nothing to rectify, then they would be held partly liable. That was all hypothetical and hope neither is true, just an example.

I work in a potentially very dangerous environment and have a high degree of responsibility for the safety of people around me. I am under no illusion that if I mess up, then I take the blame. But if I mess up as a result of the company not equipping me with the correct training to conduct my job, then they are to blame.

[Sr88]

It was a human error as well as a technical problem as a ride op he should of waited for the test car to come back to the station till he dispatched another with people on.
As a technical error the block sencers weren't working as a result the accident was unstoppable because there was no brake run

I am very glad you have been able to complete this investigation on their behalf.

[tallicay2k]

It was a human error as well as a technical problem as a ride op he should of waited for the test car to come back to the station till he dispatched another with people on.
As a technical error the block sencers weren't working as a result the accident was unstoppable because there was no brake run

I am very glad you have been able to complete this investigation on their behalf.

This made me laugh :lol :lol

[shaundentwilliams]

My dad works at Alton towers


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[tgm999]

Was he there at the smiler on Tuesday and did he see everything that led up to the collision.

[missingaa]

Don't know if this has been posted before... http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/al ... ns-5836451" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It does seem like a news outlet has finally spoken to somebody who at least has a small idea of what they are talking about.... Interesting thing is, already a lawyer of one of the injured has also spoken to him already.

[missingaa]

Engineers finally appeared by that area of track and got it going. They then announced it would be working again shortly and an extra car would be added, this 'would make it a slightly longer delay, but speed the queue up in the long run'. Shortly afterwards another empty car was sent round and had a roll back in the area previously mentioned. As this roll back was happening it was announced the ride was going back into operation and a car full of people went up the first hill. It then stayed there for about 10-15 minutes, no staff 'clipped on' and went up to it or anything.

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?

Looking at the previous article I posted, with "insider information" it looks like your fears may have been true, it seems it may have been the newly introduced car that stalled due to cold wheels. If that is so, then it will be interesting to see if any of the other theories regarding that newly introduced car played a part (I can't be bothered to read back over so many pages, but I am sure you and others posted some interesting theories regarding the addition of an additional train just before the accident.)

[Tryst]

I suspect the cause of the accident will be fairly complex. Varney already hinted at that by saying that a number of unlikely things happened leading up to the accident: the technical problems (faulty track sensors?), the stalled car, the E-stop and potentially other things. This is consistent with how most major accidents evolve; the Concorde disaster, for example, started with an unauthorised repair to a DC10 that was totally unrelated to the airframe that crashed. So we should keep in mind that the actual cause might surprise us all.

[missingaa]

I suspect the cause of the accident will be fairly complex. Varney already hinted at that by saying that a number of unlikely things happened leading up to the accident: the technical problems (faulty track sensors?), the stalled car, the E-stop and potentially other things. This is consistent with how most major accidents evolve; the Concorde disaster, for example, started with an unauthorised repair to a DC10 that was totally unrelated to the airframe that crashed. So we should keep in mind that the actual cause might surprise us all.

I agree completely... Just the obvious questions make for multiple causes. Why was a full train allowed to leave before the empty one returned? Why did the empty train stall? Why were 2 trains allowed on 1 section of track? If any of these 3 things alone had not happened then there would have been no accident. Like you, I fully expect other contributing factors to come to light.

[Cadac21]

Hi new here,

I am a big fan of Alton Towers and have signed up to vent about how badly the media have been in all of this!

Firstly, I hope those people who are affected make a full and speedy recovery.

Secondly, while I can't add anything to the ride operations what I can add is a little bit to the 'insurance' side of things.

See what has frustraited me the most is the media and the way they 'pluck' things out of the air. For example one newspaper reported that this would cost about a million in compensation. Sorry but what a load of bull!!

I have worked and work in insurance for a number of years and while my current company have no involvement with Alton Towers we do deal with some of the smaller parks.

It's impossible to know how much this will cost as there are too many variables. For example, if the lady who suffered serious injury to her legs is as reported a professional dancer and she cannot work as a result of her injuries then her claim could be In the millions. On the flip side if she has an office job and she makes a good recovery her claim could be in the thousands. As I say it's impossible to say as the people affected have not recovered. There is even the psychological damage it most likely have caused.

I think for me the media have really milked this and have constantly reported inaccuracies throughout and that's my biggest gripe.

In regards to HSE they are automically informed of any accident that is deemed more serious and I've seen them involved in cases involving simple slip and trips.

I doubt the report will come public anytime soon, especially if there is a potential criminal case as a result.

I would advise people to read through the rubbish the media might suggest and take things with a pinch of salt.

[garfield3gs]

Nhs trust have confirmed that one of the crash victims has had an amputation. So sad.

[Wedjie]

Devasting confirmation of the loss of a leg for one of the crash victims.

Just watched the Sky News report on this and they are clearly taking a very different approach than the earlier (Kay Burley) piece. They were ALMOST complementing Alton Towers/Merlin for how they handled the incident.

[Dan]

As garfield3gs has posted above, Leah Washington, the 17 year old girl involved in last Tuesdays crash on The Smiler has had her leg amputated.

Link to the article below:


Alton Towers Smiler crash: Leah Washington's leg amputated
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33040618" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;