Why is the whole of X-Sector closed?

[Delta79]

I would not be surprised if a light barrier is fitted to the exit of the tunnel, with a night vision camera. to alert to and check for unauthorised access. 

All you would need to do is link it with a train sensor so it does not alarm when train exits the tunnel. 

I bet there are people at the park hoping things settle down, as they had enough fun for one season

[mrbrightside]

There's no way the park could have prepared for this... And as the exit to the hole is surrounded by both a pond and a fence - it is not unsafe. For someone to get over it is not an accident but a deliberate attempt to breach security and enter a dangerous ride area.

If it is an attempted suicide then it is horrible. Horrible for the fact that the man is in the position to want to do such a thing. Horrible that they would want to do it in a place of enjoyment for others. And horrible because if a train had hit him, not only would the consequences have been dire for the man, but they could have caused serious injury or death to the rides in the train at the time...


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[MatthewR1990]

I don't think we should be pointing the blame at AT or the fence. The ride has been open for 14 years and this has never happened.

Oh I couldn't agree more . But once an accident takes place anywhere in this country. All the health and safety execs put there hard hats and high-vis jackets on. Get out there clipboards and start licking there lips. they will do anything to make there job seem worth while.

[Mi-Nigle]

I always think it's a shame when precautions like this are taken but I don't think they will be installed in this instance. AFAIK this is the first incident in 14 years? Hardly a warrant for prison grade fencing.

You ever heard of the health and safety standards this ridiculous country has? Your not allowed to play conkers without gloves and goggles... GOGGLES!

Do think matthew kinda has a point here, i seem to remember when cloud cuckoo land opened a stupid kid got stuck in one of the tubes...
Merlins answer.. cut the tops off and replace with new covers with grills so no one can mess around again..

In terms of Oblivion i doubt we will see major changes to fencing.. however there may be new precautions and that behind the scenes and maybe new fencing around the pond area...

I appreciate we have OTT health and safety, but with something like this where do you draw the line? If Oblivion needs high grade fencing then all roller coasters must need them, Nemesis would have to get the same treatment. That's why I think nothing will happen. There are many fences that could be easily jumped, if someone's so desperate to do it they'll just go for another ride.

Wasn't there an incident involving a cap and some kid jumping Nemesis' fence? Was anything done about that?

[Delta79]

there is good protection around the tunnel exit. HSE says reasonable measures. So it would be fair to say they will be looking at warning signs on the fencing and may be as extra protection  a movement sensor for the pond area and/or light barrier on the tunnel exit.

there is plenty of safety tech out there to alert operators to unauthorized access.

They can't stop this type of incident happening, but they can look at ways to protect the ride and the riders.

At the end of the day, it comes down to an assessment of the risk. usually in the format of level of risk happening (e.g someone jumping fence) times injuries caused by risk (e.g. serious injury or death) = risk level.

[mrbrightside]

I'm no expert on these matters but I assume Alton pay out quite high insurance premiums to cover their rides and attractions etc. Would an incident like this cause them to make changes to fencing and so on due to something as simple as the insurance as opposed to the HSE?

[garyh]

Shocking.  I find it quite sad that someone would want to kill themselves in a theme park, a place of fun, and not only that, but also potentially kill others on the ride by their actions.  If you wanna kill yourself then fine do it, but dont take other innocent parties with you.

As for Alton, no there is nothing they could have done, Im just wondering if I was with friends and saw a similar thing would I have jumped over the fence and grabbed the nutter to stop him.  Hmmmm, then again you could also put yourself in danger, its a tricky one, just thank god no one was injured or killed.

[Bunbury]

I don't really think there's anything Alton can do about potential incidents like this. H&S will inspect, but I can't imagine they'll propose many changes, if any. Also, you can play conkers without goggles. Just do it.

[jmc]

I am absolutely certain that they wont be adding any extra fencing or anything of the sort. If anything they will just review the plan of action for situations like this. This was a deliberate attempt to get to where he was, and actually went through quite a few hurdles to get there (a small fence, a pond, a big fence).

In fact, I genuinely think Oblivion is the most well protected ride in the entire park in terms of access. Nemesis, Air, and Spinball all have so many fences shorter than your average adult that you could easily lift yourself over if you wanted to. You would land in the ride area or even straight onto the track. I'm sure Thirteen is surrounded by wire fences and Rita is completely above ground anyway.

It is just a very sad, very rare incident, and in usual circumstances common sense is applied. 99.9% of people dont actually want to risk getting hit by a rollercoaster so they dont attempt to get over the fence.

[Nightfall]

The important thing to remember is that you don't just accidently walk into that tunnel. On all but one side it's surrounded by security fences. Oblivion is actually the most secure out of all the parks coasters when you consider how easy it would be to vault the fences on Nemesis or Air (which now I think about it I have done when we were given a behind the scenes tour).

Whoever this guy was he did it with intent. The park can take as many procedures as they want to increase the fences security or install additional sensors but if someone’s deliberately steeping out of line there's only so much you can do. Unfortunately people have and will continue to do silly thing like this. Remember that in 2008 someone was killed at Six Flags Over Georgia after climbing over two security fences (with security wire and warning signs on) just to get there hat back.

[Tom G]

They won't and should not do anything in response to this, apart from maybe a "danger, ride area" sign.

Tens of millions of opeople have been in this area and it has taken that many and fourteen years for such an incident to occur.

It's like trying to protect someone from stepping onto the Monorail track, licking their fingers and trying to fry themselves. What would you expect them to do following that, fit automatic gates?

[mrbrightside]

Well... Airgates on the monorail would be a nice touch...


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[Islander]

Really? They don't exactly seem to be needed. Would be a waste of money IMO.

Anyway, this seems like a bizarre, but one-off incident. Really don't see that Towers have done anything wrong (except perhaps a slightly slow response), and can't see that any changes are needed.

[smidgey]

Well according to this article the man in question has been arrested:

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/Man-2 ... story.html

[garyh]

The man was arrested and sent to the local nut house to be with other like minded people.  Mr and Mrs Roper have said that he is settling in very well. 

[manual_operator]

Reminds me of an incident on Rita in 2007 when an 'young gentleman' climbed onto the roof of the arcades, presumably to get a closer look of the launch!  As an op its a horrible feeling as even though its not directly your fault, you cant help but feel you could have done something to stop it....

Oh and nothing got done to the roof to stop people attempting it, so I very much doubt anything will happen other than a rigorous check of the fences around the hole.

[Boz]

Reminds me of an incident on Rita in 2007 when an 'young gentleman' climbed onto the roof of the arcades, presumably to get a closer look of the launch!  As an op its a horrible feeling as even though its not directly your fault, you cant help but feel you could have done something to stop it....

Oh and nothing got done to the roof to stop people attempting it, so I very much doubt anything will happen other than a rigorous check of the fences around the hole.

i know how you feel there
whilst attending on inferno in 2005 two idiots decided to take a shortcut through the ride area, the ride was only down for a few minutes though.
and thankfully security caught them and arrested them.

[Rowe]

I concur with many posts here over the situation:

It is frightening to hear that somebody consciously decided to put themselves in that position but also lucky that he was spotted and taken away in time before an unthinkable incident, which none of us truly want, actually happened.

The park are never on standby for these sort of incidents, heck no park really is, especially when things like these don't happen day to day in ride areas and I can imagine it would've been quite the shock for management alongside those working on Oblivion at the time.

And as James said before, it's insulting to make fun of a person like that when we don't know their full intentions however much they are being inconsiderate in causing a nuisance to a day out.

[Dormiens-Dave]

I'm quite shocked at some of the posts on this topic, maybe people should do some reading up on depression and mental illness.

[Bear]

I'm quite shocked at some of the posts on this topic, maybe people should do some reading up on depression and mental illness.

Right on. If this dude was in such a state as to want to kill himself, which let's be clear is a state where you don't think rationally or consider others like many other mental conditions, then I have alot of sympathy towards him despite him putting the psychological welfare of others at risk.

If he does just turn out to be an idiot, then maybe he could have done with a good close call to knock him back into the real world.