The Smiler Incident 02/06/15

General discussion regarding the UK's No.1 Theme Park. Talk about anything and everything Alton Towers here.
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Themeparksandy1981
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Adam.W wrote:
'According to the Sunday Mirror, Ms Balch said she was told by bosses at the theme park that the Smiler could start running again, potentially by the end of the year.'

I'm taking the mirror as a pinch of salt but imo this suggests that the prohibitation notice has been lifted, as it declares that the ride couldn't be operated. Pretty much already guessed/assumed but that clears it up.
The HSE case is still open. Nick said it was human error but HSE are still working out what happened from after the E-Stop to the moment the car on the lift hill was restarted again. Was it a ride op,maintaince or management who restarted the ride.
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Aidan Lowe
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I wasn't saying there wasn't behind the scene testing, but i am saying the public testing is related to the operator and staff training that is taking place.
Someone who works at AT has posted this in a facebook invite only group about current testing happening daily. It seems ride hosts and operators are going through their intensive training schedules. Still doesn't mean it'll re-open this year but seems Alton Towers are intent on making that happen.

More photo updates of The Smiler site can be seen over at TowersStreet facebook with an addition to the station exterior.
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Looking at that interview, it looks like she genuinely wants to ride to remain closed for longer and knows that she has taken nicks comments out of context. To be fair, both her and Varney have both the same account of events by the looks of it, so neither and being untruthful. But it appears she has taken offence to Smiler reopening so will do everything she can to stop that.

I don't actually blame her either, although we can see things from a logical perspective and that the ride is safe and perfectly sound, the brand, the colours, the music, those trains, that section of track etc will always be symbolic of her life changing injuries and the what will go through her mind for the rest of her life. Yes we can sit here and say how safe it is and how their are coasters which have killed etc still running around the world, we all see the world differently and Vicky seems to see it differently to the others.

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xylyx
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I guarantee she won't ever want to see the ride again, it's why I found it breathtaking on the Joe Pugh interview where he said every time they see it they relive it, then the daft show played a clip of the accident.

What they all need is for the ride to stop popping up on their radar. I don't blame Vicky for speaking out, despite the fact I disagree, however keeping it in the news doesn't help any of the victims. Unfortunately they also have the strange obsessed trinity mirror group lapping up anything that even hints at it.

Something I do find odd though is that in his statement Nick Varney said they visited all the most severely injured personally at the beginning of September, I'm curious what's happened since then to dredge it all back up as there was no mention of these meetings at the beginning of the month.
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Aidan Lowe
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xylyx wrote:Something I do find odd though is that in his statement Nick Varney said they visited all the most severely injured personally at the beginning of September, I'm curious what's happened since then to dredge it all back up as there was no mention of these meetings at the beginning of the month.
My guess is PR managers, I'm sure Vicky has one & know Joe has one at least. Guessing they love to occasionally get the media involved at regular intervals to keep it "news" and for some £s.
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xylyx
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Ahhh yes didn't think of that, hope it's not the case, but it would make sense.
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Andy Mc wrote:My guess is PR managers, I'm sure Vicky has one & know Joe has one at least. Guessing they love to occasionally get the media involved at regular intervals to keep it "news" and for some £s.
I really hope it's not just greedy PR managers for these victims, but I think you may be right. We all saw how quickly lawyers and etc. were found for the victims (lawyers is understandable even though Merlin said very quickly that they would give a full payout) so I think PR managers are easily possible.

Really my main concern now is the media storm that will follow the reopening. After that the story is dead in the eyes of most media, with the exception of The Mirror and the vendetta squad rest of the trinity papers.
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Which is definitely a good reason to get it open as soon as it's signed off and safe to do so :) Let it all hit the fan now so it can fade into the background. Ride out the storm.
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Can anyone confirm which trains have been running? I've seen 1.1 & 5.1. There are rumors of 2.1 but I am yet to see it. I'm really interested to find out. Also, do we know for certain which trains were involved in the accident? Judging by the fact trains 1.1, 2.1 and 5.1 have been spotted it looks like it was 3.1 and 4.1 but which was which? I'm gonna do some investigating and hopefully post my results :)
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Adam.W
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Tom170499 wrote:Can anyone confirm which trains have been running? I've seen 1.1 & 5.1. There are rumors of 2.1 but I am yet to see it. I'm really interested to find out. Also, do we know for certain which trains were involved in the accident? Judging by the fact trains 1.1, 2.1 and 5.1 have been spotted it looks like it was 3.1 and 4.1 but which was which? I'm gonna do some investigating and hopefully post my results :)
I believe that, indeed, it was those trains. If they were connected together we will probably see cars 3.1 3.2 and 4.3 & 4.4 (or vice versa if train 4 was in front. Due to this fact we won't be seeing at least 1 train for the time being, 2 if this never actually happened and is just a bunch of incorrect speculation :P
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Adam.W wrote:
Tom170499 wrote:Can anyone confirm which trains have been running? I've seen 1.1 & 5.1. There are rumors of 2.1 but I am yet to see it. I'm really interested to find out. Also, do we know for certain which trains were involved in the accident? Judging by the fact trains 1.1, 2.1 and 5.1 have been spotted it looks like it was 3.1 and 4.1 but which was which? I'm gonna do some investigating and hopefully post my results :)
I believe that, indeed, it was those trains. If they were connected together we will probably see cars 3.1 3.2 and 4.3 & 4.4 (or vice versa if train 4 was in front. Due to this fact we won't be seeing at least 1 train for the time being, 2 if this never actually happened and is just a bunch of incorrect speculation :P
I hope we do see this. The Smiler on 3 trains will have an awful throughput considering only 48 can be on the ride at any one time and considering the length of the ride. However I imagine Alton Towers have thought of this in a bid to optimise all the available resources.

Maybe if this does happen, they won't order a new train...

Who knows! :)
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Tom170499
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Apologies for the double post but I believe I have found a picture of train 3.1 at the crash point. This would suggest train 4.1 crashed into train 3.1. Image

I am unsure about the validity of this photo but it was found on an article relating to the crash: http://www.newstalk.com/Alton-Towers-UK ... lercoaster" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Adam.W
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I really can't tell there, I'd imagine it was on the brake run or something, but the surrounding bits has thrown me right off. It also appears to be horizontal, so I am pretty stumped there.
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Tom170499
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Adam.W wrote:I really can't tell there, I'd imagine it was on the brake run or something, but the surrounding bits has thrown me right off. It also appears to be horizontal, so I am pretty stumped there.
I agree with the point about it being horizontal but I suppose the photo could have been rotated
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The way the track is in the background it suggest this is possibly a stock photo and not one taken from the crash site.
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Tom170499
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Has there been issues with train 3.1 in the past?Because it was very hard to find any images of it, even from before the crash. Trains 1.1, 2.1, 4.1 & 5.1 I came across very often.
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Tom170499 wrote:Has there been issues with train 3.1 in the past?Because it was very hard to find any images of it, even from before the crash. Trains 1.1, 2.1, 4.1 & 5.1 I came across very often.
Before the incident train 3 was widely regarded to be the roughest of the 5 trains, however I don't believe it was ever out of service any longer than the other trains with regards to maintenance.
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Judging by the background that picture is (I believe) the train on the second airtime hill underneath the marmaliser.
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Dan.N wrote:
Tom170499 wrote:Has there been issues with train 3.1 in the past?Because it was very hard to find any images of it, even from before the crash. Trains 1.1, 2.1, 4.1 & 5.1 I came across very often.
Before the incident train 3 was widely regarded to be the roughest of the 5 trains, however I don't believe it was ever out of service any longer than the other trains with regards to maintenance.
Between the start of the season and about two weeks before the crash trains 3 and 5 were still in winter stripdown. This was down to missing parts yet to be sent to Towers by Gerstlauer.
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NemesisRider wrote:I really hope it's not just greedy PR managers for these victims, but I think you may be right. We all saw how quickly lawyers and etc. were found for the victims (lawyers is understandable even though Merlin said very quickly that they would give a full payout) so I think PR managers are easily possible.

Really my main concern now is the media storm that will follow the reopening. After that the story is dead in the eyes of most media, with the exception of The Mirror and the vendetta squad rest of the trinity papers.
With regard to lawyers - I remember Nick Varney saying in an interview shortly after the incident than letters had been hand delivered to all the victims, advising them to instruct a lawyer if they had not already done so.

This was sound advice from Merlin to the victims. Whilst Merlin accepted full responsibility for the accident, any settlement document relating to the payouts / ongoing support for the victims will be written in legal jargon. You would be very unwise to sign anything like this without seeking legal advice.

Furthermore, Merlins' insurers will invariably have an idea of what they consider to be a suitable payout - again, you would be unwise to accept this figure without consulting a personal injury lawyer for advice.
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