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2016: The Smiler Reopening

Will you ride in 2016?

  • Yes

    Votes: 147 94.8%
  • No

    Votes: 8 5.2%

  • Total voters
    155
It scares me how little major media sources look into the facts of an incident before reporting. By watching the short video of the smiler stuck that someone took on a phone, you can easily see that it is a vertical lift hill (which amazingly, does not mean upside down), a train of 16 (I know people would be stuck on lift one, but I've read in some places that more than 30 were "upside down"), and by simply looking at towers facebook (or even on here, as we know it's been read in the past) you could find out its been reopened within an hour.

Actually, am I the only one who thinks it's strange that it reopened today despite it only opening shortly before park close? Unless they just wanted to show how minor it was and say "reopened later that day"
 
We have a concrete pad at work, i was thinking of taking a photo of a phone case. And submit it to the mirror, wbo have a easy fill form for witnesses.
 
I was stuck on Oblivion's brake run on Sunday afternoon after a technical issue arose. Where is my 15 minutes of fame?

Haha, I was stuck on it Sunday too (in the morning for 10 mins). Where's our ITV interviews?! Funnily enough was making jokes while sat on the brake run that I was going to phone The Mirror to give them my exclusive roller coaster terror at Alton Towers.
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The ride is back open so just a normal breakdown then... reports that something fell out of someone's pocket, not confirmed, although I would believe since these things do happen. Life goes on. Shame the media cannot move on also.

Problem with these things is that it's mainly grabbed from Twitter, what with Twitter being public, all you need is that money shot Tweet (and permission to use the content) and you've got yourselves a full double page spread for the morning papers, £££. Clearly this story is still hot so they will continue to scout for any little bit of news to blow anything into a horror story.
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Unless they just wanted to show how minor it was and say "reopened later that day"

You're probably right there. If they kept it closed for the remainder of the day then the news outlets could continue throughout the night that the ride is closed 'for the foreseeable future' (and morning TV could also state that), then new outlets could re-run the story again tomorrow when it reopens. This cuts it back a bit as all the news will drag out tomorrow is... last years 'victims' coming out the shadows to express their shock and horror.
 
Ok, to be Mr Pedantic here, the riders weren't upside down...
but their thighs were upside down, weren't they.
So they were a weeny bit upside down, after all.
As long as it is open for my family visit on Sunday, I just don't care.
 
TBH, with regards to the other theme parks in the UK, it seems that to the Media only Alton is important for news stories and all the other parks are not worth it such as the 15 minutes of bad fame M&D's had. If this stupid story had happened at say at Drayton or Lightwater, not even the gullible public would think twice about it.

Come to think of, suppose it's not a bad thing being a little park as you don't have to put with some of the stupid stories that Towers/Merlin get lumbered up with...unless your M&D's ofc.
 
If this stupid story had happened at say at Drayton or Lightwater, not even the gullible public would think twice about it.
Anyone else remember when there was really bad weather a few months ago, which caused a sensor issue on air - causing it to stop on the lift hill for half an hour, while the same rain caused buffalo coaster at Drayton to stall and people were evacuated? Guess which one was widely reported and which one wasn't even mentioned...

Even pleasure beach doesn't get this level of media attention though, despite being on a similar level park as towers. Not too much was said about the big one stalling, but th13teen stops on the lift hill for a few minutes and every news source in the UK is talking about it. Completely pathetic that real news (or even, more relevant news) is overlooked but they seem content trashing the reputation of one of the UK's best theme parks just because that's what gets clicks... wait, I think I may have just described society as a whole.
 
The fact that this non-event happened at Alton is significant, the fact that it happened on the Smiler makes it doubly so. People's lives have been irreparably damaged by incompetence - that's a big deal.

Bits shouldn't be dropping off a ride, irrespective of what it is. They need to get this sorted.
 
The fact that this non-event happened at Alton is significant, the fact that it happened on the Smiler makes it doubly so. People's lives have been irreparably damaged by incompetence - that's a big deal.

Bits shouldn't be dropping off a ride, irrespective of what it is. They need to get this sorted.
How do you know something dropped off the ride. Firstly, it's unconfirmed. Secondly, it could have just been that a member of the public found something around the ride, handed it to a member of staff who e-stopped, before maintenance determined that it was not from the ride (think air clip incident). If something did fall from the ride, I highly doubt it would be reopened within an hour.
 
The fact that this non-event happened at Alton is significant, the fact that it happened on the Smiler makes it doubly so. People's lives have been irreparably damaged by incompetence - that's a big deal.

Bits shouldn't be dropping off a ride, irrespective of what it is. They need to get this sorted.

I'm sorry, but none of that changes that this has been massively blown out of proportion by the media. It was a minor issue - the ride would not have reopened after only two hours if it weren't - that had nothing to do with last year's crash. And the fact that debri falling off a ride has received more media attention than a rollercoaster quite literally flying off the track at another park is insane.

Alton shouldn't be held accountable to a huge media storm every time Smiler has a technical difficulty, regardless of its past.
 
This is really getting silly now.....!!!!!!!

Now Vicky is on ITV Good Morning Britain regarding yesterday stoppage, victims calling for ride to be closed down for good....yawn!!!! Come on, I was on the Smiler first thing Saturday morning just gone when it broke down and I got evacuated. Had a lovely day at Alton Towers on Saturday with my daughter. The highlight of the day was when we got stuck on the Smiler ride and we had to be evacuated. No it wasn't the fact that we broke down and that we had to be evacuated that made my day, it was the fact when the ride operator filled out the paper work asked for my age and when I told her she looked very shocked and then she ask again as if she missed heard me, she then went on to say that I looked a lot younger than that :)

Ride stoppages and evacuations is part and parcel of riding these rides from time to time.

The thing is. Alton is a big brand name, no one really has any interest in a small amusement park like M&D's despite their incident was potentially a lot worse.

I think what yesterday's incident really shows and should really be the the important thing that is news, is how effective and efficient the new safety measures and training that have been put in place. At least the ride was stopped promptly this time. The ride (and other rides at Alton) are now safer than ever before and that's got to be a good thing.
 
Now Vicky is on ITV Good Morning Britain regarding yesterday stoppage, victims calling for ride to be closed down for good....yawn!!!!

Ha! Called it yesterday and she said exactly the word I predicted she would use - "unsafe".
 
I've lost all respect for that attention seeking girl. The other two however have handled the situation much better than her.

Anyway, reading the various media sources, and how the "baa baa sheep" public believe what they read just infuriates me. I really really really wish Alton would get their legal team on the case and starting sueing some of these papers for publishing false stories. i.e. people held upside down.
 
The thing is. Alton is a big brand name, no one really has any interest in a small amusement park like M&D's despite their incident was potentially a lot worse.

Thing is the it seems the media think Towers is the only theme park out there and all the others are non-existent, quite sad really if this is the case. The more horrible thought I just realised is that even if the M&D's crash had a fatality, I get the strange feeling that even that would only get half of the news outlets reporting on it in contrast to this...

I really really really wish Alton would get their legal team on the case and starting sueing some of these papers for publishing false stories. i.e. people held upside down.

Funny you should say that as I was about to write that down! If Towers did come on top of a legal case then would be a great egg in the face moment for the media and a sense of karma for Towers.


 
Funnyyou should say that as I was about to write that down! If Towers did come on top of a legal case then would be a great egg in the face moment for the media and a sense of karma for Towers.

It could backfire and make AT look bad "Alton towers trying to silence press in court" type headlines.
Also AT uses the press for promotions sometimes so I guess they don't want to burn bridges.
 
The main smiler q isn't even out of the projection room today. o_O
Last day of summer holidays and very quiet on park today.
 
I've lost all respect for that attention seeking girl. The other two however have handled the situation much better than her.

Anyway, reading the various media sources, and how the "baa baa sheep" public believe what they read just infuriates me. I really really really wish Alton would get their legal team on the case and starting sueing some of these papers for publishing false stories. i.e. people held upside down.

I couldn't agree more with the part about Vicky, it seems everytime something happens to the smiler vicky will be on that damn program.

Smiler ride kills bird....off goes Vicky.
 
I'd understand the media attention if it was actually an issue with the smiler, but as it opened so soon after, I can't see why it's getting so much attention. I've had lift hill stops, and this didn't happen.

They should start inviting enthusiasts onto these programs. Would be nice to see something accurate for once.
 
They had an interview with one of the riders on radio WM, saying that the main issue was the ppl on the train didn't know what was happening. They couldn't hear the staff on the ground due to soundtrack and the height they were at.
She did say they were on the lift hill for 30mins the about 15mins at the bottom.
 
Images on social media appeared to show the ride in a stationary position on its way up a vertical track, with people in their seats facing skywards.

At least the Guardian knows how to report.

That being said, it really reinforces how most of the other articles on these trash websites are probably just as fabricated, it's only because we know so much about the subject matter that this one stands out in particular.
 
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