• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
If we were being extremely picky, a plainer typefont could have been used. But if that's the only thing they get wrong post incident we can forgive them.
 
I agree that it isn't the best font and I thought the same when reading it but I suppose making the message into a more serious font isn't top of their list of priorities in what must have been a traumatizing day, especially having press hovering around the park (literally) and an £18,000,000 rollercoaster crash. They have really handled it well
 
Plastic Person said:
Surprised to see them use the word 'dreadful' too. Not that the incident wasn't/isn't, but that's a bold use of PR!
Click to expand...

Yes, this did stand out for me. Incident would have been fine to use. Dreadful makes it sound a lot worse than we hope it is. Having second thought about the closing tomorrow. I guess the park would have also taken into account expected gate figures and worked out that it's probably best to close and take stock.

Does anyone know if the riders are all safely off the ride yet?
 
Croftybaby said:
Yes, this did stand out for me. Incident would have been fine to use. Dreadful makes it sound a lot worse than we hope it is. Having second thought about the closing tomorrow. I guess the park would have also taken into account expected gate figures and worked out that it's probably best to close and take stock.

Does anyone know if the riders are all safely off the ride yet?
Click to expand...

Alton Towers have confirmed that all the riders who were trapped on the Smiler rollercoaster have now been freed.

The four casualties seriously injured were airlifted to hospital tonight as bosses admitted today's crash was the worst accident in the theme park's 35 year history.

Two couples, aged in their 20s, suffered "significant crush-type lower limb injuries", which were described as critical but not life threatening.

Ian Crabbe, Alton Towers divisional director, said: "I have been here for six years and I think this is probably the worst accident in Alton Towers' history."
 
Croftybaby said:
Yes, this did stand out for me. Incident would have been fine to use. Dreadful makes it sound a lot worse than we hope it is. Having second thought about the closing tomorrow. I guess the park would have also taken into account expected gate figures and worked out that it's probably best to close and take stock.

Does anyone know if the riders are all safely off the ride yet?
Click to expand...

I saw something a couple of hours ago saying everyone was off. Hopefully it looked worse than it was but I guess the last thing you would want is to be stuck for several hours after #preyfortowers16 ?
 
All riders were off by 6-7pm I think.

Credit to Alton Towers and the emergency services, by the sounds of what has been said, the news coverage and social media it sounds like Towers as always have acted in a very professional manner. The staff at Towers deserve great praise for acting how they have today. The emergency services too have been brilliant, arriving on site quickly and working hard for many hours to get all the guests safely off the trains and to be seen. This is quite a freak accident and everyone involved has worked incredibly well today, so well done to all that have no doubt had a very hard day.

It's best for the park to close tomorrow. Not only for senior staff to have time to go into talks on what actions to take next, but for all the staff at the resort to have time to rest from the events of the day. I'm sure a lot of staff have been shaken by what has happened, I doubt the park would feel that nice to be in tomorrow so it's for the best to have a day for things to stay quiet. The media coverage will be negative either way so Towers have nothing to lose in that respect.

Nice to see that Nick Varney made an appearance too, very good of him to manage to come to the resort and support his staff/colleagues.
 
I was shocked by the news today, Alton Towers have an almost spotless record when it comes to incidents like this. The last big accident with the Runaway Mine Train was bad enough but this is clearly much worse.

I don't think anybody was too surprised that it was the Smiler that this happened to, whether it be a fault with the ride or not, there seems to be many issues that need resolving with it regardless.

Feel very sorry for the people involved, I don't think it's out of the question that the ride will be closed for the rest of the year.
 
Towers are stating that the park is scheduled to open on Thursday (subject to change) but X-Sector will remain closed until further notice.

:)
 
Nick Varney, chief executive of Merlin Entertainments, which runs the park, said: "This has been a terrible incident and a devastating day for everyone here.

"I would like to express my sincerest regret and apology to everyone who suffered injury and distress today and to their families.

"The safety of our visitors is our primary concern. The park will remain closed until we understand better the cause of this dreadful incident.

"I would like to thank the emergency services for their swift and effective response today - they were outstanding.

"A full investigation is now under way and we will continue to work closely with the emergency services and the Health and Safety Executive."

So seems like it might not open on Thursday?
 
I'm guessing it will be closed until further notice as they might need to remove the damage trains on Smiler and send them back to Gerts? I'm not sure, but I know they did this with RMT and they sent the damage train back to Mack.
 
The park wont be shut more than a few days, it would financially ruin them. X Sector will probably be shut in the short term with a gradual re-opening of Oblivion but I can't see The Smiler being open until much later this season, if at all.
 
The Smiler won't open until a full HSE investigation identifies what happened, and modifications made to address this.
 
Really good decision by towers. X-sector needs to stay closed until the trains are off the tracks. Park should IMO open by Thursday if not Friday. Shame to lose oblivion temporarily but it's for the best. Media has already died down slightly, right now I am watching central tonight and the smiler didn't get the headline bit at the start like it did earlier

I think start of next season for smiler with it still being advertised as the main ride.
 
Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
Top