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Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

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I still think that the best and cheapest solution is to make a button that must be pressed in the event of a system reset either at the bottom of the second lift hill or top of the first so that the ride op would have to be blind to not see the stalled car.
 
Ready/ stood clear buttons have been a fixture in rides and factory industries for years.
I can see how one with a full view of the track can add safety, if everyone operating the ride are trained on why they are there, and the track check and clearance process. Then it doown to the operators to visually check before pressing the button.
 
Before the crash do we know if there was ever anything in op cabins hanging up to say 'There are X cars on track today'?

I think I'm right in saying they have been spotted since the incident on other rides. Something as simple as that could stop this ever happening again... If the techie was for whatever reason unaware of the correct number of cars on track and thus did not account for the stalled car - this could all be stopped by having a clear sign in the cabin stating what is currently in use.
 
i think a delayed e-stop at the base of the knot at a setting of like a second or two and if anything activates it (stalled car) it puts the whole ride in lockdown (just a thought) :)
 
AndrewH said:
I still think that the best and cheapest solution is to make a button that must be pressed in the event of a system reset either at the bottom of the second lift hill or top of the first so that the ride op would have to be blind to not see the stalled car.
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I maybe wrong - but im pretty sure this is a feature of Intamin rides.

Ive seen block resets on Stealth and they are required to press a button at each block to complete this - Although that is obviously much easier on a ride like Stealth where the blocks are all within a few second walk!
 
There's one thing which confuses me. I work with a rather crude blocking system which can reset itself if a car doesn't complete a block in time but then arrives later (normally because someone's put it back on track). The system constantly checks how many stopping sections contain vehicles. If that number matches the one it started with last time we manually reset it then the system automatically resets.

So why doesn't a ride like The Smiler use something similar to stop manual override errors? After being manually reset the system could ask "how many cars were known to be running before the manual reset?" and "how many are on block breaks now?". If the numbers don't match it instantly errors out again, leaving an entire system reset (aka. Shutting down and powering up again) as the only way to revive it. This would no doubt involve walking the track.

Of course this all assumes the ride wasn't still in manual override when the incident happened, something that should never have been the case if guests were on the ride and they weren't completely certain it was the right and safe option.
 
Well this is why the "human error" will no doubt turn out to be more than one error, going right back to the software design.
 
How it happened the ride did what it was ment to do and stop but the enginier told the ride operater to carry on and it crashed.
 
Ash123uk said:
Saw the smiler today for the first time since the accident. Felt weird!
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I know what you mean, I felt he same when I saw it, as I've said before the longer it's closed the more likely they will have to change the theme. I was at Thorpe Park earlier in the week and had an eye opening conversation with a lady and her daughter. They visit Thorpe often but had never been to alton towers when I said I go often they said "don't you feel it isn't safe now" like I say given where I was and that we had been in the queue for stealth it just goes to show you people have been out off.
 
To be fair she was an intelligent woman, she was a teacher and every year brings a group to Thorpe for a behind the scenes tour so isn't that thick it's all down to perception and that is an example of how the parks reputation has been damaged.
 
I just think generally narrow mindedness goes hand in hand with lack of general knowledge.
 
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