Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

[Error]

Don't forget Mr Varney will be there...front of the queue.

 

[spinba11]

As I've said before, EVERYTHING is "human error" if you trace it back far enough. Software problem? Programed by humans. Structural failure? Designed by humans, maintained by humans.

Same with the RMT crash 9 years ago the faulty part that broke wasn't spotted and replaced.

 

[delta79]

Same with the crash 9 years ago

Well I will give the park a miss in 2024

 

[spinba11]

The injuries have got worse with each crash, lets hope someone doesn't die in the next one.

 

[Leah]

When was the black hole incident?

 

[ASturge21]

When was the black hole incident?

I think it was to do with cost of the repair/upkeep of the ride

 

[BarryZola]

When was the black hole incident?

http://www.altontowersmemories.net/page16.htm

Scroll down on that page for a couple of old newspaper articles about it. Not in the best quality and the site hasn't been updated for years. Not phone friendly I expect!

 

[RoyJess]

It's reported that a young female ride operator has been sacked for causing the accident.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-smiler-operator-who-6920989?ICID=FB_mirror_main

Has she been made the scapegoat? Surely it's not possible for a ride operator to override the safety system?

 

[phildenholm]

Sounds like a cover up to me, difficult to say because none of us know the full ins and outs but early in this massive thread an ex ride opp wrote about the only way of having the ride in full manual was for an engineer and senior engineer to put their keys into the control panel. If the ex ride opps story is true then it couldn't just be 1 person that caused the issue.

Again good timing by towers and merlin to get this all out of the way at this time of the year.

I think it's likely there will be a media day the day maybe week before the park opens so that the season can start with the most normality as possible. Here is hoping all the victims can get some closure from this news.

 

[James]

It's just the usual Mirror BS. "A source" = made up so we can drag this story on and on and on.

 

[phildenholm]

That is also a likely answer too

 

[DiogoJ42]

What they fail to point out is that ALL ride ops are "fired" at the end of the season.

 

[spinba11]

I've seen enough breakdowns to know that a tech is involved in all of them, also only seasonal staff are fired each season.

 

[Skyscraper]

surely the engineer who overrided the safety system should be sacked as well then, as they were partly to blame?

 

[delta79]

It depends on what the engineer said before the trains release.

 

[Skyscraper]

It's reported that a young female ride operator has been sacked for causing the accident.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-smiler-operator-who-6920989?ICID=FB_mirror_main

Has she been made the scapegoat? Surely it's not possible for a ride operator to override the safety system?

she didn't- the engineer did.

 

[DiogoJ42]

But isn't the operator the one in charge of the ride? The one responsible for everything that happens? She should have known how many trains were on the track and stopped the tech from overriding the system.

 

[spinba11]

From my understanding when a tech is in the cabin fixing a problem they are in charge as it's not the ops job to fix any problems.

 

[DiogoJ42]

That would make sense. Though it could be argued the op had a duty to pass on information (such as the fact they were running all five trains for the first time this season) to the tech.

I'm not trying to blame her, by the way, just attempting to work out where the legal responsibility lies.

 

[spinba11]

The 5th train had been running since the Tuesday before the crash, anyway the tech should of known how many trains are as they take them on and off (it's not the ride staff who do it).