Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

[GaryH]

Long time lurker! This is my first post so hi!

Towers have in the last hour changed all their display pictures on social media from the Smiler esqe logo design back to the standard. Do you think this is suggesting a longer term closure of the ride?

Absolutely. Dont expect it to be open this year again.

 

[Duffins]

Absolutely. Dont expect it to be open this year again.

Even if it is shown to be Human Error? I'm not bothered if the ride opened again or not as I will not doubt the saftey of the ride if it is open to public.
Having an understanding of the ride and the procedures around the ride I can only asume that it is human error due (From a TL) and that there was confusion as to why a block shut down occurred (maybe high winds were thought to be the cause) and incorrect checks were made before manual operation of the ride.
Similar incident occurred at Disney in 2009 with the Monorail and it took just over two years for NTSB to conclude their findings however the monorail was clearly open very shortly after the incident. Sorry I'm rambling!

 

[stoney101]

Hi guys, been following this thread since I first heard about the incident. Obviously extremely shocked and saddened by it like all of you here, we have been visiting AT for many years and each time it has never disappointed, I rode The Smiler for the first time last year and in my opinion it is the best coaster the UK has. My family and I are actually taking a trip up there next week (we live in london so book a house to stay in for the week right near the park) and were due to visit AT for at least 2 days, originally planned for Tuesday and Thursday. We will still be going whether the park is open at that time or not. I can imagine the morale of the staff is extremely low at the moment and I wonder what kind of effect this will have on the atmosphere in the park once it reopens again. Does anyone else have plans to go soon after it reopens whenever that may be? If we are able to visit maybe i'll report back with what it was like.

 

[nikfonso]

Hi guys, been following this thread since I first heard about the incident. Obviously extremely shocked and saddened by it like all of you here, we have been visiting AT for many years and each time it has never disappointed, I rode The Smiler for the first time last year and in my opinion it is the best coaster the UK has. My family and I are actually taking a trip up there next week (we live in london so book a house to stay in for the week right near the park) and were due to visit AT for at least 2 days, originally planned for Tuesday and Thursday. We will still be going whether the park is open at that time or not. I can imagine the morale of the staff is extremely low at the moment and I wonder what kind of effect this will have on the atmosphere in the park once it reopens again. Does anyone else have plans to go soon after it reopens whenever that may be? If we are able to visit maybe i'll report back with what it was like.

I'm going next Friday with my 10 y/o daughter as long as the park is open of course. We've booked into the Enchanted Village and was really looking forward to it.

 

[AirFAN]

Just going back to the trains. How much is a train likely to cost if the Towers were to replace them? I can't imagine they will unless they are deemed operationally unfit.

Also is it likely the track would be at all damaged? With an impact that severe I can't imagine the force was isolated solely to the direction of travel (ie I can't imagine the trains were the only thing to absorb the impact). Surely we should expect some sort of damage to the track or am I underestimating its strength?

 

[stoney101]

^Not sure about the trains but, I imagine they will have to check the structural integrity of the whole ride again before reopening

 

[GaryH]

I think the track will be fine. The other car was "loose" on the tracks, i.e. it could be pushed, so this would have absorbed a lot of the impact, bit like crashing into a stationary car which has the brakes off. The two cars however will probably have to be scrapped, they will be warped and structurally knackered.

 

[MichelinMan]

Sorry to single your post out as your not the only one to say it, but can we stop with this litigation nonsense. I don't believe anyone is going to get sued for suggesting a general element of human error or negligence.

However if people were to say John Doe an X employee at Alton Towers living at 55 John Doe Street pushed the emergency button because he was having suicidal thoughts and wanted to hurt people. Then that's a totally different kettle of fish.

Lets not discourage free speech and thought when it is not necessary.

And I personally know somebody who was sued for comments on the internet - so just pointing out it does happen, and to make people aware of this. Sorry if it appeared to be a criticism of the OP - but by just changing one or two words you can protect yourself.

Never underestimate the ability of a large corporation to resort to the lawyers to protect their reputation.

 

[Craig]

Absolutely. Dont expect it to be open this year again.

Yup, a long term closure at least for this season is pretty much a given. Away from that, even if the ride was shut for just a month or two, it's a sensible move to remove any sort of marketing relating to the ride - especially when it's as prominent as the Big Six promo.

 

[Slugjc]

always be careful. If someone wants sue they will. The chances are slim, but we got taught in school pre internet not write anything down that could discriminate you in later life. Please be careful, yiu don't know who is watching these forums.

 

[dazza4783]

^Not sure about the trains but, I imagine they will have to check the structural integrity of the whole ride again before reopening

Yeh, after an impact on the track they will need to check for the structure and supports at least near the point of impact to see if it is still structurally sound.

Going back to the crach itself, I remember that in one of the witness interviews from someone who was in the queue at the time, they said that because of the stoppages and breakdowns an extra train was put on the track to get the queues down.
Is it possible that an engineer that had previously been working on the ride come back to it when it stopped again, seen that the same number of empty trains were in the station and so dispatched the train on the lift hill not knowing there was actually another train on the track somewhere.

 

[Duffins]

Yeh, after an impact on the track they will need to check for the structure and supports at least near the point of impact to see if it is still structurally sound.

Going back to the crach itself, I remember that in one of the witness interviews from someone who was in the queue at the time, they said that because of the stoppages and breakdowns an extra train was put on the track to get the queues down.
Is it possible that an engineer that had previously been working on the ride come back to it when it stopped again, seen that the same number of empty trains were in the station and so dispatched the train on the lift hill not knowing there was actually another train on the track somewhere.

No, an engineer will never take control of a ride while guests are on the ride or in the ride area.

 

[AirFAN]

What's the chances of the staff in the station being unaware of a valleyed train, realistically? Forget the control panels that would indicate a block error. Can you hear the train from the station? (I haven't been on the ride).

Isn't it likely the second train was sent up the lift hill before the first valleyed - the staff were aware of a valley but something catastrophic happened that sent the second train.

I can't imagine for a second the staff weren't aware of the valleyed train.

 

[GaryH]

The second train (the one with people on) was stopped on the lift hill for about 10 minutes. There was a third train stopped at the bottom of the lift hill by all accounts of eye witnesses who were on it as they said they were looking up at the stopped train.

The stalled train was stopped in the knot and eyewitnesses say it was there 10 minutes.

I believe the ride system stopped the ride because of this. I think given the ride was going tec all day, an engineer came to resolve it, without realising or checking there was a car on the track, after all, a car stopping mid loops isnt something thats instantly going to spring to mind. I think the engineer then over rode the system and restarted the ride, sending the car up the remainder of the lift hill.

Thats my thoughts. And yes, the ride cars are very loud from the ride and station, but, you cant see anything of the track from inside the station.

 

[stoney101]

No, an engineer will never take control of a ride while guests are on the ride or in the ride area.

Are you sure about that? I know its a different ride and park but, I was on The Swarm at Thorpe park last year and it suddenly stopped just as the train left the station and was on its way up the lift hill, eventually the engineer came along and it looked like he manually started the chain back up then again the train stopped just before reaching the top of the lift hill and again it started back up again after a brief period so someone must have been manually controlling it. It was the only train in operation that day though so no risk of any type of collision.

 

[FreakOut]

Techies over look the break down process to make sure no othe hiccups happen. Especially with the smiler it used to throw faults up all the time even after restarting it.

 

[delta79]

They will be looking at human factors, including failure to communicate information between staff.

 

[BlondeGeek691]

Can you hear the train from the station? .

Firstly, hi I am new to TS but have been a huge fan of AT since before I was "Tall enough to ride"

I am not sure the ride operators would be aware of a valleyed train by noise alone. The music in the station is pretty loud and it is quite enclosed. Also they would not be listening out for the lack of noise as they would be expecting the control system to alert them of any trains which had not cleared the block.

It also sounds like the car full of passangers may already have been on its way before the empty car stalled.

 

[FreakOut]

There are 2 50" LED with about 20 cameras on each.. it's abit hard to miss a vallyed train if I'm honest.

Previously working on the ride there are cameras EVERYWHERE.

 

[Jonathan]

And as previously referenced in this topic, there's a camera which covers the area where the accident happened, although from the photos I saw, it wasn't too clear how much of that area was shown on the screen.