• 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.
The person who filmed it sent it to me straight away and that's how I first heard about it, its a shame (or is it?) that he didn't film the crash itself.
 
I personally hope/think it won't close however the total cost of this incident including lost revenue/litigation/repair will probably be close to the cost of the ride itself.
 
Petitions like this make a mockery of real causes that petition through change.org

Towers made the right decision in closing until the cause is established. But I feel for all the staff who will be suffering financially for this. If it extends to a couple of weeks - which is possible if they have to re-write all ride manuals and get ride ops retrained on amended procedures for every coaster - then that's a lot to be out of pocket for, especially on minimum wage. Not just pocket money, but many will be unable to pay rent and bills etc
 
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-new...r-crash-passenger-5818351?ICID=FB_mirror_main

Seriously, I heard a "metallic clank" on air back in February. Got of the ride and my dad said a 50p had almost hit him as the train went over.
bluesonichd said:
Petition to close the smiler ...
hmmmm :cool:
https://www.change.org/p/alton-towers-close-down-the-smiler-ride?clearcache=1
Click to expand...
Really... practically a death trap... the only people who won't go on it and want it to close are:
1) the gullible people who believe everything they see
2) the people/family of people on ride or in queue (understandable)
3) the people to scared (or whatever other reason) to go on before.

Alastair said:
110 signatures in 3 days...could probably get triple that in 2 hours if I started one petitioning for it to be kept open.
Click to expand...
I would certainly sign your petition ;)
 
Zero hours. Merlin are one of the most exploitative employers around. If you're lucky you can move to a permanent contract after a couple of years slavery
 
11mins will be along time for those involved but for the onsite medical team, by the time they reached there and accessed what had happened then phoned back to security to phone 999 11 mins is quite quick IMO
 
Last edited:
If I were to take a wild stab in the dark, I'd suspect that 11 minute delay in calling the emergency services is the root cause of the park being closed for three days now. This would affect procedures for all rides, and thus will require retraining.

Of course, it's not that simple either, you've got to make a safety case to the HSE to reopen if you change the emergency procedures. The obvious recommendation here is that emergency services must be called immediately. However, it's not always obvious, it takes much time and discussion to reach a solution that ensures that risk is As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP). Supposing that the recommendation was that emergency services are to be called immediately for any incident, even seemingly insignificant. Now that would lead to diversion of emergency resources where they are a disproportionate response, possibly costing the lives of someone else that would require that service. Also, can you imagine the field day the tabloids would have if someone in the park was run over and killed by an ambulance in the park, and it turns out to be an event not requiring emergency response. Not that simple is it?
 
Just got back from an excellent afternoon at Towers doing the High Ropes Challenge.

Some things I noticed.
1) You enter the resort normally but where you get to the staff car park/priority car park entrance the road is cordoned off. To get to the tower you have to drive through the overflow car park. The reason for this is purely to have 2 checkpoints for people to go through. At the end of the car park. where you have the traffic lights. There was a second check point of staff. All were smiling and looked fine.
2) The big "Big 6" A board at the traffic lights had Big 6 Challenge on when we entered the area at 12 ish, but the big 6 banner had been removed by the time we left at 2:40
3) Some hotel guests were being offered free use of the high ropes course. Yet we did hear one woman saying 'its disgraceful the park is shut'. I nearly punched her. Luckily the guy she was with 'corrected' her.
4) The staff around the hotel and other attractions were doing a brilliant job.
 
I think it's important to take into account the impact this will have on the businesses (particularly b&bs and hotels) in the surrounding areas who are currently receiving large amounts of cancellations because of all this.

We're booked in for a stay at a local b&b on Sunday and the hit they have taken from this has been huge. We will be going regardless of whether the park is open or not, and it will be interesting to talk to locals and get their reaction to it all.

As for people getting angry about the park being closed, they need to get a grip of reality. It's only a theme park. Tickets are being refunded and the world will not fall apart.
 
It's not simple I agree, you don't want to be wasting the emergency services' time, however I think that knowing that a collision has just occurred at high speed, it's a no brainer. I understand this incident was difficult because it's an awkward spot on the track to get to but I wonder if someone witnessing it in X-Sector didn't call the emergency services because they'd expect them to have already been called by the park staff. The way I see it, if you are unsure if the emergency services have been called, call them.
 
Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
Top