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Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

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Nick Varney was just on ITV news Live.

He said that rides were closed while they implement an extra layer of procedures which will further prevent anything like this happening again. He said that rides in chessington needed to be closed in order to implement and train staff on these new procedures.

He said that the Accident was down to a unique chain of events and that the park would open in the next few days.
 
Tom said:
It would be interesting to know what would have happened if it were a Friday when the crash happened, would they close over a weekend.
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There you go, the answer is yes they would have.

:)
 
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I wonder why they were unable to make the decision to close the park for a number of days earlier.

It's almost as if they were waiting for a eureka moment that would enable them to commence operations immediately after.

Surely two days ago they were aware of the work involved and about to make an informed decision to close the park for a specified period of time?
 
Safety and emergency response procedures will probably being reviewed on all the major rides.
I would imagine H&S won't sign off until they are satisfied.
I'm sure the park could choose to open with none of their major rides operating, but who would want that?
 
stoney101 said:
Found this on another forum, may be a bit long but its definitely an interesting read.

"In summary, if we had to point blame, I’d blame the rides manufacture, Gerstlauer, for implementing a manual mode (Code Zero) system that can seemingly bypass the safety system, it may just be a bug in the code but its something that should've been prevented and the ride should've stopped it from happening. It was probably a simple mistake, like the direction go Lift 1, its just a shame the ride didn't step in and stop it."
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I agree with most of what was said in that post - but I think it over simplifies some points made regarding the operations of coasters. There are some scenarios where you would would want to do the above. If the stalled train had been craned off, you would want to shift the train off the lift - but you would do it in the knowledge that the stalled train was led out on blocks somewhere.

Alton and other parks have teams of people who know these machines inside and out, the manufacturer quite rightly creates a system whereby the park has the option to do things that could potentially be dangerous, but the systems are designed in the knowledge that the park will use this functionality in testing or in non-standard operations.

For instance... The London Eye is manufactured in a way where the doors of the pods can be opened when the ride is at its highest point, but procedure states this won't be done in normal circumstances.
 
Varney on Sky News at 2.30. They've also had helicopters over Chessington and Thorpe showing some decent aerial footage.
 
Stern John said:
Safety and emergency response procedures will probably being reviewed on all the major rides.
I would imagine H&S won't sign off until they are satisfied.
I'm sure the park could choose to open with none of their major rides operating, but who would want that?
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I don't think you understand how the HSE works.
 
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Croftybaby said:
Towers will be closed again on Saturday.

Varney is going to be on ITV News shortly, not sure if it's Live or recorded interview.

I suspect Oblivion might be included in this list when the park re-opens but as it's in the general area of The Smiler then it was likely to be closed off anyway with X-Sector being closed as a whole for the time being.
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Not sure Oblivion would be, as there is only one free fall section of the ride, unlike the others where there are multiple free fall sections, each with a car on at the same time
 
Rick said:
I don't think you understand how the HSE works.
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I don't pretend that I do, it was just a guess.
I'm fairly certain the HSE have the power to stop Towers from opening? Obviously this doesn't seem to be the case.
It would appear the management have taken this decision, possibly to ensure all the safety and response aspects of the rides are checked and understood?
 
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Stern John said:
I don't pretend that I do, it was just a guess.
I'm fairly certain the HSE have the power to stop Towers from opening? Obviously this doesn't seem to be the case.
It would appear the management have taken this decision to possibly ensure all the safety and response aspects of the rides are checked and understood?
Care to explain?
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No, the HSE only have the power to stop dangerous operations, not close the entire park - so that is why they have only issued a prohibition notice against the Smiler rollercoaster. To issue a PN on anything else, they would need to have evidence that operation of those other rides were also unsafe. You could make an argument, if it was human error, and staff haven't been trained properly, that there might be the potential for problems on other high risk rides at the park. But I suspect any PN issued on those grounds would be highly likely to be overturned on appeal. So it doesn't surprise me in the slightest that only the Smiler had a PN issued, as I suggested a couple of days ago would happen. To issue a PN against the whole park opening, you would need to have evidence that every single operation is unsafe - which of course is complete poppycock, because nobody would ever question the safety of the gardens, restaurants, play areas etc.

I also suggested previously that the 2 cars would be taken into possession to the Health and Safety Laboratory in Buxton - and that is exactly what is happening.

A previous comment suggested the HSE investigation could last 2 years - that is probably about right. It also suggested a decision about potential prosecution would be completed within weeks - that probably isn't true. For an accident of this size, I wouldn't expect a definitive decision on whether to prosecute or not to be taken for at least 6 months, although every HSE investigation proceeds as if it could end up in court.

Whilst Merlin may have been at fault here, hats off to them for seemingly taking the cautious approach to reopen. I have come across plenty of companies who wouldn't have been so cautious, and who definitely wouldn't have taken the proactive approach to other operations at other locations as they have done at Thorpe Park and Chessington. From my experience organisations are extremely poor at transferring lessons learnt within their organisations - it is usually a case of 'it couldn't happen here' syndrome.
 
From the HSE

HSE will today remove the carriages involved in the incident on ‘The Smiler’ rollercoaster on 2 June and transport them to the Health and Safety Laboratory in Buxton for further analysis. The investigation into the incident continues and HSE inspectors remain on site. They have served a Prohibition notice on the rollercoaster stopping its use until action is taken to deal with the cause of the failure. Neil Craig, Head of Operations for HSE in the Midlands said: “The Notice is specific to the ‘Smiler’ ride and does not affect other rides at the park. HSE expects the park operator to apply any early learning from the incident to wider risk management at the site. “The decision about when to re-open the Park is for the owners to make.”
 
Twice she said that she understood that 'The Smiler is being dismantled as we speak.' She understands nothing.
 
MichelinMan said:
No, the HSE only have the power to stop dangerous operations, not close the entire park - so that is why they have only issued a prohibition notice against the Smiler rollercoaster. To issue a PN on anything else, they would need to have evidence that operation of those other rides were also unsafe. You could make an argument, if it was human error, and staff haven't been trained properly, that there might be the potential for problems on other high risk rides at the park. But I suspect any PN issued on those grounds would be highly likely to be overturned on appeal. So it doesn't surprise me in the slightest that only the Smiler had a PN issued, as I suggested a couple of days ago would happen. To issue a PN against the whole park opening, you would need to have evidence that every single operation is unsafe - which of course is complete poppycock, because nobody would ever question the safety of the gardens, restaurants, play areas etc.

I also suggested previously that the 2 cars would be taken into possession to the Health and Safety Laboratory in Buxton - and that is exactly what is happening.

A previous comment suggested the HSE investigation could last 2 years - that is probably about right. It also suggested a decision about potential prosecution would be completed within weeks - that probably isn't true. For an accident of this size, I wouldn't expect a definitive decision on whether to prosecute or not to be taken for at least 6 months, although every HSE investigation proceeds as if it could end up in court.

Whilst Merlin may have been at fault here, hats off to them for seemingly taking the cautious approach to reopen. I have come across plenty of companies who wouldn't have been so cautious, and who definitely wouldn't have taken the proactive approach to other operations at other locations as they have done at Thorpe Park and Chessington. From my experience organisations are extremely poor at transferring lessons learnt within their organisations - it is usually a case of 'it couldn't happen here' syndrome.
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Thanks for clearing that up.
Presumably the cars will be checked to see if improvements could be made to minimise the impact if this happened again but most of the investigation will probably centre on the ride systems at the site?
 
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