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Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

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I thought a sweepstake was random?

Im guessing it will be open next season, like Diogo. I doubt they will open it soon, as the public may view it as being suspicious as they havent tested it enough, and I think its more resonable to be able to say "well, we have tested it for 4 months straight without incident!" than "we have run some sims and tested a few times, it seems ok now"
 
If you think it will open this year you're in la la land.

March 2016 at the earliest. Or around next summer. I think when they open it though it will be during a quieter time of the year rather than during one of the holidays.
 
I'm in two minds, it's down to 3 trains, it is allowed to run with 3 trains but if 1 of the trains needs to go off it will have to close, if it is passed as safe to run before the end of the season it can and will have new trains for next season, but then again it has crashed which means it will be closed until next year.
 
There's a slim chance it could reopen this season but I'm expecting next year... The only thing going for it this year would be that it will only have three trains. Therefore the risk of anything like this being able to happen this season is dramatically reduced since there would permanently be one train in station, one on lift 1 and one on lift 2.

Still think next year though now.
 
James said:
If you think it will open this year you're in la la land.

March 2016 at the earliest. Or around next summer. I think when they open it though it will be during a quieter time of the year rather than during one of the holidays.
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I think you're absolutely right. They'll want to reopen it once all this has died down. Opening it mid season means there'll probably be more negative press as it'll seem like a bigger deal than if it quietly opens at the start of the season with the rest of the park to no fanfare.
 
It won't opened until the start of next season at the earliest. If the trains are being sent off to be repaired, then it will take quite a while for it to operate again.
 
Even if The Smiler will be good to go in a matter of months (which isn't exactly out of the question, when you compare opening times of other coasters that have had accidents), I'd consider it highly unlikely it'll be open until the start of the 2016 season. The crash has been pretty big news (news outlets are still reporting on it despite a lack of new information), and it'll stay fresh in people's minds for a while. Towers would be best to keep it shut until next year.
 
Whilst I can't see any reason why the necessary changes (technical and procedural) can't be made within 8 weeks, I suspect previous posters are right that they will wait until the start of next season to re-open it, when it won't get so much PR. At this present moment in time, PR is crucial for Merlin. They have got it about right at the moment - personally I think they might even have done too many interviews (would maybe have been better with open press conferences with all the press there, rather than 1 to 1 interviews with the likes of Kay Burley), but by and large they have handled the media well.

They have used just the right amount of humility, and it was refreshing to hear them use language like 'dreadful accident' rather than the more usual 'regretable incident' I often hear trotted out - because it was. The general public will appreciate that honesty, and will therefore believe what they say more.

One thing I disagree with in the press conference was saying the combination of events couldn't be foreseen - as previously highlighted on this very post, something similar happened in the 90s. Plus there are techniques that are used in process safety - for example Hazard Operability Studies (HAZOP), Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) and Human Error Assessment and Reduction Technique (HEART) - that can reveal these sorts of safety failures using a structured, rigorous approach.
 
Craig said:
Welcome to the forum Robert :). I think it's unlikely the park will still be closed next Friday/Saturday. In recent statements from Merlin, we've seen a change from them saying the park will be closed "for the forseeable future" to stating they plan to reopen in "the next few days". From the softening of their statements for park opening, I'd say it's safe to assume you'll be fine, although obviously there's going to be some ride closures.
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Thanks everyone :) I hope it is. Love Alton towers and had this trip planned for 6 months and the excitement has been building for the kids the closer it gets.
 
JayM said:
Whilst I cannot deny that Nick Varney did indeed say during the interview that safety measures on The Smiler "weren't adequate", I think it's the way in which this is being interpreted that is incorrect. I'm sure that many members of the public - and quite clearly as a result of the media - are portraying this as a statement that Merlin knew that safety measures weren't rigorous enough to prevent such an accident. To me this says that a contribution of factors (whatever they turn out to be) that couldn't be predicted led to this accident; not every possibility could be foreseen when designing safety protocols. It isn't wrong to say that safety measures "weren't adequate" after a major incident, but this shouldn't lead to blame towards anybody.
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Couple of points on this:

1. We're not in a position to say that blame shouldn't be placed on someone, or an organisation. Without the report, we will not yet know if it was an error in the computer system, a ride-op error, a sensor error, incorrect maintenance etc. We just don't know.

2. Varney saying 'safety procedures weren't adequate' is right to be quoted. For an accident to happen, the safety procedures cannot have been adequate. In this case, Merlin are 100% correct to say this. It will be unlikely this will be seen as an admission of blame by the H&S executive, but more likely seen as constructive and meaningful progress in accepting that more stringent measures are obviously needed.

3. The Sky News quoting of the facts is misleading, but hey ho. I think the main thing is that the rides that are closed are obviously ones where the retraining is required to a higher degree, and/or changes are needed to be made to the infrastructure of the ride (perhaps additional CCTV, increased sensors, updated ride management software).
 
bluesonichd said:
No matter when it reopens the press will no doubt have a field day "Death Trap Smiler To Reopen" abandon all hope all ye who sail in her
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If they are clever, Towers could turn that in to a marketing gimmick. ;) (though I highly doubt that would go down well).
 
bluesonichd said:
No matter when it reopens the press will no doubt have a field day "Death Trap Smiler To Reopen" abandon all hope all ye who sail in her
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I'd imagine it would only be worded like that were Towers to open it within the next few months. I'd expect a story when it does reopen, but if they delay it until next year then it'll be more positive.
 
Scott said:
There's a slim chance it could reopen this season but I'm expecting next year... The only thing going for it this year would be that it will only have three trains. Therefore the risk of anything like this being able to happen this season is dramatically reduced since there would permanently be one train in station, one on lift 1 and one on lift 2.

Still think next year though now.
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I'd bet it'll be open for next season, running it during Scarefest might be a bit too contentious this year.
 
spinba11 said:
Going back a bit, I can confirm that the train that crashed in to the stalled train had 16 people on.
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So why could I spot an empty seat when it was oscillating on the very first videos released? Or was the person just slumped forwards, a lot?
 
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