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Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

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was on park today, not witness to the incident but saw the aftermath, was horrific :(
- there but for the grace of god - could have been anyone of us riding.
to all those involved hope for a speedy recovery.
 
This is awful. We may have all joked about the shoddiness of the design, and construction, however nobody wanted to see something like this happen. Having seen the news footage, the scene looks terrible, and should have been avoided. There are obviously going to be answered needed to how this happened, however much as we could speculate behind it, but for now just glad that the injuries were not worse than it was
 
Devastating news for all involved, from the guests to management. We're a critical bunch at the best of times when it comes to management but I wouldn't put my worst enemy in their shoes tonight.

From what I've read regarding the response from the park was that it was rapid, professional and controlled. I think the park should be praised for how they responded to this event - clearly the training works. Sometimes things happen that cannot be changed but the way in which you respond is important.

Everything else is pure speculation at this point. It will be a long few months whilst this is investigated and I'm going to steer clear of the media hype that will come in the next few days, especially remembering the way the RMT incident was covered (see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-396760/30-hurt-Alton-Towers-park-ride-horror.html). It's only fair to wait for the full report.
 
I know it isn't the biggest problem, but in regards to the big 6, on Alton websiteit says "You can still complete the Big Six Challenge even if one of our rides is experiencing technical difficulties. Speak to a member of the rides team who will be able to advise you further."

Watching its news, the "fastest coaster in the park" has had a crash, surprisingly after suffering from technical difficulties earlier that day...
Why does that matter! When I whent on smiler last week it broke down 3 times just when I was in the queue. This is clearly just trying to make it a bigger story.
On sky "He said he was unable to confirm reports that one person had died."
Thoughts are with them now and hope they are ok.
 
Its good to know that the park had a very good response to such a bad accident.

I hope everyone involved, riders and ride ops, are ok and being looked after.

This is a weird accident as it should not be able to happen because of the amount of computers controlling the ride.
As with any computer system it is only programming and sensors.

Where I work we have large bit of equipment and we have had some odd and potentially dangerous things happen. One time it was the first time it had ever happened in the world as the presses are used all over the world. The company that made it looked in to what happened and found it could be replicated. It was a bug buried deep in the system that had never been found.

These things can happen and it is what I class as an acceptable level of risk. We ride these coasters to feel excited and they are designed to look dangerous but be safe.

Lets hope that a proper investigation is carried out and the fault is found.
 
LordOfDarkness said:
Park will be closed tomorrow following todays accident.
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To add verification, this is given in an announcement on the homepage of altontowers.com.

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its a sad day for the park. And its lucky that people involved are all still with us. Speculation will be rife. People will blame people. People will blame technology. People will blame towers. People will blame the manufacturer. I feel for the people both on the ride for their injuries. The people in the queue witnessed it, and also for the staff.

the ride will need a major overhaul. No doubt. But people have been injured on rides. Look at the big one. This thing happened in the station. That's still going. The major thing will be to investigate, solve the problems get that ride up and running. And most of all make sure that the people injured, get the full care of merlin.
 
As much as this is terrible for all those involved I'm not sure that closing the park is the best idea. Closing the park just draws extra attention, wouldn't it be much better for the press outside to report on guests having an enjoyable day rather than the park being closed?
 
Well done to Towers for closing the park tomorrow, which I'm sure has been a very hard decision to make.

It's very worrying something like this could happen on such a new ride. It will be interesting to see what happens from the investigation and how long we could be looking at The Smiler being closed.

For now hopefully those injured make a speedy recovery, and all of those involved can move on from this dreadful day.
 
Hopefully it's gerst fault, a full report will be undertaken by the hse I would expect
 
Croftybaby said:
As much as this is terrible for all those involved I'm not sure that closing the park is the best idea. Closing the park just draws extra attention, wouldn't it be much better for the press outside to report on guests having an enjoyable day rather than the park being closed?
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Catch 22. If they close it could give it more attention. If they open the media might report that the park is being insensitive.

Difficult decision but I think it's the right one.
 
It makes you think really, that earlier on this season we couldn't help ourselves but complain about shoddy opening times, budget cuts and staggered openings... None of us could have expected this to happen, making everything else we like to moan about seem really petty and minimal.

Thoughts are with those who were unfortunate to be on the ride at the time of the incident, those in the queue line, in X-Sector, and also the staff park-wide.
 
Towers have made the right decision closing the park tomorrow. They need to think about what they are going to do without a mass of (most likely angry) crowds on their backs.
 
Clearly a sensible and correct decision to close tomorrow. I expect it will just be a one day closure whilst they gather thoughts together and work out what exactly to do going forward. The park being open tomorrow would have drawn some unwanted attention I feel.

To be fair to Alton Towers they seem to have handled the situation very well indeed. The response appeared to be swift, efficient and well controlled - it's good to see that the plans they have in place for things like this work. All that staff who train for this must expect to never have to put their training into action so they should be commended for their work. Also credit to Nick Varney for turning up, the totally right thing to do in this situation.

:)
 
I know I just posted but I need to post again... If only to share the sentiments of others in this thread.

This incident has really shocked me to the core - to the extent it made me feel quite ill when I saw the pictures emerging of what happened. The thought of what those poor people must have seen as they were experiencing the ride... To go from exhilarating joy to unfathomable terror in a moment is a horrible thought and I truly hope those involved make a full recovery.

To think that we have all experienced the ride ourselves and that this (in theory) could have happened when any one of us (or anyone else who has visited the park) has ridden before is really a chilling thought.

We all know there is a risk involved in rides, albeit a hugely tiny one - but you never truly think it will happen at a place you love to a ride that has given so much joy...

My thoughts go out to those involved, their friends and family, those who were queueing or in the surrounding areas as well as the ride staff and everyone else at Towers - for who this must have been a truly harrowing day.

I'm glad the park is closed tomorrow for some reflective time and planning without guests to work around and I hope that a full and frank investigation reveals what was at fault so it can never happen again. I'm also thankful that this incident wasn't any worse than it already has been.
 
It must have been absolutely traumatising for those in the surrounding area, as well as those on the ride, when they saw the train going over the top of the lift hill with the first train valleyed, where no one could do anything but await the inevitable. Frightening.
 
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