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Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

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Not a valid source as is from Reddit but still:

Hello guys I know 2 of the people injured. They're a young couple from Barnsley a guy of 18 and a girl of 19. The guy has lost his little finger (That is the reason for the reports of blood) and both of his knees have popped out of place from what I was told last night he will walk again fortunately. His girlfriend however she has been told she could potentially be paralysed. she had to be airlifted to the nearest spinal injury specialist hospital. Praying to god they're ok.
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Harvey. said:
Sorry, but even if it was a human pushing a button to release that train at the top of the lift hill, that still isn't human error to me. If this is indeed the case, the computerised system itself still failed in that it allowed that unsafe process to override its instincts...
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Unfortunately it is. The ride still requires and override. For example when the ride valleys, they close it and lift it off the track with a crane. The ride will never start unless it's reset. There has to be a way to reset it and unfortunately that still means human interaction. However it's poor design, a few more sensors on the spot of the valley could eliminate this issue entirely.
 
The BBC have contacted PowerPark (home of new Gerst Infinity coaster Junker) and Drayton Manor for comments on the incident.
BBC said:
Mikko Kiviluoma from PowerPark said: "Our rollercoaster Junker is a brand new model with the latest technology, so as we know it is a different model. Junker was built up during this spring 2015 and tested over 2,000 times before opening. Safety is number one thing in PowerPark and we do normal checks every day for all our rollercoasters and other equipment."
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BBC said:
David Bromilow, operations manager at Drayton Manor Theme Park, said: "Every ride undergoes a rigorous daily safety inspection by our experienced maintenance team covering all maintenance and testing before we open the park to our guests.

"As well as the daily inspection and testing, all rides are inspected and verified regularly by independent inspectors in compliance with the HSE guidelines for safe operation."
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:)
 
morgano said:
However it's poor design, a few more sensors on the spot of the valley could eliminate this issue entirely.
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I was literally just thinking about how they should have something directly after the batwing, like they do by the top of the first hill on Rita, on all accelerators etc etc.
 
TomLad said:
I was literally just thinking about how they should have something directly after the batwing, like they do by the top of the first hill on Rita, on all accelerators etc etc.
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As the old saying goes: Prevention is better than cure. They should of re-profiled that part of the track so it never happens.
 
sully1311 said:
As the old saying goes: Prevention is better than cure. They should of re-profiled that part of the track so it never happens.
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Well it definitely isn't hindsight, an accident like this could have been forgiveable on opening, however with the issues and valleying that has been prevalent since opening, something should have been done :)
 
Park is to remain closed tomorrow by all accounts.

As has been said many times previously, my thoughts go to all the people involved from the injured to the ride ops and staff who had to deal with the incident right through to the witnesses who had to stand and watch it unfold :-(
 
You don't need sensors everywhere. I almost certain he ride detected the problem and shutdown. For some reason and its not up to me to speculate, but the ride reset the blocks and sent the train into an occupied block. Who or what reset that safety feature will be the highlight of the investigation.
 
Sorry double post. Its now believed that one rider has had both legs removed. Once again, not confirmed so its just rumour!
 
BigDave said:
You don't need sensors everywhere. I almost certain he ride detected the problem and shutdown. For some reason and its not up to me to speculate, but the ride reset the blocks and sent the train into an occupied block. Who or what reset that safety feature will be the highlight of the investigation.
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The point being however, 1 extra sensor that halts the previous block if the sensor detects a train has valleyed would resolve the problem quite easily. Even if an Engineerer reset the entire system, due to the nature of the sensor it would detect a blockage immediately and shut the ride down again. The sensor would only need to detect the presence of a train on the valley of the Batwing.

Currently if you reset the ride, the sensor at the 2nd lift will not be expecting a train until a train has passed the first lift hill, therefore on reset accidents like this can happen.

An additional sensor wont stop valleying but it will certainly stop incidents like this.
 
There is no certainty that it would as we don't know why/how it happened. The block system clearly worked, but something caused it to stop working. An extra sensor would not change that
 
EuroSatch said:
There is no certainty that it would as we don't know why/how it happened. The block system clearly worked, but something caused it to stop working. An extra sensor would not change that
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I understand the system worked as intended, the likelihood was that human intervention overrode the system beyond that point. The system then has no ability to check that particularly section of track and halt the ride even after an override. Obviously not everything can be automated but the additional sensor would have helped.
 
EuroSatch said:
An extra sensor would not change that
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I disagree, if the extra sensor was a presence detector in the batwing element, hard-wired to a braking system just beyond the lift hill crest (or to a very short chain section at the crest), and beyond the control of even the engineer's override key, this wouldn't happen. There would be no legitimate reason for an engineer to require an override for this function either, the system is reset by removing the offending train.
 
First of all. I wish the injured guests the best medical outcome, as quickly as possible.
Looking at the crash, and working from mechanism of injury. There is a high chance of limb loss and perminate medical problem.

As for changes to the system, i think they may add a program for valley of train. Where once a valley is confirmed, the only operation is to roll trains into protected offload areas. Maybe at the bottom of both lift hills.
 
BigDave said:
Sorry double post. Its now believed that one rider has had both legs removed. Once again, not confirmed so its just rumour!
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Where are these rumours coming from? The lastest we have on the injuries are as follows:
BBC said:
Senior paramedic, Peter Howell, said: "The women's injuries were worst, both suffered open wounds and damaged legs; the two men had leg and chest injuries but were less seriously hurt."
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:)
 
I would imagine that they are also taking time to strip the park of all Smiler-related promotional material. They had the logo plastered everywhere and it is a bit of a pointless and constant reminder of the event now, if the ride isn't gonna be up and running any time soon (judging from the forum consensus, next season if ever). It's gonna be a weird year (and possibly beyond?) at Alton, for sure.
 
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