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Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

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I've not posted here before, after sort of losing touch after the *transition* from the previous site but I've been thinking about this since it happened.

Out of interest does anyone know if ride operators can add / remove cars to the system themselves? Or do tech services have to be called to do it?

If not, is it possible that tech services were called because of the car stuck on the lift hill and then weren't informed / made aware that a new craft had just been added to the circuit? - Which had stalled?


Also - When adding / removing a car does the ride software itself realise that the number of crafts has changed or is it manually inputted as to how many are in use?

Heres a quick run through of what could have happen - pure speculation

Ride has technical delay's during the day
An extra car is added to increase throughput - As advised by some eyewitness an announcement was made that an extra car was being added

Extra car stalls - which causes the ride to halt another car at the top of the lift hill as the next block isn't clear - and tech services are called.

Tech services arrive and are unaware that another car has been added to the system and reset the system to attempt to move the car stuck on the lift.

Is it possible that when the ride was reset the incorrect number of cars was entered into the system (speculating that this is done manually and also that one less car then there actually was was inputted), meaning the system, having been reset to attempt to clear the stopped lift hill, then scanned sensors and detected all the cars it was looking for - Therefore allowing the lift hill to release the halted car, into an occupied section?

Thoughts are for all those involved and the fastest recoveries to them.
 
Jay247uk said:
I've not posted here before, after sort of losing touch after the *transition* from the previous site but I've been thinking about this since it happened.

Out of interest does anyone know if ride operators can add / remove cars to the system themselves? Or do tech services have to be called to do it?

If not, is it possible that tech services were called because of the car stuck on the lift hill and then weren't informed / made aware that a new craft had just been added to the circuit? - Which had stalled?


Also - When adding / removing a car does the ride software itself realise that the number of crafts has changed or is it manually inputted as to how many are in use?

Heres a quick run through of what could have happen - pure speculation

Ride has technical delay's during the day
An extra car is added to increase throughput - As advised by some eyewitness an announcement was made that an extra car was being added

Extra car stalls - which causes the ride to halt another car at the top of the lift hill as the next block isn't clear - and tech services are called.

Tech services arrive and are unaware that another car has been added to the system and reset the system to attempt to move the car stuck on the lift.

Is it possible that when the ride was reset the incorrect number of cars was entered into the system (speculating that this is done manually and also that one less car then there actually was was inputted), meaning the system, having been reset to attempt to clear the stopped lift hill, then scanned sensors and detected all the cars it was looking for - Therefore allowing the lift hill to release the halted car, into an occupied section?

Thoughts are for all those involved and the fastest recoveries to them.
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Possible, but if it isn't manually, then it is possibly because the car that stalled hit the sensor, then rolled back of it. This would cause it to think it has cleared the block
 
it does, I thought the person was on about Air for some strange reason, on one of my rides on it some change fell out of someone's pocket and was rattling around on the floor of the row(the person was sat next to me) and until I saw what it was I thought something had gone wrong but after I spotted the coins I went back to enjoying the ride.
 
Leah said:
Possible, but if it isn't manually, then it is possibly because the car that stalled hit the sensor, then rolled back of it. This would cause it to think it has cleared the block
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Hitting a sensor on the batwing wouldn't mean it had cleared the block, just that it was making progress on it. The next new block is the break section before the second lift. From watching early testing videos the car can make a complete stop in two separate sections along that lot of breaks.
 
micksalt said:
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?
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Not true that you need to make a safety case to the HSE to operate - theme parks are not subject to what is called a 'permissioning regime' with the HSE. Only major hazard chemical sites and offshore oil and gas installations have that.

I also doubt the 11 minutes would be overly worrying either to the HSE, as I said earlier. It isn't quick, but within the band of the time I would normally expect emergency services to be called.

More likely that either the HSE have issued Prohibition Notices for operation of coasters at the park, or even more likely Merlin have given assurances to them that they won't operate any until they have bottomed out the cause of the accident. If a PN has been issued, they will need to satisfy the HSE they have done enough for the PN to have been complied with, before they can use the coaster(s).

I repeat, there will be absolutely nothing to stop Merlin opening the park itself - the HSE wouldn't have any grounds for shutting down the whole park. For example, they would have absolutely no grounds to close the gardens or play areas. It is just without the coasters and other higher risk attractions, there wouldn't be much point opening the park.
 
Jay247uk said:
If not, is it possible that tech services were called because of the car stuck on the lift hill and then weren't informed / made aware that a new craft had just been added to the circuit? - Which had stalled?

Also - When adding / removing a car does the ride software itself realise that the number of crafts has changed or is it manually inputted as to how many are in use?
Click to expand...

Seeing as they had just been sending test trains around after a technical issue, is it possible that tech services would still be inside or part way through leaving, never making it outside to see the stalled train?

I would be very surprised if the system doesn't automatically detect additions. Plus, the train on the lift was stopped so all indications are that the block system did its job.
 
Wow this thread moves quick.

I haven't got anything exciting to add, although just bouncing off a few things. They won't scrap The Smiler, it's a £18 million coaster, and rides that have had accidents and even deaths stay open beyond incidents. So no, no way it will be scrapped, even if they have to spend millions to improve it (if it requires any upgrades or improvements) it will be back open one day.

I think a rebrand could be likely, it's a hard one to judge. In one way over the years people will still continue to go on the ride. Although given the amount of media attention this has brought it would somewhat be kind of weird to have a ride named The Smiler, that aims to make you 'Smile. Always.' - I find that a little grim after something this major has happened. I guess that's something Towers will go into lengthy discussions about once the investigation has concluded.

Seeing Facebook this evening the Towers social media team have done an amazing job. They've pretty much replied to every single person that has posted on their statuses, and most of the time responded personally with no generic copy and paste jobs.

The amount of support across social media is fantastic to see too, they really outweigh the idiots saying the park should be closed for good, The Smiler should be removed, pointing the finger at it being the staffs fault etc..

The park being closed tomorrow, while still good to show they're taking it seriously, I think if this leads into the weekend and next week people could start to get frustrated and this initial positive praise may fade. I'd assume it's safe to say they're reviewing all procedures for the major rides on park. I'd also assume they have a fair idea of what has happened with The Smiler, or at least they have a fair idea of what areas need to be investigated. It's pretty much impossible for this to happen on another ride on park although it's still good to see they're looking at other rides just to be certain.

I really feel for the staff being out of a job. I guess they're not being paid (can anyone confirm?), which isn't the best thing when a lot of staff have bills and rent to pay, and need their wages to make a living.

The media dramatizing this more today has been annoying to see, but ah well, water is wet.
 
With regards to the possibility of a re-brand, it could happen, but it would be nothing major. I mean, look at Space Mountain at DLP - It was just Space Mountain, then it changed to SM:M2 and now there's rumours of it changing back to just SM. I dunno, anything is possible... as we've found out this week. :/
 
James said:
I think a rebrand could be likely, it's a hard one to judge. In one way over the years people will still continue to go on the ride. Although given the amount of media attention this has brought it would somewhat be kind of weird to have a ride named The Smiler, that aims to make you 'Smile. Always.' - I find that a little grim after something this major has happened. I guess that's something Towers will go into lengthy discussions about once the investigation has concluded.
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I agree with you in this sense - it's the one part of the branding that stands really at odds of the incident. Surely, dropping that tagline from the entire ride / promotional material would be easier than rebranding the whole ride. Although not a fan of a rebrand following the incident (surprising considering my dislike of the name when it was announced) it might just stop the negative association that is going to happen in the future.
 
Leah said:
What is happening, I can't open the link on a kindle fire.
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It's from the last time that The Smiler valleyed on the batwing.

66mU4F5.png
 
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