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Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

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Dave said:
It will have an impact for about 3 months, the Internet makes us think everyone is a crazy risk averse psycho but most people are reasonable.

By next season the impact will have gone.
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Totally agree there may be longer financial pain if victims file lawsuits and win the case.
 
ASturge21 said:
My school issued letters about a trip to Alton Towers on Wednesday and I believe that very few have been put off visiting.
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My school is the opposite. There is a trip (which my class isn't going on:mad:) but lots of people are not going because "that's the place where them kids died" just let me go instead!!!

Don't think many people will be put of by the smiler being closed because it is 2 years old
 
Leah said:
My school is the opposite. There is a trip (which my class isn't going on:mad:) but lots of people are not going because "that's the place where them kids died" just let me go instead!!!

Don't think many people will be put of by the smiler being closed because it is 2 years old
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My schools probably because we are up in Scotland and is one of the few chances people get to go to a major theme park ( as their is only about one in the whole of Scotland which is terrible). Nothing puts people in my school off for anything.
 
Towers could be open tomorrow. The website is only mentioning today's closure, and according to the opening times page, tomorrow is still set for 10-5.

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Though I suppose we'll know for definite later this evening.
 
Tom.B said:
Towers could be open tomorrow. The website is only mentioning today's closure, and according to the opening times page, tomorrow is still set for 10-5.

8BHodt5.png


Though I suppose we'll know for definite later this evening.
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Based on previous closure announcements I believe that todays came at around 1pm yesterday so based on that my guess is that the park will re-open tomorrow or Tuesday.
 
Just managed to take a look and there's not a lot extra on the newswires today (may change later, who knows). This is the one statement of significance - positive news though.

SURGERY FOR ALTON TOWERS VICTIM
Press Association

A student who suffered potentially life-changing injuries in the Alton Towers rollercoaster crash has undergone more surgery, her lawyers have said.
Victoria Balch, who turned 20 yesterday, is not in a life-threatening condition, as previously thought, law firm Stewarts said in a statement.
Miss Balch, from Leyland in Lancashire, was among four people who suffered serious leg injuries after two carriages collided at the Staffordshire theme park on Tuesday.
Paul Paxton, a partner at Stewarts Law, said the international spa management student and her family remained grateful for the stream of good wishes they have received.
Commenting on the latest legal position, Mr Paxton said: "We have contacted the Health and Safety Executive and hope to be able to discuss with Merlin's insurers and their legal team as early as next week."
Meanwhile, Alton Towers is to remain closed today due to the ongoing investigation into the cause of the accident.
The park said guests with pre-booked tickets have the option to use their tickets today at an alternative attraction.
Those with pre-booked tickets can also obtain a full refund or alternative dated tickets.
 
Kelpie said:
Just managed to take a look and there's not a lot extra on the newswires today (may change later, who knows). This is the one statement of significance - positive news though.

SURGERY FOR ALTON TOWERS VICTIM
Press Association

A student who suffered potentially life-changing injuries in the Alton Towers rollercoaster crash has undergone more surgery, her lawyers have said.
Victoria Balch, who turned 20 yesterday, is not in a life-threatening condition, as previously thought, law firm Stewarts said in a statement.
Miss Balch, from Leyland in Lancashire, was among four people who suffered serious leg injuries after two carriages collided at the Staffordshire theme park on Tuesday.
Paul Paxton, a partner at Stewarts Law, said the international spa management student and her family remained grateful for the stream of good wishes they have received.
Commenting on the latest legal position, Mr Paxton said: "We have contacted the Health and Safety Executive and hope to be able to discuss with Merlin's insurers and their legal team as early as next week."
Meanwhile, Alton Towers is to remain closed today due to the ongoing investigation into the cause of the accident.
The park said guests with pre-booked tickets have the option to use their tickets today at an alternative attraction.
Those with pre-booked tickets can also obtain a full refund or alternative dated tickets.
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Good to hear that her condition is no longer life threatening.
 
bluesonichd said:
I think a lot go to ride the Smiler, judge from q times compared to Nemesis, 13, sometimes they can be triple.
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I'll second that during quiet period smiler had 15-20 minute q time where the other 'super 6' rides had close to no q time.
 
Tom said:
The HSE do issue public reports on major incidents. I am not sure if this will qualify for a multi-page PDF like some investigations, but we will know the outcome in either case.

The way they have been providing updates on this issue would be unusual for the vast majority of their work, so they have acknowledged public interest and the information releases will continue as there are developments. If there is a prosecution and court case, then we will also learn what has gone on via the usual media reporting of that.

What's important to realise is that these things take months or even years.
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Yes they do, but normally only after criminal proceedings have concluded. One exception to this was the Buncefield explosion, but there were learnings from that incident and new knowledge about gas vapour explosions that was important to disseminate to the chemicals industry. But that is very rare (in fact unique in the time I have been involved in technical safety over the last 20 years) - I highly doubt they will issue any report on this incident before criminal proceedings have concluded (because a defendant can argue that it is prejudicial to a fair hearing and is against their human rights to a fair trial - not many people know that the human rights act also applies to companies).

It is not unusual for the HSE to issue public statements about notices being issued - after 28 days (the appeal period) those notices would be publicly available anyway (and they are published on the HSE website after about 7 weeks). But I bet you won't hear a dicky bird from them about what actually caused the crash until after any prosecution. We might get an inkling what could have occurred from any subsequent improvement notices that get issued. A Prohibition Notice is normally issued straight away, before all facts are known. Then subsequent Improvement Notices often get issued, and the content of those notices are normally a bit more informative - for example, they are normally accompanied by a schedule that details specific steps that need to be taken to improve health and safety, and you can often read between the lines what might have happened in the incident.

There are often public enquiries after major incidents - such as Piper Alpha, Kings Cross etc. - but they tend to be after mutiple fatalities have occurred. I highly doubt this will qualify.

Then there are also fatal accident enquiries - but as nobody was killed (thanfully) that won't be applicable to this incident.

So I would be highly surprised if there is any 'public' report issued on this incident by the HSE. However, it WILL be declared a major incident by HSE definitions because more than one person suffered a serious injury in the same accident.

There are some sectors of industry where an investigation report into a major incident has to be made publicly available by EU law (for example a summary report for all major incidents offshore will be made publicly available after legal proceedings have concluded from next month). But I believe theme parks aren't one of those industries.

The full facts will come out at any prosecution though, even if there is a guilty plea by a defendant. In such a situation, a 'narrative' is read out by the prosecution describing what happened, so that a judge can form a view on the seriousness of the offence for sentencing. The defence will then read out a mitigation statement, which attempts to get any potential sentence reduced somewhat (although I did hear of one case where the defence mitigation actually made things worse for them, and the actual sentence ended up being larger than expected!). But that narrative should be more than enough for the general public to be informed what occurred, which is why I don't think anything more will be issued.
 
TheBeast said:
I would understand a noticable drop this season, but not for next season or the seasons after that. Once the media stop going Smiler crazy, people will forget all about it if im honest
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As normal with the media with each passing day attention gets less and less.
 
ASturge21 said:
Good to hear that her condition is no longer life threatening.
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The other phrase to note is: suffered potentially life-changing injuries. Which is also good news. In press speak that means no amputations have occurred.

In actuality for the individual of course it will have a massive impact regardless, and potentially still be life changing. That's much more personal detail though, not what will be put in a press release to describe the severity of injuries sustained.
I haven't seen any official statements on behalf of the other injured, aside from the tweet from one of the guys dad's.
 
ASturge21 said:
But the re-opening would bring back the media's attention to the crash and have another short term decline in visitors (potentially)
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I imagine whenever they will open it, even next season media will bring it up.

I'd love it to be open for scarefest because I usually go then but alas and alack.
 
I like the Smiler but I'm less bothered about the impact on this ride (which had been a Thorn in their side since they started building it) than I am about the parks reputation as well as efficient operations in the park.
 
Dave said:
That will come out of insurance, though it will I'm sure have an impact on their premiums.
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For sure any damage payments will come from insurance as I'd imagine a fair amount of operational losses will as well.
I know most people found the Thomas Cook case to be reprehensible but it's normal for big corporations to insure against losses and brand damage caused by an "accident".
 
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