DistortAMG
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- POTC Disneyland Paris
Hello, I am a long time browser, first time poster. I used to go under the name doopy dan on TTF. Way back in the day. Thought I would get peoples opinion's on this. Apologies if this did not warrant it's own topic.
I was interested into people's opinion's of who is to blame for The Smilers crash last year. I come from a computer programming background and have experience in dealing with programmable logic controllers (PLC's). The industrial spec computer systems that operate all sorts of automated equipment, from UPS's (logistics) and Amazon's automated warehouse's, alongside and more relevantly, rollercoasters like The Smiler.
I personally believe that while Alton Towers should take some of the blame, but a good portion of the blame lies with Gerstlauer. It is hard to draw a solid conclusion without all the facts, but, from what we have been told and know factually, in my opinion, it gives a strong argument.
As we know the coaster crashed because staff overrode the (correctly working) safety systems and allowed a train to proceed into the next unclear block of track. I do not think that the system that allowed the staff to override the safety system should have been as easily accessible as it was. Even if it was, the system should have still thrown some red flags even after a reset, that alerted the operator that the next block was not clear.
B&M and Intamin have never had an accident specifically like this on any of their rollercoasters to my knowledge. While it is impossible to say if any of their coasters have or have not specifically been placed in the same scenario that The Smiler was in, I would say it was likely given the amount of hours collectively their coasters have built up in operation. Your average Joe is operating rides like this all over the planet.
A more robust software system would not have allowed this to happen in my oppinion. Consign AG, the main electrical contractor to B&M, who installed the electrical, control and software systems for all of Alton's B&M's have never had an issue like this.
I was interested into people's opinion's of who is to blame for The Smilers crash last year. I come from a computer programming background and have experience in dealing with programmable logic controllers (PLC's). The industrial spec computer systems that operate all sorts of automated equipment, from UPS's (logistics) and Amazon's automated warehouse's, alongside and more relevantly, rollercoasters like The Smiler.
I personally believe that while Alton Towers should take some of the blame, but a good portion of the blame lies with Gerstlauer. It is hard to draw a solid conclusion without all the facts, but, from what we have been told and know factually, in my opinion, it gives a strong argument.
As we know the coaster crashed because staff overrode the (correctly working) safety systems and allowed a train to proceed into the next unclear block of track. I do not think that the system that allowed the staff to override the safety system should have been as easily accessible as it was. Even if it was, the system should have still thrown some red flags even after a reset, that alerted the operator that the next block was not clear.
B&M and Intamin have never had an accident specifically like this on any of their rollercoasters to my knowledge. While it is impossible to say if any of their coasters have or have not specifically been placed in the same scenario that The Smiler was in, I would say it was likely given the amount of hours collectively their coasters have built up in operation. Your average Joe is operating rides like this all over the planet.
A more robust software system would not have allowed this to happen in my oppinion. Consign AG, the main electrical contractor to B&M, who installed the electrical, control and software systems for all of Alton's B&M's have never had an issue like this.
