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The Smiler - General Discussion

It is also worth noting that Merlin as a company were found liable and not any individual working on the day at Alton Towers. So if it was going to be seen publically that anyone had lost their job it would have been a member of senior mangement. I do not believe that happened.
 
The official investigation was scathing of Merlin's processes, management, supervision and auditing arrangements. It was not the fault of the individuals working that day. In fact they were let down by Merlin as well.
 
I still to this day find it shocking, and worrying in case I'm ever involved in an accident that so many people could muster the energy to grab their mobile phones and start filming the misery of others so they could share on social media rather than use said phone to call 999 themselves under the assumption that "someone else" would do it. What troubled times culturally we now live in.
 
Matt.GC said:
I still to this day find it shocking, and worrying in case I'm ever involved in an accident that so many people could muster the energy to grab their mobile phones and start filming the misery of others so they could share on social media rather than use said phone to call 999 themselves under the assumption that "someone else" would do it. What troubled times culturally we now live in.
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I thought many on here said there was set procedure for 999 calls and even if the public had called that the emergency services would of contacted Towers first before coming, to rule out idiots who call 999 because the ride they are on has stopped.

But do agree it’s sad that some people’s thoughts were film / photo.
 
Towers have paramedics on site so a 999 call isn’t always the most apropriate action. I think the issue was likely a lack of Major Incident planning, if a ride crashes you don’t use the same process as you would for someone who has fainted.
 
It’s a relatively unique set up at Towers in that they have trained First Responders on site who are trained to deal with more than your typical ‘first aider’ and so the procedure is that they will asses any incident first and then make the appropriate call as to whether emergency services are actually required.

Of course it would have been blatantly obvious in this case that help was required and it does seem that the time it took to make that call was quite long, I suspect internal changes have been made to speed this up but the basic procedure of a first responder attending first seems sound to me, and ensures that 999 calls aren’t made unnecessarily.
 
I doubt very much that a 999 operator would have ignored several calls from many members of the public all telling them the same thing, protocols or not. 1 call, thinking its some lunatic or prank, maybe. But not several. If they did, they should be sacked.

For all we know, they may have called and ambulances may have been despatched and the 20 min criticism may have been reffering to the time it took Towers to call rather anyone making a call at all. I personally would sleep easier at night thinking this was the case.

Either way, the fact that footage of the crash within seconds of it happening even exists is chilling enough for me.
 
Matt.GC said:
I doubt very much that a 999 operator would have ignored several calls from many members of the public all telling them the same thing, protocols or not. 1 call, thinking its some lunatic or prank, maybe. But not several. If they did, they should be sacked.

For all we know, they may have called and ambulances may have been despatched and the 20 min criticism may have been reffering to the time it took Towers to call rather anyone making a call at all. I personally would sleep easier at night thinking this was the case.

Either way, the fact that footage of the crash within seconds of it happening even exists is chilling enough for me.
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Towers have an established protocol with the emergency services. The emergency services will only treat a 999 call from Alton Towers as genuine if it is made from a set phone number (in Security Control). This is irrespective of whether it's for Ambulance, Fire or Police.
 
So 50 people could be calling them to say the resort is burning down but because the call doesn't come form a super secret magic number the emergency services will ignore the calls until it does come from said number.

So what happens if said number originates in the building that has burnt down?

That's just a lawsuit waiting to happen...
 
IanSR said:
So 50 people could be calling them to say the resort is burning down but because the call doesn't come form a super secret magic number the emergency services will ignore the calls until it does come from said number.

So what happens if said number originates in the building that has burnt down?

That's just a lawsuit waiting to happen...
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I doubt they would ignore the calls, they would likely contact Alton Towers to check. Big event spaces often have these arrangements as it’s too easy for a bunch of people to fake an incident (get 12 mates to ring at the same time for instance) as a “prank”.
 
What @Dave said. If any 999 calls are received then the emergency services contact security to confirm or investigate before sending units. It's a fairly standard process for big venues.
 
I keep thinking if I had of been there (in x-sector) and saw the train start to move from the loft I would of been on the phone even before it actually crashed, anyway is there really a need to bring this up again?
 
I guess not.

So moving the topic along, do we think they have fixed the projectors..?
 
I would hope so, it seems they've been busy on the inside of the station and queue this closed season. It's looking back to the opening day standards so it'd be pretty shocking to ignore the projectors.
 
Danny said:
I would hope so, it seems they've been busy on the inside of the station and queue this closed season. It's looking back to the opening day standards so it'd be pretty shocking to ignore the projectors.
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How do you know this @Danny? Is it on the TLC page? Certainly good to hear; well done Towers! Keep up the good work!
 
RicketyCricket said:
Just watching the latest Expedition Theme Park video on YouTube - The Troubled History Of The Smiler.
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I watched that video and it was very poorly researched. Just because somebody reads Wikipedia and records their voice over some downlaoded clips does not make their video authoritative or informative. Simply to get views. Unfortuantely people on YouTube seem to believe anything they hear as long as a simple narrative is beaten into it.

Rick said:
Baggage holds are incredibly expensive. I can't believe Merlin have them operating so widely across the estate.
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Contrary to what Varney says about himself, Merlin have proven consistently that they are inefficient with money. They don't spend it where needed to make long term savings and to maintain guest experience. But they do spend thousands a day on pointless things. For example, useless 8+ hour indoctrinations inductions for all staff learning meaningless 'Merlin brands' and playing primary school icebreaker games for 8 hours, including for returning staff who've done it all before, instead of any useful job training. Must cost a lot to pay staff by the hour for something that only serves to flatter their brand obsession.
 
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