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The Smiler - General Discussion

Secret Weapon said:
Shawn Sanbrooke said in a recent vlog that some of the restraints on the Smiler trains have been replaced, with the old ones lying around the ride (see link below at the 10:53 mark).

Is it hypothetically possible to replace the restraints with lap bars instead, or would this simply involve far too much modification and thus an entirely new train would be needed?


From: https://youtu.be/lyMqTIpaF7Q?t=653
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Would need new trains, lap bars require penetration points in the floor plate. The current trains don’t have that.
 
I’d prefer they spent the money removing the entire queue line re routing it behind the station somehow to enable ample breathing space , fixing the drainage permanently and creating a functional queue.

While you can argue it’s part of the theme, theming should enhance the guest experience not make them feel like they’re in an ICE camp.
 
I rarely use the main queue as I mainly use the single-rider queue, but - from what I remember - some of the TV screens have dead pixels, and others display the "No Signal" message.

I cannot understand the latter, because surely it would look better to guests (and also be more cost-effective for the park) to simply switch these non-functioning TV sets off altogether?

I seem to remember one of the TV sets in the Swarm queue-line being off, although - ironically - a "No Signal" message may have actually worked in The Swarm, as it may have seemed intentional due to the apocalyptic theme of the ride!
 
Secret Weapon said:
I had assumed that lapbars were unavailable at the time that The Smiler was built, but you are right: it seems that Gerstlauer had already begun using them around 2011.

I'm not sure why Alton Towers therefore chose OTSRs instead? Maybe it was to keep the trains smaller, but this is purely a guess on my part.

(According to Park Vault, lap bars are not possible on Gerstlauer rides that use both a launch and a lift, as the components won't fit - but I don't think this applies to The Smiler; see: https://parkvault.net/tag/gerstlauer/#:~:text=Ride Entertainment represents and installs,the shoulder restraints are required.)

According to Coaster Dad, Paulton's Park have allegedly chosen OSTRs for their new 2026 Gerstlauer ride because the public see lap bars as unsafe for inverting rides, but I totally disagree with the park's logic because people said the same about inversions in general at one point (regardless of the restraint type), but it would quickly become clear that this is not the case (the Thunder Looper had also used lap bars).

Also: there were no major safety concerns surrounding AT when the ride opened, as the 2015 incident had not happened at the time, and thus there was no real reason to worry about public perception back then (incidentally: I wonder whether the injuries in the 2015 incident would have been less severe if lap bars had been used instead, as the T-bars may have absorbed much of the impact?).
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I believe The Smiler could have had lap bars, but Merlin/Towers chose to go with OTSRs. It was likely that Towers simply didn't believe it would be perceived as 'safe' by the public if they used lap bars. There's never been anything official stated regarding the type of restraints on The Smiler, so I would take this as pure conjecture based on a mixture of rumours and discussions during the development and years following The Smiler opening.

I think, given the 2015 crash, they will never replace them with lap bars. It would cost money, it would need to be justified (some form of rebrand/new marketing), and likely it would be a PR team's headache (and a media field day to drag back up the 2015 crash). I think The Smiler will remain as it is, and continue to exist until it needs removing.
 
Secret Weapon said:
I wonder whether the injuries in the 2015 incident would have been less severe if lap bars had been used instead, as the T-bars may have absorbed much of the impact?).
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I think it would have been the total opposite.

Those T bars would have turned the 4 front occupants into human tubes of toothpaste.

It mounts at the very front of the chassis where it impacted the stalled train and would have likely crushed them against the seat.

Not to mention everyone else on the train, been held in only at the waist with that sort of impact. . Would have probably been alot of spinal injury too when they folded round the t bar like a horseshoe.

Been held in at the shoulders in that incident id say gave a much better outcome.
 
As I like to point out whenever "Wouldn't it be nice if Smiler had the lap bar restraints?" comes up, I think the likelihood is you'd be trading one kind of discomfort for another.

Yes, you wouldn't have to keep your head forward, and you wouldn't have the awful sweaty padding smell, but I find on the lap bar version that the front edge of the seat digs into the bottom of my thighs. Either the seat shape is changed too when specifying lap bars, or they apply pressure differently on my legs in a way that has that effect. Both restraint types can get tighter during the ride too, and the seat issue makes that more of a problem for me with lap bars than with OTSRs.
 
Regarding the OTSR, if Towers are determined to keep them on Smiler, might a compromise be if they replace the bulky OTSR with a Vekoma vest restraint design? Not perfect I'll admit but it at least would reduce headbanging for sure while keeping the OTSR if they want that.
 
Burks said:
Been held in at the shoulders in that incident id say gave a much better outcome.
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Cheese said:
As I like to point out whenever "Wouldn't it be nice if Smiler had the lap bar restraints?" comes up, I think the likelihood is you'd be trading one kind of discomfort for another.
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I’ve heard some people say that a problem with lap bars is that they leave the upper body unsupported and thus rides that use them must brake gently in order to prevent whiplash et cetera (and potentially also lower back strain?).

It’s not exactly the same thing, but I remember hearing as a child that the old waist-only seatbelts in rear-middle car seats were unsafe* (fortunately, these have mostly now been replaced with standard three-point seatbelts, though).

(*Off-topic: the wrestler Eddie Guerrero actually avoided serious injury in 1998 by not wearing a seatbelt, as he was ejected from a car before it collided)
Cheese said:
I find on the lap bar version that the front edge of the seat digs into the bottom of my thighs. Either the seat shape is changed too when specifying lap bars, or they apply pressure differently on my legs in a way that has that effect.
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I remember hearing somebody (possibly Hannah Fry) say that the seats on Hyperia have to angle backwards due to the waist restraints, and so perhaps adding lap bars to a normal seat might be problematic?

I’ve also heard some people say that the lap bars on Sik make the heartline rolls very uncomfortable, as the weight goes entirely on the thighs rather than the shoulders.

I am yet to ride Sik, but I rode The Wave at Drayton Manor a few times in 2025 and I personally found the zero-G roll painful whenever the lap bars were pressed down tightly (but fine otherwise). What bothered me was that I intentionally left the bar slightly loose, but – on at least one occasion – the ride attendant came along and crunched it down tightly anyway.
Cheese said:
Both restraint types can get tighter during the ride too, and the seat issue makes that more of a problem for me with lap bars than with OTSRs.
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The Smiler is a ride where riders can tighten the harnesses further even after the ride begins, and so you have to be careful not to do it accidentally during the ride as well !

I used to intentionally “over tighten” my own harness on The Smiler, but I no longer do this as it’s unnecessary and causes discomfort.

***

I might be wrong (somebody please correct me if I am), but I think that Hyperia is the first inverting Merlin / Tussauds ride since The Thunder Looper that doesn’t use traditional OTSRs? If so, then I wonder whether the proliferation of recent thrill rides using lap / waist restraints might persuade the public that they are the way forward (e.g. Icon, Hyperia, The Wave, Sik, Aviktas, et cetera).

I remember hearing that the Flying Fish intentionally used OTSRs during the 1980s in order to make the ride seem more intense than it actually was, and so I wonder whether this factored into Merlin’s decision to use them on certain rides?

I think The Ultimate at Lightwater Valley also changed from OTSRs to lap bars for comfort reasons.

Incidentally: I never found lap bars themselves unsafe, but what worried me more than anything were the ‘secondary’ safety / restraint features, as they implied that the primary restraints were not good enough by themselves – specifically:-

(A) The buckle seatbelt on Nemesis (I remember thinking that it was required in case people slid out underneath the OTSRs, as it was an inverted ride)

(B) The cage that went overhead on the old Sky Flyer ride at Drayton Manor, as I remember thinking it was needed to prevent people from falling out! (The Sky Flyer used lap bars, but I have seen similar rides with OTSRs that also had the cage, for whatever reason). Incidentally, this was definitely a ride that needed a maximum height restriction (due to the cage), but I never saw it listed or enforced.

P.S. I think Icon actually opened without buckle seatbelts, but then added them in at a later stage, for some reason.
 
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BarryZola said:
How do you get thrown out of the car before the crash?
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I wondered that myself, to be honest. I originally heard that he hit a tree, but a quick Google search of his autobiography shows that the car began rolling down an embankment, and he was ejected out of the "T-top" (which is an American phrase for "T-bar", I think) before it began picking up speed and flattening.
 
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