The Smiler Incident - What Happened

[rob666]

There is little similarity at all between the two incidents, other than a massive overreaction from the media, both mainstream and social.

 

[MaxPower]

I don't think it was that much of an overreaction considering two people needed amputations due to the parks incompetence. It was quite right that the park was publicly lambasted for it.

The overreaction to every e-stop / breakdown from anyone with an X account and a smart phone is the problem.

 

[DistortAMG]

I suppose the difference between the Madeleine McCann case and the Smiler accident is that the former is still unresolved.

That is pretty much, exactly the same as saying, that having a light switched on, is the opposite of having it switched off.

In my opinion, the over reaction from the media came from the 'horror, fear, death, danger,' headlines that literally popped up weekly, for years in the aftermath. Mostly for things as simple as a routine lift hill stop in any UK park. To the point that even AT themselves, put out a series of videos from Francis Jackson.

 

[Secret Weapon]

I’m sorry to bump an old thread, but – in your opinion – how would Merlin have responded if both trains had been empty when the crash occurred? (e.g. if the riders had been evacuated from the previous train at the top of the first lift hill before the ride was restarted)

Obviously there would have been no human casualties, and therefore little (if any) attention from the mainstream media – and there presumably also would not have been any fine imposed from the HSE.

But how would Merlin have changed their internal operating procedures, if at all?

Would they have simply blamed it on the ‘incompetence’ of the staff in the park that day, perhaps firing or demoting them, but otherwise continuing as normal? (their initial statement in 2015 seemed very quick to blame the staff)

Or would it have been a wake-up call that they needed to improve their procedures regarding block resets? If so, then how far would they have gone with this? For instance, would they still have installed additional block reset buttons, wind sensors, larger CCTV monitors, and – crucially – also prevented ride operators from performing block resets without supervision from a senior engineer*?

I am unsure whether they would have mandated that trains had to be evacuated of all passengers before restarting a ride if not for the human casualties (as they may have then assumed that this went without saying), and I am also unsure whether they would have overhauled their training schemes as extensively / replaced speed bonuses with safety bonuses / mandated that staff had to thoroughly read the operating manuals, et cetera.

*Most of the changes since the crash have been for the best, but – at the risk of sounding controversial – the one change that I personally see as a potential negative is preventing ride operators from being able to restart a ride after a fault, as this can severely – and perhaps unnecessarily – slow the ride operations down (I think other parks such as Porta Ventura in Spain still allow it).

I fully understand that Merlin are desperate to prevent any further human injuries (and I applaud them for this), but I assume that this could probably be prevented by simply removing all passengers and sending empty cars around after a fault, instead of summoning a senior ride engineer to restart the ride each time? I am not a ride expert, though (and have never worked as a ride operator), and so I will gladly defer to anybody on this board who may know more about this than me!

 

[DistortAMG]

I fully understand that Merlin are desperate to prevent any further human injuries (and I applaud them for this),

Applauding them for what we consider to be the very bare basics of attending theme park? I do not think that is something to applaud as if they have done something right, that is the very lowest of the low in expectations that you would expect when visiting a theme park. It is that low of an expectation, we (the general public) do not usually consciously even think about it, we just expect it to be, and rightly so. For the most part, the park and industry quite rightly are excellent on this. There would not be an industry otherwise

Like any company, they do not have much choice in preventing human injuries, they would not be operating as a business for much longer if the failed to do this foundational expectation.

 

[rob666]

After a decade and twenty pages, I thought we had squeezed out every last drop of discussion from this sad incident.

Apparently not.