Smiler rollercoaster at Alton Towers - carriage collision

Imagine the people on it just before them then.... they'll be feeling rather lucky right now.
 
The four seriously hurt all teenagers and the ride did break down earlier in the day :(
 
When the ride was being built one of the theme park forums had a fairly detailed report on the rides control systems.

The second car isn't allowed to go up the vertical lift until the first car has cleared the second run of loops it also has a large trim brake in the centre to slow the cars down if they are over a set speed and also stop them in an emergency before they go through the main loops which is where most of the carriages got stuck in previous incidents.

An individual won't have been able to send a car round when the other was stuck, the control system for the ride must have had an issue.
 
Scary stuff, hope everyone is okay.

I didn't think things like this were possibly with modern amusement rides? I was under the impression that before anything else safety was the number 1 priority when building these.

Scary.
 
My sister got £10,000 for suffering whiplash in a car accident which wasn't even that bad....

I'm guessing considering the circumstances surrounding this crash, with "serious" injuries - we're not just talking about whiplash... so I could quite feasibly see the compo running up to the 100k mark... there were other people in the carriage besides those four don't forget, they will also have a right to claim.

But anyway the main thing is that hopefully these people can recover fully and completely and that everyone is ultimately going to be ok.

pics of sister?
 
Threads like this always bring out the closet solicitors risk managers and H&S execs.

Anyway - back on topic - hope these kids make a recovery, sounds horrific.
 
'Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets you.'

:eek: do hope everyone is okay though. I've never been a big fan of rollercoasters anyway. Last one I went on was Rita, never again!
 
How does a modern roller coaster computer system not realise there is a bloody coach stuck on the track? Surely they are tracked on the roller coaster?
 
Terrible news, You really don't expect to see things like that in this day and age on coasters, I always thought the H&S on these was super tight. Seems like a silly error to make though sending a carriage out before the test one has fully returned.

I use to visit towers a lot and to hear "technical difficulties" was quite a regular thing, I remember many many moons a go a nemesis coaster losing momentum and not fully making the loop and rolling back down. Luckily only one carriage was going round at a time.
 
How does a modern roller coaster computer system not realise there is a bloody coach stuck on the track? Surely they are tracked on the roller coaster?

From what I had read in the past it does track where the cars are on the track and only lets the next one move on when the previous has passed a trim brake or lift.

The control system must have had an issue, when it was new the ride had issues maintaining speed through the main loops causing multiple carriages to get stuck and the control system didn't send another car out in those instances so something has failed this time.
 
I think OCUK need to spec The Smiler a new computer system.

The current one does look a bit iffy!

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They do need an easier way to access these things should you need to get people off



Quickly.


I mean even look at a cherry picker


"We have to build a platform" makes it sound like there getting the lego bricks ready
 
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