Smiler rollercoaster at Alton Towers - carriage collision

n111ck · 2 Jun 2015 at 23:26

AT is completely shut tomorrow now.

thebennyboy · 2 Jun 2015 at 23:28

n111ck said:
AT is completely shut tomorrow now.

It would have been bad PR for them to open tomorrow. Although i'm pretty sure they weren't the ones that decided to close the park.

Seems the Health and Safety Executive is involved so they probably were told that they are not allowed to open so that the incident can be investigated.

Caged · 2 Jun 2015 at 23:39

Worthy said:
What happened? I think I missed that one!

I'm going with:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_One_(roller_coaster)#Incidents said:
The first accident happened close to the opening of the ride, in July 1994. Twenty-six people were injured when the computer system failed to completely stop a train returning to the station. The result of this brake failure was a collision with a waiting train at the ride's station. The injuries were all only minor but the incident was widely publicised by the media.[2]

Tom Martow · 2 Jun 2015 at 23:49

thenewoc said:
I'm very surprised that given one or more circumstances exist that the ride could manually be started. It seems a lot of responsibility to be placed on a ride attendant.

Yep, especially if the ride takes 3 minutes to, around and in 5 minutes it hadn't returned to the station.

Keechy · 2 Jun 2015 at 23:49

is so bad this happened but i think this is the 2rd time this ride has failed

Monkeynut · 2 Jun 2015 at 23:51

Skidder said:
What rubbish are you spouting. Why is the big one unsafe? How does Arrow going bust impact safety?

The safety has already been explained, it was slightly tongue in cheek though.

Worthy · 2 Jun 2015 at 23:56

Caged said:
I'm going with:

Googling things yourself is too hard, thanks.

It's a real shame this happened (obviously in terms of the injuries), as it's an absolutely cracking ride but they just can't seem to get it working properly. I went on it with a mate, and a couple of days after we'd been, a part of the track fell off.

smr · 3 Jun 2015 at 00:05

Horrible news that one of the teenagers has had their leg amputated. I got mocked for saying AT could be facing legal fees in the hundreds of thousands. Doesnt sound daft now does it?

Caged · 3 Jun 2015 at 00:07

Worthy said:
Googling things yourself is too hard, thanks.

Well I wasn't going to make a point of it but...

smr said:
Horrible news that one of the teenagers has had their leg amputated. I got mocked for saying AT could be facing legal fees in the hundreds of thousands. Doesnt sound daft now does it?

About one person challenged you on it but congratulations for letting it slide instead of using someone having to have their legs amputated as an opportunity for a "told you so" moment.

McBain · 3 Jun 2015 at 00:10

Very, very grim if true

Tom Martow · 3 Jun 2015 at 00:12

If the part about the teenagers having their leg amputated is true then that's horrible, no amount of money will make that better. Poor guy/girl

McBain · 3 Jun 2015 at 00:14

Where is this being reported? I'm not seeing it anywhere?

Rroff · 3 Jun 2015 at 00:15

Abraxaz1 said:
The PLCs are extensively tested, hell we have PLCs from the 80s still running today.
Either a level 0 instrument failed and the program wasn't designed to deal with it I.e. the car going passed a faulty proxy when the programme asked.

Its either going to be a maintenance change issue or a freak situation that the original programmer didn't think off.

Most of these systems have pages of interlocks and self tests, wouldn't be surprised if a.key system was left in manual or engineering mode after the down period

Potentially a freak situation the programmer(s) hadn't foreseen but I'd bet money on with the recent technical issues etc. alarms were flagged and manually over-ridden/ignored probably with a mixture of staff negligence and pressure from those above them, there'll be a lot of hand wringing and shifting blame and 6 months later back at it...

EDIT: That said I know with Stealth the testing and maintenance is insane - I doubt they'd even run it if it had half the problems this one has so a bit surprised.

smr · 3 Jun 2015 at 00:16

Its not a told you so moment at all. Its horrific news and thats all there is to it but its also a trend on these forums to be mocked as an "expert" for having an opinion. There is no need to attack people or try to make them feel small for saying things how they see them and expressing an opinion.

Caged · 3 Jun 2015 at 00:17

Where did you hear about an amputation?

firstborn · 3 Jun 2015 at 00:24

smr said:
Its not a told you so moment at all. Its horrific news and thats all there is to it but its also a trend on these forums to be mocked as an "expert" for having an opinion. There is no need to attack people or try to make them feel small for saying things how they see them and expressing an opinion.

It's GD, everyone here is an expert on everything.

n111ck · 3 Jun 2015 at 00:43

Caged said:
Where did you hear about an amputation?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ple-board.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailUK

Simps · 3 Jun 2015 at 00:46

Someone re-tweeted a picture on twitter of the smashed carriage and within 5 minutes he had about 40 tweets from news crews all round the world asking for permission to use his picture and requests for dm's about an interview.
With current phone capabilities everyone is a news reporter these days.

Jopabo · 3 Jun 2015 at 01:12

I haven't been to AT for years, just read this story, very bad for AT, no way should they have let a car go out with another car on the track that has failed.

I hope all the injured make a full recovery, I can see this ride being shut down permanently.

Monkeynut · 3 Jun 2015 at 01:22

The wait times in AT are ridiculous anyway. This won't help.

Smiler rollercoaster at Alton Towers - carriage collision

I haz 4090!