Smiler rollercoaster at Alton Towers - carriage collision

[n111ck]

Just a few selections from that link from other parks - maybe AT isn't so bad...

Big Dipper
On 30 May 1972, one of the trains became detached from the lift chain and rolled back to the station (the anti-rollback mechanism having also failed), colliding with the other train. Five children were killed and thirteen others injured. The ride (the park's main attraction) was permanently closed, leading to the decline in the popularity of the funfair and its eventual closure at the end of the 1974 season.

Turbo Coaster
In December 2002, eight riders were allowed to ride the coaster despite the fact that a 16 ft section of track had been removed for maintenance. The ride operator stopped the train just before it hit the missing section. In 2004, Brighton Pier was fined £37,000 for failing to ensure people's safety.



On May 17, 2006, a 56-year-old park employee was performing safety checks on the train when he was decapitated as the train went into a tunnel.

 

[ColdAsIce]

Have any of you seen the of staff at Alton Towers? No offence but the majority of them look to be 18 years old or younger. I wouldn't trust them to order a pizza never mind be in control of an emergency like this.

The young person in control of the ride probably panicked and was in shock and to be fair they are probably earning minimum wage, with a high staff turnover. Could be wrong though

 

[thenewoc]

It does seem a bit odd that these rides can be built such that a means of escape isn't as accessible as it would need to be for a building. Hopefully there will be lessons learnt to feed into a major incident plan. Am a bit surprised that those first to assess the incident didn't also request the fire brigade.

 

[Moothead2]

Turbo Coaster
In December 2002, eight riders were allowed to ride the coaster despite the fact that a 16 ft section of track had been removed for maintenance. The ride operator stopped the train just before it hit the missing section. In 2004, Brighton Pier was fined £37,000 for failing to ensure people's safety.

Just...HOW!?

 

[Flack88]

Have any of you seen the of staff at Alton Towers? No offence but the majority of them look to be 18 years old or younger. I wouldn't trust them to order a pizza never mind be in control of an emergency like this.

The young person in control of the ride probably panicked and was in shock and to be fair they are probably earning minimum wage, with a high staff turnover. Could be wrong though

This! Some of them remind me of Sloth out of the Goonies.

 

[Dis86]

Just...HOW!?

Cos people are stupid.

 

[Xordium]

The BBC article states that Community First Responders were on the scene in minutes. They are trained for life threatening injuries and are supervised by the local ambulance service. They would have escalated for backup upon arriving at the scene. (Normally they are dispatched when control receive a red call via 999 but it looks like they are integrated to the First Aid support at the park).

Remember that it takes people time to run to the scene, get access to the ride, make sure it is shut down so they don't get injured too, and then see the state of the riders before they can escalate. Then the emergency services need to get access to the park and drive to the ride, probably over pedestrian paths.

There will probably be some improvements to make for the relationship with the emergency services (e.g. realising that Fire Engine support needs to be dispatched at the same time) but things of this nature is very rare at a theme park so understandable if they weren't automatically dispatched.

Sorry but there is no excuse for the delay. Community responders are poorly trained at the end of the day even though they do a valuable job. That is no sleight on them personally but they don't have the skillset to deal with something like this. A key component in any sort of medical care is acknowledging your own limitations therefore you should have recognised a situation that is well beyond your control and immediately called for help.

 

[McBain]

This! Some of them remind me of Sloth out of the Goonies.

Funny you should say that, I could swear this chap was working the door to Nemesis last time I was there.

 

[RyanF]

Don't get how nobody stopped to think about closing the ride until they could confirm it was properly working? Seeing as there are reports of it breaking down previously in the day..

 

[DJMK4]

Any more news on the casualties yet?

 

[adam cool dude]

Any more news on the casualties yet?

The 27 year old male has a collapsed lung and a fractured leg. Yet to see any confirmation about lost legs etc. Think that was just an over reaction by the press.

 

[DJMK4]

Sounds like the girl came out the worst

 

[SexyGreyFox]

In case of proven negligence then the claim can very high. Where I used to work has settled for tens of millions (in this country). In this case I would expect a figure close to a million for those who have lost the capacity of a limb.

Well this is my job day in, day out dealing with Negligence Claims and Personal Injury.
The really expensive payouts are Cerebral Palsy which can be up to 8 million but limb loss isn't that much and their ages will be taken into account.
However, I can see Alton Towers paying out a large amount so they don't go down the same road as Thomas Cook.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Any more news on the casualties yet?

Well 3 of them came to the hospital I work at and news got round very quickly but I'm keeping quiet until confirmed.

 

[bainbridge]

Well I hope the media have exaggerated and it turns out nobody lost any limbs.

 

[ubersonic]

You don't need to be a nuclear scientist to run a ride at a theme park.

To be fair, you didn't need to be a nuclear scientist o avoid the Fukushima disaster (nor were the people who caused it), that was kind of my point, any time you allow humans to override safety systems it's usually a bad idea. If the system had been left in maintenance/test mode like some engineers are saying it would have to have been in order for the crash to be possible then that's another example of human error triumphing a complex safety system.

 

[Xordium]

However, I can see Alton Towers paying out a large amount so they don't go down the same road as Thomas Cook.

Exactly, note there was also abdominal injuries and the psychological damage will be taken into account. That other one I was on about was the "superglue" one that I am sure you heard about.

 

[Kemik]

Sorry but there is no excuse for the delay. Community responders are poorly trained at the end of the day even though they do a valuable job. That is no sleight on them personally but they don't have the skillset to deal with something like this. A key component in any sort of medical care is acknowledging your own limitations therefore you should have recognised a situation that is well beyond your control and immediately called for help.

So how long is a reasonable amount of time for someone to get across a park the size of Alton Towers, see what has happened, contact the emergency services, then for the services to get to a fairly remote location and across the park?

I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have just seen the ride and said "yeah, I can sort this!".

 

[ubersonic]

I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have just seen the ride and said "yeah, I can sort this!".

My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

So how long is a reasonable amount of time for someone to get across a park the size of Alton Towers, see what has happened, contact the emergency services, then for the services to get to a fairly remote location and across the park?

I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have just seen the ride and said "yeah, I can sort this!".

Any large organisation should have a major incident strategy, to deal with something like this. As for getting across the park, surely the staff on the ride / adjacent rides would be there within seconds? Do they not have a form a communication e.g radio?

The emergency services will know exactly how long it takes to get to the park. They probably already have strategies and risk assess these sort of scenarios as well as keeping plans of the park. For instance, the fire service could tell you more about the layout of some of our hospitals and remote sites (community) than most of the staff.

The HSE have sent inspectors who form part of the national fairground inspection team (NFIT) so if there were failings in the response times, that will come out too.