Smiler rollercoaster at Alton Towers - carriage collision
- Thread starter DJMK4
- Start date
Man of Honour
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- 29 Mar 2003
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- Blurton
It will be the safest ride in the World now
Yep, car crashes doesn't stop people getting back into cars.
I'd be first in line for it. I'd have ridden it that same day of the accident if it was open. (In theory - though out of respect for the injured I wouldn't)
I would not suprised to see that they may have fitted some sort of "bumper" system to the top of each train near the rail so that if a car ever hit another there would be a safe distance between passengers and the rear of the car in front? Half a foot of steel pole with a big rubber bung!
Then again it depends on the design of the train cars and weight etc etc
Then again it depends on the design of the train cars and weight etc etc
They had issues with it when it was built not reaching the speeds needed at parts of the track. I'm pretty sure they shortened the cars to fix the issue. So adding anything might cause the same issue.
From what I have read if it locks out again there are physical keyed locks at locations around the track that need to be re-set manually forcing the engineer to go to the blocked part of the track. I have no idea if this is true or not just what was posted on a coaster forum.....
It would make sense.
wow the Engineers really messed up it seems:
•On 2 June four trains were operating on the ride; a fifth was stored away
•At 13:00 BST there was a problem with one of the trains; technical staff were called
•One of the engineers thought it was a good opportunity to add the fifth train because the park was busy
•An empty test train was sent but failed
•Engineers pushed the train until it engaged with the system and off it went
•Another empty train was sent out. It got stuck, too, but in a different place
•Engineers were unaware of this, thought everything was working fine and handed it back to operators
•The train with 16 passengers on was sent out and stopped
•The engineers looked but could not see the stalled car, thought the computer was wrong, and over-rode the stop. This set the 16-passenger train in motion and into the empty carriage
Really surprised they didn't do more checks into why the computer system was trying to stop the other trains from going :S
•On 2 June four trains were operating on the ride; a fifth was stored away
•At 13:00 BST there was a problem with one of the trains; technical staff were called
•One of the engineers thought it was a good opportunity to add the fifth train because the park was busy
•An empty test train was sent but failed
•Engineers pushed the train until it engaged with the system and off it went
•Another empty train was sent out. It got stuck, too, but in a different place
•Engineers were unaware of this, thought everything was working fine and handed it back to operators
•The train with 16 passengers on was sent out and stopped
•The engineers looked but could not see the stalled car, thought the computer was wrong, and over-rode the stop. This set the 16-passenger train in motion and into the empty carriage
Really surprised they didn't do more checks into why the computer system was trying to stop the other trains from going :S
Deleted member 651465
Deleted member 651465
Human factors as it's finest. See a situation which you don't understand.. assume the best "it'll be alright" or deny the existence of a problem and carry on regardless.
Terrible incident which was easily avoidable
Terrible incident which was easily avoidable
Human factors as it's finest. See a situation which you don't understand.. assume the best "it'll be alright" or deny the existence of a problem and carry on regardless.
Terrible incident which was easily avoidable
Completely agree, it should be standard practice across the board that you should not be allowed to override the system which would have prevented this in the first place.
If the ride needs to be stopped manually then cut all power, not oh let's just ignore the warning system and override it.
Deleted member 651465
Deleted member 651465
Some safety systems are designed to isolate the power (interlocking guards etc) whereas others can be put in to an "engineer" or "test" mode, which disables guards but allows the equipment to function.
This type of engineering mode is typically used in production equipment which needs to be operating for faults to be detected i.e. diagnosis of electrical faults in automated robots. Now, this could well be the case (that the ride was overridden) because they were testing it, but their process sucks major *** if they didn't complete a visual inspection of the track before pushing that button.
Part of me hopes they'll (courts) consider the owner of the ride to be Merlin Attractions Ltd (parent group of Alton Towers Resort), as the new sentencing guidelines take in to account organisational profit and the fine will be much larger.
