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Accident at Alton Towers

Intricks said:
Raptor at Cedar Point has only ever stalled once, but now dont they take precautions in winds that are in excess of a certain speed?
To be fair, Cedar Point's "precautions" are the most ludicrous in the entire industry.

When it rains, they drop to one train operation to avoid any potential for a coaster to slip through it's breaks and crash into another train, the most common cause of coaster "crashes" (usually just a bump). And in fairness, this accident happened to them with their Arrow hyper. And the exact same thing happened to Blackpool's. So it is a genuine concern. Any coaster with more than 2 trains they just outright close. I can understand this, makes sense, I'll tolerate it.

But, if it even so much as looks like it'll rain they start closing stuff to take trains off.

When I went and asked whats up with operations, because NO ONE once did a PA announcement, I was told "it... might rain" really awkwardly as if the staff member KNEW it was a crock of turd. The sky was grey and in fairness it did rain later that day... When the park closed, on our drive to the hotel near Kings Island. It then rained all night and the entire time we were at Kings Island. Nothing dropped to single train operations, nothing closed. They're the same company, in the same state, why the hell are they following different procedures? A mouse sneeze worth of liquid on a track will not cause a coaster to slip through it's breaks, so until it ACTUALLY starts raining, there's absolutely no need to implement a rain policy.

I presume that, in order to keep thing objective, they start following the rain policy if the local weather predicts a precipitation likeliness above a certain percent OR if it starts randomly raining?

The thing about all this is there will always be freak weather and we can't all just stop getting on with our lives just in case there is.

The other problem is the lack of explanation or understanding around park safety policies leads to people (me included) making assumptions and it looks like parks make it up as they go along.

Unrelated story... For example, at Dollywood they open their coasters for their Christmas event if the temp gets above 40f. That's what the lady on the ticket booth said. Tornado and Thunderhead were closed all day on this one particular visit - they had snow on their tracks. But they tried all day to get Wild Eagle open. They kept testing it, over and over. Eventually it opened for a short while, but once Mystery Mine opened, it stayed open. It stayed open into the evening. When it was dark. And definitely colder than 40f. I ASSUME the temp in the afternoon sun was flickering at around 40, allowing them to start testing, but then it would drop a degree so they couldn't open to public. But maybe they have another rule that states if a coaster has been running consistently for x amount of time, you can stay open as low as, just for arguments sake, 35f explaining why Mystery Mine stayed open? Maybe it;s to do with it being partially indoors? Maybe.... I dunno. Or maybe they just make **** up as they go along.
 
I feel really sorry for the rider operator. They must feel absolutely terrible and dreadful.
Is it publicly known the exact error?
 
Eh, can't nitpick at them for not knowing the specific elements, they seem to have got the basics right.

That article is very carefully worded to make it sound as if the trains valleyed on the day of the incident, not over the past 16 months or so. Though as I've said from the start, the trains valleying is a major issue that should have been addressed, indeed I'm sure there was rumours that they were looking to reprofile that section of the ride because of how rough the cobra roll was and because of the stalls on the batwing.

Surely the team running the ride wouldn't have been so reckless as to put a fresh train on the track without running it in, knowing the risk of stalling? And if so, you'd have to assume unless it was malicious that they'd be monitorring it to make sure it completed it's first circuit?

Which leads me to think that any part of human error that's over ridden the system has come about from trying to bring the train back down the lift to help evacuate, rather than evacuating them in situe at the top. Wonder if that's part of the operating procedure changes they've got to make?
 
Smithy said:
Eh, can't nitpick at them for not knowing the specific elements, they seem to have got the basics right.

Yeah that's true actually. I did hear one theory which again, probably isn't true, but does the coaster have an override function?

The theory I heard was that the ride broke down and the system flashed up some sort of error. Then they sent all four trains round, and then loaded the first of the four trains with people after it returned from it's test run (without the last train returning).

Then the system flashes up again saying the same error however someone operating the ride (or a mechanic) overrides this and sends it off the top of the lift anyway without checking.

However I don't know how possible that theory actually is as there's a camera pointing straight at the point of collision which the operator can see, as well as many other things.

Will be interesting to see what happened if/when they announce it!
 
Smithy said:
Eh, can't nitpick at them for not knowing the specific elements, they seem to have got the basics right.

That article is very carefully worded to make it sound as if the trains valleyed on the day of the incident, not over the past 16 months or so. Though as I've said from the start, the trains valleying is a major issue that should have been addressed, indeed I'm sure there was rumours that they were looking to reprofile that section of the ride because of how rough the cobra roll was and because of the stalls on the batwing.

Surely the team running the ride wouldn't have been so reckless as to put a fresh train on the track without running it in, knowing the risk of stalling? And if so, you'd have to assume unless it was malicious that they'd be monitorring it to make sure it completed it's first circuit?

Which leads me to think that any part of human error that's over ridden the system has come about from trying to bring the train back down the lift to help evacuate, rather than evacuating them in situe at the top. Wonder if that's part of the operating procedure changes they've got to make?

Being the rarity of these types of issues occurring and the fact that what you just described probably occurred, I'm thinking that may be the unfortunate case.
 
Park re-opens at 10am tomorrow.

X-Sector to remain closed whilst the investigation continues.
 
I was only asking as I would have figured it would run a similar system to the other closed rollercoasters? Does X: No way out (or whatever its called now) run a similar system as that is still open isn't it?
 
Doubt they will but ticket prices should be temporarily reduced whilst the entire X Sector is closed.
 
^all of Merlin's tickets are sold with rides subject to availability, there's no way they'll offer discounted entry.
 
They've also said in Twitter nemesis sub terra is closed. Guessing that's unrelated though?
 
Found this piece from a few days ago. I'm sure some people have seen it already but I'm glad to see a news outlet doing a related article with an unusually sensible view (with added promo for adventure island which isn't that well known). There was a news article with Drayton manor reassuring people too elsewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB6amMU9R9U

Of course there is a small risk that something bad (either minor or major) will go wrong (which is the what the press has been reminding us of late) but you also need to weigh up the probability. Risk assessments and all that!


Now some random related thoughts:

I do find it freaky to think that it could have been any of us or anyone you know who has ever gone on any rides (I mean I'm sure for example there will have been a few enthusiasts in the park on that day or who were planning a trip around then- I was at Thorpe Park the week before for example) and not that they/we are anyway different than the victims but it really helps to bring it home because it can be really hard to even imagine such an incident taking place or happening to you or someone you know because these incidents are just so rare-which is why I think it has caught everyone's attention and interest so much.

However, due to the safety measures that we know are 99.999% reliable this incident should act as a reminder of the risks of doing everyday (and not so much everyday) things rather than a deterrent to do such things. We should also take the opportunity to cherish our health and the things we do have as they could or be lost change at any moment in an unpredictable way.

/endofoverthinkingphilosophicalthoughtsfortoday
 
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