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Accident at Alton Towers

Heard about this, very sad and hopefully all involved will be OK.
Last I heard 4 were being airlifted to a hospital and while we can't gauge from a single picture if someone was unconscious during that moment, the one with the guy with blood on him looks quite bad.


I know the Smiler has had quite a few incidents, many seeming to be mechanical failures/breakdowns and not rider/operator errors. We shall wait and see what is the case with this one, but if it was another malfunction...which it seems like it may be, any chance the ride was just not designed well?
Anyway, hope everyone ends up alright, I can't even imagine what it'd be like to go to park and have it end in injury.
 
From what I've just seen on BBC News channel the train was actually held at the top of the lift hill which means that the sensors must have been working and wasn't going to release the train as the first train clearly hadn't reached the second lift hill.

Now how the lift hill restarted to send the train crashing into the valleyed train is the mystery. Is there a manual over ride? And if there is who ever manually over rode it without checking is obviously responsible for this.
 
william said:
DelPiero said:
The more I read about the 2nd train being held at the top of the lift the more this worries me.
Surely if it was waiting for the initial train to trigger the sensor to release the 2nd train it would have just stayed there. The only 2 things I could think of which would release it would be a sensor error(why would it wait though) or a manual override, and there's no way any op would manually override without checking the full track for obstructions.
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I neither know the timescale or block layout of smiler, but could the first car had cleared the block section triggering the second car to be released into the block section and then first car rolled back in to same block section.
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You can't rollback through a block brake. Or at least you shouldn't be able to.
 
For people that don't have Twitter, absolutely devastating and thoughts and prayers are out to everyone involved. Get the ride closed, appalling.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYohlpFYhvI&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
 
Jordanovichy said:
...they even said they'd heard a rumour someone had died but I honestly reckon that needs to be taken with a huge pinch of salt...a lump if you will. I'm sure that's false.
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Just to say to completely quell this, there was a road accident near the the resort today also in which someone died. Unrelated incidents. Quite a day :?
 
spicy said:
From what I've just seen on BBC News channel the train was actually held at the top of the lift hill which means that the sensors must have been working and wasn't going to release the train as the first train clearly hadn't reached the second lift hill.

Now how the lift hill restarted to send the train crashing into the valleyed train is the mystery. Is there a manual over ride? And if there is who ever manually over rode it without checking is obviously responsible for this.
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And the 'eye-witness' speaking to BBC news reckons it was held on the lift for like ten minutes but continued. Good aerial coverage from BBC news chopper.

Hope everyone makes a recovery
 
JJLehto said:
any chance the ride was just not designed well?
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Its very impractical to cram 14 inversions into a tiny area and they barely managed it, the cobra roll is notoriously badly designed with a brutal kink.

I think after this incident, Merlin may think twice about coming up with extremely impractical coaster layouts/ideas to meet worlds first/records.
 
BBC News showing a disgusting lack of decency by zooming in close up on the train with live pictures as they work to get the people off the ride.

Bit shocking it's taken nearly 3 hours to get them off.

Ah, Sky News are showing it too. Lovely.

Seven times I've tried to post this
 
When this ride was first unveiled I thought it looked kinda crap (I was hoping for a B&M) and did not bother to visit the park that year. Then, last year when I finally rode it I thought it was forceless, not smooth, somewhat uncomfortable, the second lift hill and constant trim brakes killed the ride and the second half of the cobra roll produced headbanging/spine jolts. I rated it 5/10. From what I understand it has been breaking down constantly. It actually broke down on the lift hill on my second and final ride.

AT obiously had a limited plot of land to work with on the old Black Hole site and with a lack of any good ideas decided to go for the inversion world record by building a compact multi looper using a manufacturer that produces a small footprint and uses a skinny track which is easy to throw up. What a waste of money though- 18 mill Sterling!

I think the solution now is too ripp this thing down, who is ever gonna want to ride it now?
This will do a lot of damage to AT revenue this year, not to mention however much they have to pay out in compensation. I didnt even realise, but this manufacturer previously produced a death coaster in Six Flags Texas in 2013.

If I was in charge of Alton Towers I´d Rip this piece of crap down and build a B&M wing rider and a partially submarged Intamin prefab woodie with tunnel effects, obviously not both on the same site.
 
I'd ride it as soon as it opened.

Car's crash. Planes crash. Systems fail. It's not the first major incident at a UK theme park and it won't be the last.

What a stupid post. Four people serious injured, still to be removed from the **** ride and all you care about is REPLACE IT WITH A WING RIDER. Cretin.
 
Mysterious Sue said:
I head that they've got everyone off but the 4 seriously injured who have leg issues
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Live footage on Sky is showing people still being rescued from the cars, in each of the rows by the looks of it.
A witness interview has also confirmed the car (with people) did stop on the lift hill for 10-15 minutes.
 
Smithy said:
I'd ride it as soon as it opened.

Car's crash. Planes crash. Systems fail. It's not the first major incident at a UK theme park and it won't be the last.

What a stupid post.
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If I wont ever ride it again, I wont be the only one.
The ride is a piece of crap, plain and simple.
 
Smithy said:
I
What a stupid post. Four people serious injured, still to be removed from the **** ride and all you care about is REPLACE IT WITH A WING RIDER. Cretin.
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I was giving my opinion on the ride, my primary belief being that it should be ripped down asap.

Why you feel the need to insult me out of nowhere proves you are the only cretin here.
 
Coaster-Fiend said:
Smithy said:
I'd ride it as soon as it opened.

Car's crash. Planes crash. Systems fail. It's not the first major incident at a UK theme park and it won't be the last.

What a stupid post.
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If I wont ever ride it again, I wont be the only one.
The ride is a piece of crap, plain and simple.
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I probably would ride it again but I wouldnt miss it much if I didn't, its neighbour Oblivion is a lot more fun. Maybe it would be best if they got rid of the ride, it must be a huge huge power drain with all its special effects etc and its a burden on the park with its frequent, nearly daily breakdowns.
 
Yeah sorry Coaster-Fiend but now is not the time to be rating the ride experience. Many of us liked/disliked the coaster but that is irrelevant to the accident and just comes across as unsympathetic to those injured.

Also, the ride in Texas you are talking about is a wooden coaster made by Dinn Corp/PTC, redesigned by RMC and constructed by Gerst. Not as straightforward as it first appears. There was an investigation and thousands of people have ridden it since, including myself 2 days ago. These incidents are bad but thankfully few and far between. But when they happen, you can be damn sure that park won't let it happen again.
 
Coaster-Fiend said:
Smithy said:
I
What a stupid post. Four people serious injured, still to be removed from the **** ride and all you care about is REPLACE IT WITH A WING RIDER. Cretin.
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I was giving my opinion on the ride, my primary belief being that it should be ripped down asap.

Why you feel the need to insult me out of nowhere proves you are the only cretin here.
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Aye, and then went on a rant about how it was a "waste of 18 million sterling" and that they should "replace it with a B&M wingrider and an intamin pre-fab partially submerged".

**** hell you colossal moron, there are still four people seriously injured stuck on the ride and already you're dedicating your posts to what's going to replace it, give your head a wobble and think before you post.

Frankly, your opinion or anyone's opinion on the quality of the ride experience is absolutely secondary at this moment in time.
 
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