Accident at Alton Towers

[owentaylor121]

Oh, is there any evidence of that which I missed?

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It wasn't parking properly and many of the effects were broken, but again this is something that should have been fixed in the closed season!

 

[furie]

Yeah, no more evidence than there is of the IPs running out. It's just speculation that has nothing to do with the accident :lol:

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[cjbrandy]

Sorry to be off topic, quick question: Has Nemesis been open or is it still being repainted? (If you have pics pls share thanks)

 

[nealbie]

Tis open and looks godawful. At least some of the supports near the stall turn still look old and sinister.

Continues to ride fabulously though.

 

[owentaylor121]

Tis open and looks godawful. At least some of the supports near the stall turn still look old and sinister.

Continues to ride fabulously though.

See I'm the opposite, I think it looks brilliant, the best it's looked in years, when the rest of the supports and painting has finished it will look amazing.

 

[GuyWithAStick]

Pictures, anyone?

 

[Lofty]

From what I've heard they're starting to paint it overnight and it's nearly complete - how true this is I don't know.


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[SaiyanHajime]

Yeah, no more evidence than there is of the IPs running out. It's just speculation that has nothing to do with the accident :lol:

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Dunno, probably is to do with it in a roundabout way.

 

[Ian]

Sorry to be off topic, quick question: Has Nemesis been open or is it still being repainted? (If you have pics pls share thanks)

[tweet]http://twitter.com/coasterforce/status/711572500778524672[/tweet]

At the moment it looks too white, too fresh. And the "rusty" parts are too uniform and obvious. The whole track looks a bit too shiny for my liking. Hopefully when it's weathered a bit it'll look fab but at the moment I think it's too clean looking. However, some people I was with loved it. I think it's a good thing, it needs time to bed it. The queue area has been cleaned up, which is great.

If you're going to go off topic, please set up another. That's what the forums are for!

 

[mouse]

Our friend Vicky Balch is back in the spotlight, demonstrating her new bionic leg as well as talking about some creepy attention shes been getting on Tinder.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36026492
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... sages.html
[youtubevid]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAYOxcV5bpQ[/youtubevid]

Its good to see that she is walking again and seems to be fully recovered. I wonder how the others are recovering, we don't seem to hear as much from them...

 

[Smithy]

Gets given a million pound settlement, part of which is based around a "future loss of earnings" as a result of the crash.

Now probably earns more than she ever would have done previously from media appearances as a result of the crash.

 

[gavin]

Vicky Balch = the new Ropers. It's fab.

 

[Ian]

She also says she'll go on a coaster when she's ready. Which will probably be as the crash publicity is almost non-existent, enough to keep her stock high enough for a Celebrity Big Brother appearance. Good luck to her. Although I obviously want this all to fade into distant memory, I don't blame any of those involved making good whatever they can.

 

[Sandman]

Christ, not to discredit the victims or anything but how long are the media going to milk the living **** out of the Smiler crash? This girl is going to have a blue plaque on her wall in a couple more years. We're now in a culture where 'celebrity victims' exist.

 

[CoastinBear]

Looks like there'll be more milking today, as the court case against Merlin Entertainments begins in a few minutes...

EDIT: Interesting to see the two pictures of the women entering court: Leah is wearing black leggings and you can barely see that she now has an artificial leg. Vicky, on the other hand, is letting it all hang out - white bandages over the stump, very smart artificial leg and rather incongruous smart black shoes. Just an observation...

 

[DelPiero]

There will probably be more in depth discussions around what actually happened, considering all we've had officially from Merlin is that is was Human Error not following protocols.
I'm expecting this to draw a line under the whole thing.

 

[davidm]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36111412

The owners of Alton Towers have been told they face a large fine after admitting safety breaches on the Smiler rollercoaster ride.

Merlin Entertainments pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety Act.

District Judge John McGarva, sitting at North Staffordshire Justice Centre, said the incident was a very serious case leading to life-changing injuries.

The crash last June saw two women have leg amputations as a result of their injuries.

Mr McGarva warned the firm it could face a large fine when it is sentenced.

The case has been referred to Stafford Crown Court for sentencing.

 

[DelPiero]

This was reported by the Mirror;

During the brief hearing, HSE prosecutor Brendan Thorogood gave more information about its case against Merlin Attractions, saying staff had not been provided with proper procedure to avoid such an accident.

He told the court: “There wasn’t a system staff should should have had to follow.

“They overrode a computer controlled stop on the system and sent the train with some of those people here today around the ride.

“As a result those in the train came into collision with the stationary train.”

Bolded the interesting bit, of course there was a procedure, if that procedure was clear enough or followed correctly is the question.

Point being, system throws up block error and next train stops. What is the procedure? Clear error and send next train? No, most likely contact Manager or Engineer. Whats his procedure? Check block which has errored for reason? Likely, did they check? No. Ergo - procedure not followed.
I find it unlikely that Gerst didn't give full training to Ops/Managers/Engineers on what to do in this situation.

 

[spicy]

This court case is getting much more media attention than I had imagined. Another blow for the park, just as it seems to be recovering Alton Towers name being dragged through the dirt again. Not going to help attendances.

BBC have a live report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-engla ... e-36017361

Following the breakdown an engineer reset the ride because it threw up a fault that he'd literally just reset a minute ago. Except this time, the ride wasn't lying. That's my bet. He's wrong for not checking, but he's also human acting on instincts, emotion and accumulated knowledge.

I still believe that this is what happened.

 

[CoastinBear]

This was reported by the Mirror;

During the brief hearing, HSE prosecutor Brendan Thorogood gave more information about its case against Merlin Attractions, saying staff had not been provided with proper procedure to avoid such an accident.

He told the court: “There wasn’t a system staff should should have had to follow.

“They overrode a computer controlled stop on the system and sent the train with some of those people here today around the ride.

“As a result those in the train came into collision with the stationary train.”

Bolded the interesting bit, of course there was a procedure, if that procedure was clear enough or followed correctly is the question.

Point being, system throws up block error and next train stops. What is the procedure? Clear error and send next train? No, most likely contact Manager or Engineer. Whats his procedure? Check block which has errored for reason? Likely, did they check? No. Ergo - procedure not followed.
I find it unlikely that Gerst didn't give full training to Ops/Managers/Engineers on what to do in this situation.

This is an interesting case, not least because the company accepted responsibility almost immediately afterwards.

There is another way to look at the part you put in bold text: Seeing as the management has put in a guilty plea, perhaps it is them who are taking the blame for the actual incident by accepting that they had not given the staff the proper procedures to follow. Now that would be a magnanimous gesture towards the staff whose actions caused the collision.