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Accident at Alton Towers

DelPiero

Strata Poster
CoastinBear said:
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.
I totally agree.
Either there was a procedure and it wasn't followed correctly by staff, or;
The procedure was not documented and trained correctly by AT.
If it's lack of complete documentation/training then (unless Gerst didn't provide adequate information themselves) AT deserve the book to be thrown at them.
 

Ian

From CoasterForce
Staff member
Administrator
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DelPiero said:
I find it unlikely that Gerst didn't give full training to Ops/Managers/Engineers on what to do in this situation.
Unlikely? It's a certainly. Before any ride is handed over to the park management, full testing (including deliberate breakdowns) and training is done by the manufacturer. Once the park management are happy they know everything they want to know, it is signed over. There is no way a big company like Gerstaluer would just toss AT the keys and drive off back to Germany.

As for this news, yes, of course it will be "big". There has never been an incident as high profile as this in the UK before. It'll be in the papers and on crappy daytime telly shows for two-three days and then be forgotten about.

There will be another insurgence in interest at the end of May when Merlin are sentenced (and the fine is revealed) and on the anniversary in early June. Then it will fade away until reality shows like Celebrity Big Brother start up and one of the victims appears on the show. IMO, the anniversary is the last big news event so all will be forgotten soon enough.
 

Rach

Giga Poster
The statement from the Health & Safety Executive has been posted here:

http://press.hse.gov.uk/2016/hse-statem ... -failings/

There's also a video and a couple of images of the train after the accident on there!

hse_alton_towers_smiler1_web.jpg


hse_alton_towers_smiler4_web.jpg
 

spicy

Giga Poster
Wow, those images of the damaged train really show how lucky it was that there weren't any deaths on that front row.

Literally a few inches more and it could have been even worst.

This ones particularly bad, no wonder the girls lost their legs.

hse_alton_towers_smiler3_web.jpg
 

Smithy

Strata Poster
God that's horrible to see.

So is this admission of guilt based on there not being a system in place for a ride op to follow when a fault throws up, or a ride op being told by someone higher up (engineer, manager etc...) to reset the ride in such a way?

Imagine how the guilt those responsible will be suffering from too. They don't get a 7 figure pay off and an appearance on Loose Women, and if it's been as a result of being ordered to do something by a superior, that's a horrible thing.
 

Dar

Hyper Poster
I thought it wasn't the op that reset it but the engineer themselves? It seems this is an admission of "we didn't have a procedure in place to properly deal with a situation of repeated false alarms being thrown by the control system. Now we do."
 

Smithy

Strata Poster
One part I did take issue with when reading it earlier was that it stated there was "no manufacturer errors".

Who is at fault for it valleying in the first place then? That plays a part in this accident.
 

nemesis_guy

Roller Poster
Smithy said:
One part I did take issue with when reading it earlier was that it stated there was "no manufacturer errors".

Who is at fault for it valleying in the first place then? That plays a part in this accident.

Good point... but from another perspective perhaps in the design stage Gerst could have been like this to Alton... "if you want to proceed with this design there is a risk that this area could on occasion cause a stall/valley if certain conditions are met"".... or am I barking up the wrong tree? Ideally no ride should be designed like that but given the time constraints and complex design did Alton push this through even if there were some trade offs??? Something to think about? Maybe others have more background info on the design and construction

At the end of the day, the fact it can stall/valley where it does suggests it is a poor design so...
 

Smithy

Strata Poster
I can't imagine Gerstlauer would willingly install a ride they know has a higher-than-average chance of stalling given the effects it'd have on their reputation and future business.

It's not necessarily a poor design, it could be a poor installation and that could be the fault of the contractors. Given there were also issues with the track coming apart and bolts coming loose, either of them could be at fault.

Thinking back the ride has given them an almighty amount of trouble right from the off; I wonder if it'll deter them from going for record breaking technology with future installations.
 

Jordanovichy

Credit Whore 2016
I saw those pictures of the crashed trains of the Smiler earlier, I couldn't believe how far the fronts were buckled in, has anything been mentioned about the fronts being reinforced? I mean I'm sure it won't happen again, but just as an additional precaution.
 

Smithy

Strata Poster
Was surprised (not sure if I've never noticed or forgotten if this was discussed previously) that the cars don't have a bumpstop on the front of each car but they do have one on the rear and that seems to be what's caused such an impact down the middle.
 

silenthillXD

Hyper Poster
I'm not a physics expert, but aren't those bumpers merely for small scale bumps and collisions in the station, not for full on crashes like this. I can't really see how adding a front bumper would've helped reduce the impact in any significant way to be honest.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
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Yeah, the little bumpers you see on coaster trains are for minor bumps in the station or in the maintenance shed - I don't think they'd offer any real protection in a crash like this.
 

CoastinBear

Roller Poster
Oh dear - I've just realised how the front of that car responded to the impact.

People in this thread have been saying "a few inches more and it would've been worse" regarding the bars at the front of the "crumple zone" being a few inches away from the front of the seat.

I also thought it was a case of the front crumpling in, but if you look at the front of the car on the HSE pictures, and compare it to a "before" picture, the metal surface to which the Smiler face is attached vertically is nearly horizontal. The vertical metal surface you see in the pictures at the front of the car was actually the horizontal underside of the section that supports the chequerplate floor.

This means that in the impact the front of the car actually folded down towards the seats nearly 90 degrees. The bars, as far as I can see, must therefore have made contact with the front of the seat during the collision with enough force to have bent them back into the vertical position in which we see them now.

I really hope I'm wrong...
 

Smithy

Strata Poster
silenthillXD said:
I'm not a physics expert, but aren't those bumpers merely for small scale bumps and collisions in the station, not for full on crashes like this. I can't really see how adding a front bumper would've helped reduce the impact in any significant way to be honest.

They wouldn't, not in a significant way at least, I was just surprised that they've got one on the rear of each cart and not on the front.
 

dj-fireball999

Mega Poster
Robbie said:
I've said before, it seems an odd year to let the Charlie licence lapse as it's actually Dahl's centenary and lots of events are planned across the country, with film festivals, tours, plays and "Roald Dahl Day" in September. With Spielberg's BFG movie out at the start of summer it's a bandwagon they could have easily jumped on for some cheap marketing but now they're going to look a bit like party poopers.

It was a ten year license that expired on April 1st. Simple, really.
 

Robbie

Hyper Poster
dj-fireball999 said:
Robbie said:
I've said before, it seems an odd year to let the Charlie licence lapse as it's actually Dahl's centenary and lots of events are planned across the country, with film festivals, tours, plays and "Roald Dahl Day" in September. With Spielberg's BFG movie out at the start of summer it's a bandwagon they could have easily jumped on for some cheap marketing but now they're going to look a bit like party poopers.

It was a ten year license that expired on April 1st. Simple, really.
That still doesn't stop it being an odd decision! It's not like they've suddenly stopped publishing the books.
 

Smithy

Strata Poster
Twitter ablaze as the likes of the Mail and the Express are reporting that RIDERS TRAPPED UPSIDE DOWN FOR HALF AN HOUR AS SCREAMS HEARD ON NEW GALACTICA RIDE and **** mongrels all over ALTON TOWERS NEEDS SHUTTING DOWN, HOW MANY MORE ACCIDENTS FFS and all that jazz.

The ride was e-stopped on the lift hill because the weather turned, so I've seen. Either way, it stopped on the lift hill. It's not the end of the world.

My first thought was I wonder if the VR is programmed with this in mind so on your headset you see a spaceman coming towards you to fix it. Now that'd be cool.
 
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