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Accident at Alton Towers

nealbie

CF Legend
But we would win as well. The dreadful Smiler would be no more and valuable Alton real estate would be free. I never though the day would come, but I would rather they have a spinning wild mouse to ride than the Smiler.
 

Sandman

Giga Poster
But The Smiler is probably the most popular coaster on-site now. It's only really the tabloids and rag readers that see it as a risk.
 

Crazycoaster

Giga Poster
What are the queues like on the Smiler these days? I haven't been to AT since before the accident (not because of the accident, more because I cba with Merlin anymore). But if the coaster still gets big queues, all this media coverage probably works to their advantage, the coaster is infamous now.
 

Smithy

Strata Poster
No surprise really, look at the hysteria caused online from thicko's who think the thing is a deathtrap and it's obviously a quick and easy cash cow for them to run a story on.
 

owentaylor121

Giga Poster
Crazycoaster said:
What are the queues like on the Smiler these days? I haven't been to AT since before the accident (not because of the accident, more because I cba with Merlin anymore). But if the coaster still gets big queues, all this media coverage probably works to their advantage, the coaster is infamous now.
It constantly pulls the largest queues in the park, Galactica sometime gets bigger queues but that's down to terrible capacity.
Put it this way, it reopened yesterday to a 90minute queue.
 

owentaylor121

Giga Poster
Queen Vicky is on ITV's This Morning giving her opinion on normal breakdown that occurred yesterday. Saying how the ride needs to be shut down.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Dave

CF Legend
The hysteria around it is incredible, social media helps feed the news outlets feelings on it. Funny how this was one has so much attention but Tornado at M&D has dropped off the radar.
 

Smithy

Strata Poster
Aye, and the Tornado one is far more worrying from a safety aspect.

I know it's the absolute pits even by Tabloid standards (and I'm surprised there's not a Diana or a weather or an immigrant slant on it) but the Express have been running it as a "SECOND DISASTER ON ALTON TOWERS CRASH COASTER" complete with an image of the ride mid-inversion.

Did notice on FB though that most of the top comments on the BBC story link were people saying what a non-story it was, and most of the top comments on the Daily Mail story link were people demanding the death trap ride be closed immediately because they don't understand why anyone would go on that death trap
 

roomraider

Best Topic Starter
Actually an interesting article on the One Show right now showing how Magnetic Brakes work.
They used the Alton thing as a link... so so am I :p
 

Ian

From CoasterForce
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Two points raised that attracted my attention (from Daily Mirror updates):

The court head earlier how the ride was operating in 46mph winds - despite guidance saying it should not operate in speeds of 34mph.
Will this have an impact on all coaster operations from now on?

The judge also said one of the “aggravating features” of the crash was the difficulty in getting emergency services to the scene.

Victims with horrific injuries were left on the ride while emergency services attempted to get to them.
Does this mean that we'll never see a "mess" of track at a UK park ever again? Every part of a coaster should be accessible for maintenance, inspection and obviously for rare rescue operations, but will this limit design?

On a side note, my respect for Joe and Leah has increased over the last few months. They both try to lead normal lives, not making a huge deal of it, not flaunting their injuries for any personal gain and at the same time quietly raising money for charity. Good on them!
 

Dave

CF Legend
Ian said:
Two points raised that attracted my attention (from Daily Mirror updates):

The court head earlier how the ride was operating in 46mph winds - despite guidance saying it should not operate in speeds of 34mph.
Will this have an impact on all coaster operations from now on?

It will, if they've been shown to go over the recommendations then slap wrists all round. Will see a lot of rides closing quickly and lots of frustrated visitors at all Merlin parks.

I'm also reading the engineers are not to blame because they had no system of checking if the train had stopped. Could they not visually go and check via the lift hill or brake run platforms etc?
 

Robbie

Hyper Poster
Ian said:
Two points raised that attracted my attention (from Daily Mirror updates):

The court head earlier how the ride was operating in 46mph winds - despite guidance saying it should not operate in speeds of 34mph.
Will this have an impact on all coaster operations from now on?
I interpreted that as Gerst covering their backs. I mean, essentially this whole accident happened because the coaster design wasn't good enough - it was pointed out on here that valleys were going to happen before it opened. So I reckon Gerst have added that afterwards to cover up poor performance "oh, sorry, didn't we say...?"

There also seems to be disconnect between Gerst and Merlin. While the latter have obviously cut corners shouldn't the manufacturer be part of the process of putting systems in place for crashes, evacuation, basic operations? I don't know how it works across the coaster industry but I'd have thought a runthrough of procedures would be standard.
 

Ireeb

Mega Poster
Robbie said:
I mean, essentially this whole accident happened because the coaster design wasn't good enough - it was pointed out on here that valleys were going to happen before it opened. So I reckon Gerst have added that afterwards to cover up poor performance "oh, sorry, didn't we say...?"

At least according to Wikipedia, John Wardley designed that coaster. So can we really blame Gerstlauer for it? I don't think the fault lies in the trains or something like that.

Also the argument "They couldn't see that the train was stuck there" - they could see that it didn't come back to the station, and it's rather unlikely that it arrived at another station. What I'd like to know is whether the ride actually warned about the winds which were to strong and the operators ignored it or whether there was no clear warning, that would be a fault of Gerstlauer (not completely because even if there is no alarm the wind speed should be checked before starting the operation. But then again they must have known about the winds, or why else should they send out a test carriage?
 
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