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Roller coaster crash at Alton Towers

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Terrible news :frown:

When I went last year during the summer there were also problems with the Smiler, which caused massive delays. At one point, the ride stopped in the middle (during a test run, nobody was inside, thankfully)!

Reply 81

KittyAnneR

The park is closing tomorrow so they can have a proper safety evaluation.

Reply 82

spotify95

Original post by fabbysarah

if anyone happens to find a petition for the ride to be closed down, could you post it here please :-)

+1 for this. (Have run out of reps.) Yes if a petition is launched, please can someone post it as I shall definitely be signing it.

Reply 83

ChaoticButterfly

Original post by KittyAnneR

The park is closing tomorrow so they can have a proper safety evaluation.

So what you gonna do tomorrow now?

Reply 84

blackened_sky

Original post by fabbysarah

if anyone happens to find a petition for the ride to be closed down, could you post it here please :-)

Original post by spotify95

+1 for this. (Have run out of reps.) Yes if a petition is launched, please can someone post it as I shall definitely be signing it.

Can only find the one on twitter, not much support, but it's there: https://www.change.org/p/alton-towers-removal-shutting-down-of-the-smiler

Reply 85

Anemone4Life

Original post by KittyAnneR

Breaking news: 4 people are seriously injured after The Smiler crashed today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32980354

Why you do this Alton towers?? Cant believe they had so many problems with it over the years and they still didnt learn, ugh hope everyone gets through relatively unscathed

Reply 86

fabbysarah

Original post by blackened_sky

Can only find the one on twitter, not much support, but it's there: https://www.change.org/p/alton-towers-removal-shutting-down-of-the-smiler

thanks!

Reply 87

KittyAnneR

Original post by ChaoticButterfly

So what you gonna do tomorrow now?

I can use my tickets for tomorrow any day up until October now so I will manage. I need to find somewhere else to go tomorrow now!

Reply 88

ChaoticButterfly

Original post by KittyAnneR

I can use my tickets for tomorrow any day up until October now so I will manage. I need to find somewhere else to go tomorrow now!

Could come to the job center with me. Nothing more fun and exciting than that. :woo:

Reply 89

spotify95

Original post by blackened_sky

Can only find the one on twitter, not much support, but it's there: https://www.change.org/p/alton-towers-removal-shutting-down-of-the-smiler

That's the one - most people use Change.org for petitions and most of them are a success.

Signed.

Hopefully something gets done about the ride - and I just hope the people involved manage to recover.

Reply 90

RedStar98

I love Alton Towers and all theme parks for that matter. Obviously all rides will have some technical errors but I really don't think there is a case to completely close the ride down. I know the history of the ride and I know it has had some incidents in the past, but being from a high quality manufacturer, I don't think there is any need to get rid of it. In many other parks there have been far worse incidents yet the ride involved continued to be in use. I've been on the Smiler and others at the park many times and they take health and safety very seriously, but accidents do happen and are not always avoidable. That's just my opinion anyway

Reply 91

Everglow

Has it been established whether this was a problem with the ride or negligence from the staff yet?

Reply 92

driftawaay

I was on a big wheel once and the safety thing in front of us opened while we were high up in the air. We could have died.

Reply 93

blackened_sky

Original post by Reluire

Has it been established whether this was a problem with the ride or negligence from the staff yet?

Doubt we'll find out til the investigation's concluded

Reply 94

Everglow

Original post by blackened_sky

Doubt we'll find out til the investigation's concluded

Well I'm just wondering whether people are right in jumping to the conclusion that the ride needs to be shut down. This could very well be negligence from the staff in not ensuring absolute safety.

Reply 95

Joeyyy-

Original post by pnaidu

such awful news!! i remember going to alton towers last year and Air broke down...all the staff did was to let the empty carriage wiz around twice and then thats it! they were shoving us onto the ride.

as awful as this is, i hope this triggers some MUCH needed reevaluation into safety in theme parks...

Why is it 'much needed'? This is a incredibly rare incident; unless you closed every ride there isn't a way of making the rides any safer than they actually are.

I had annual passes for a number of years at the Merlin Theme Parks (Alton Towers, Thorpe Park etc.) and were often at the park before or on opening time. Many of the rides are tested for hours before the park opens and they are tested well after the park closes at night.

Unfortunately with anything in life there is a risk of an accident, such as when you get in a car or a plane.

What has happened today is devastating for the people on the ride and their families. I hope Merlin Entertainment and Alton Towers do everything they can to support the people harmed, physically and emotionally.

Reply 96

Joeyyy-

Original post by Reluire

Well I'm just wondering whether people are right in jumping to the conclusion that the ride needs to be shut down. This could very well be negligence from the staff in not ensuring absolute safety.

There was talk earlier that the weather and in particular the strong winds may have had an impact on the ride.

Reply 97

KittyAnneR

Original post by ChaoticButterfly

Could come to the job center with me. Nothing more fun and exciting than that. :woo:

Whilst that is very tempting :wink:

I think I am gonna go to the zoo

Reply 98

blackened_sky

Original post by Reluire

Well I'm just wondering whether people are right in jumping to the conclusion that the ride needs to be shut down. This could very well be negligence from the staff in not ensuring absolute safety.

I think it's more the fact that numerous things have gone wrong with it before. Although this particular incident seems to imply human error - leaving the test carriage on the tracks when letting another carriage go - the reasons for it stalling earlier in the day we don't know. Could have been down to the ride just being messed up.

Reply 99

Joeyyy-

Original post by blackened_sky

Thing is, the modern rides have sensors on the tracks to detect this sort of incident which explains why the car was stuck at the top of the hill for so long.

What needs to be found out is why the train managed to continue after being at the top of the hill for 10 minutes.