Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Accident at Alton Towers

This is dumb and I don't get why there is a holdup in telling us whats happening?

The PLC's interface on the control panel will tell you exactly what went wrong in less than 5 minutes. It logs everything down. Every instance on the trains position, blocking, even right down to the system producing a fault of its own or human intervention in both manual and automatic mode, its right there. There is a delay for some reason but we can only assume that its so staff can be interviewed and so their legal team have time to write a proper statement.
 
^^I can't see it being renamed to be honest, as it's already a successful and widely known brand and as some other people have said on here, in a year or two, people won't be talking about the crash.
 
Erol, if they've deduced what's happened, then I suspect that's exactly what they'll be doing. Its already hitting the fan, they'll not want to rush into releasing a statement without ensuring they're doing it in the most appropriate way.

If it is human error, then they'll need to speak to the employee(s) involved first, and also brief the guests/families involved too, we're fairly far down the scale of importance at this early stage.
 
elephant58 said:
^^I can't see it being renamed to be honest, as it's already a successful and widely known brand and as some other people have said on here, in a year or two, people won't be talking about the crash.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that. In 1997 we had an "accident" here in Belgium with Sirocco (now Psyké Underground) when the train "valleyed" on the top of the loop. There where no mayor injuries at all, but the ride is still well-known for the incident over here, even though it's been 18 years now.
 
Plus as much of an act of negligence as it was, the poor person responsible will have to be dealing with the consequences of that as well as facing up to the possible legal ramifications of it. The absolute last thing they'd then need is the media intrusion and Alton should be doing their utmost to ensure the person responsible isn't named in the public domain if at all possible.

As for the park remaining closed, is it not likely that they'll be reviewing their processes across the park? From top to bottom, breakdown procedures, call-out procedures etc...
 
ignace said:
elephant58 said:
^^I can't see it being renamed to be honest, as it's already a successful and widely known brand and as some other people have said on here, in a year or two, people won't be talking about the crash.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that. In 1997 we had an "accident" here in Belgium with Sirocco (now Psyké Underground) when the train "valleyed" on the top of the loop. There where no mayor injuries at all, but the ride is still well-known for the incident over here, even though it's been 18 years now.
Click to expand...

Whilst I get what you're saying, the difference is, is that the Smiler is a very expensive coaster, which is probably known throughout Europe and possibly even further. I just can't see Merlin rebranding something that has made them a lot of money and most likely will in the future.
 
elephant58 said:
ignace said:
elephant58 said:
^^I can't see it being renamed to be honest, as it's already a successful and widely known brand and as some other people have said on here, in a year or two, people won't be talking about the crash.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that. In 1997 we had an "accident" here in Belgium with Sirocco (now Psyké Underground) when the train "valleyed" on the top of the loop. There where no mayor injuries at all, but the ride is still well-known for the incident over here, even though it's been 18 years now.
Click to expand...

Whilst I get what you're saying, the difference is, is that the Smiler is a very expensive coaster, which is probably known throughout Europe and possibly even further. I just can't see Merlin rebranding something that has made them a lot of money and most likely will in the future.
Click to expand...

While Sirocco wasn't expensive (Walibi founder Meeus ripped off Schwarzkopf on that one), it was and still is equally well-known. Many people still refer to it as Sirocco (or Turbine). And while the GP in the UK may not know the coaster, neither do the GP in Belgium or the Netherlands know Smiler (well, now they do, you understand what I'm saying).
 
If I'm correct, he was the one sat front right with blood on his face (and as such the most seriously injured), I've read tonight that the other lad on the outside left had two fractured legs and if the above article is true (no reason not to believe it given it cites the guys father) then that's a huge improvement from the tabloid screeches of lost limbs.

Still gutting mind.
 
Element115 said:
Alton towers have tweeted that the park is closed tomorrow due to the ongoing investigation.
Click to expand...

I know that Alton Towers are saying that shutting the park it's to investigate what's happened, and I truly believe it's the main reason, but I don't think they're particularly losing out on trade. Many theme parks across Europe will close during weekdays in term time due to so little visitor numbers. How much does it cost to open AT during term time and how much profit are they actually making? I'm guessing they're not making much at all. 10% of their yearly profits are made in June, and I'm betting 90% of those profits are from weekends. The staff will be on flexi shifts/zero hour contracts so they won't be paid whilst the park is closed. I don't think the park are at all worried about the park being closed, the financial damage was done on Tuesday.

I'd happily stick my life savings on Alton Towers being open on Saturday.
 
Smithy said:
If I'm correct, he was the one sat front right with blood on his face (and as such the most seriously injured), I've read tonight that the other lad on the outside left had two fractured legs and if the above article is true (no reason not to believe it given it cites the guys father) then that's a huge improvement from the tabloid screeches of lost limbs.

Still gutting mind.
Click to expand...

Yeah, totally.

I saw one article stating that it was one of the female riders that was most severely injured so who knows. At least we haven't had any confirmation on the limb loss rumour.
 
Darren B said:
I'd happily stick my life savings on Alton Towers being open on Saturday.
Click to expand...
I'm not so sure. It depends on whether Alton or the HSE are the ones making that call. If the HSE are calling the shots, the park will re-open when they say i can re-open, financial consequences be damned.

I've just had a look at that Guardian article. If accurate, it sounds like the injuries aren't as bad as they could potentially have been. I certainly hope that's the case, and that with proper medical care those involved will emerge in one piece without lasting health problems.
 
The girl sat with the lad who's broken his legs sounds like the one with the most concerning injuries. Suggestion was that she was being operated on today (according to a couple of possibly sensationalist papers), and she was the one who had to have a transfusion on-site. I feel a bit insensitive debating the injuries of people I don't even know though, mostly I just hope that the outcome isn't the worst for any of them.
 
SilverArrow said:
Smithy said:
If I'm correct, he was the one sat front right with blood on his face (and as such the most seriously injured), I've read tonight that the other lad on the outside left had two fractured legs and if the above article is true (no reason not to believe it given it cites the guys father) then that's a huge improvement from the tabloid screeches of lost limbs.

Still gutting mind.
Click to expand...

Yeah, totally.

I saw one article stating that it was one of the female riders that was most severely injured so who knows. At least we haven't had any confirmation on the limb loss rumour.
Click to expand...

Im not sure if we ever will get confirmation, I reckon it will always be censored as "significant leg injury". If its true Im pretty sure its Leah Washington. Reports say her leg was an open fracture and bleeding so badly it needed a blood transfusion, plus Ive heard on twitter that she's had an operation which I can only assume is the amputation. Absolutely tragic if true, she's only 17 and apparently just passed her driving test.
 
From what I've heard (from reliable news people), is that the 2 women in the middle were the most seriously injured, caused by the front of the train collapsing in upon impact.

^If she is having an operation, it is more likely to be to straighten the bones/hold her leg together with rods, especially as if she has had an open fracture, it would most likely need that sort of surgery.
 
If you read down that Guardian article, the HSE guy seems to suggest it is possible for an operator /engineer to override the brake failsafe. He's not saying that's definitely what happened but it does appear to be an actual possibility.

Quote:

'Cox said the collision may have been caused by a breakdown in the ride’s control system or a faulty “interlocking” system, which is designed to prevent both carriages from being on the same piece of track.

Both scenarios should trigger a failsafe that causes the entire ride to shut down, he said. It would then take an operator or technician to override that failsafe.'
 
I don't know if anyone's been watching Thorpe's twitter feed concerning the Saw closure, and theres some interesting goings on. Obviously the ride has been closed since Wednesday, and is planned to remain closed for the next couple of days, as proved by this tweet.



Interestingly enough, it would appear that yesterday they believed the ride would be open today and tomorrow...



I may be over-reading these tweets, but it does almost seem that Merlin had ruled out manufacturer fault, then found something and reversed their decision to re-open the ride. Of course this could all be a mistake, but thought i'd post it here as it's interesting.
 
Both the boys have been confirmed on social networking to be alright, just broken bones which will heal. Just waiting on confirmation of the girls now. Hopefully they're in one piece.

That article above strongly suggests it's been caused by human error in my opinion. The fail safe did trigger a shut down. It had to have been over ridden. That's the only solution.

Just need to figure out why it was over ridden when they had ample time to see that there was a stalled car
 
The Guardian said:
Cox said the collision may have been caused by a breakdown in the ride’s control system or a faulty “interlocking” system, which is designed to prevent both carriages from being on the same piece of track.

Both scenarios should trigger a failsafe that causes the entire ride to shut down, he said. It would then take an operator or technician to override that failsafe.
Click to expand...
It'd be interesting to know how far that override goes. I wonder if that would refer to the idea of a ride reset losing track of which blocks are occupied as a few of us have speculated previously, or whether it's the ability to take fully manual control and specifically tell the system "go ahead and move this train into the block that is marked as having a train already in it".

Even in a full manual mode, I'd have thought the latter should result in the ride system shutting down, or the train refusing to move. I cannot imagine a situation where you'd want to forcibly move a train into a block when the system knows there is already a train in there, and therefore a collision is inevitable, even when you're in manual mode and (in theory) moving empty trains around. If the sensors or control systems are so screwed up that the block system is registering empty blocks as occupied and a reset doesn't fix the problem, chances are you've got much bigger problems than not being able to move a few trains.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top