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Accident at Alton Towers

Mysterious Sue said:
Maybe it's karma for Merlin filling the media with thier own **** stories over the last decade. The haunted monk anyone? Banning people from putting thier arms up because of BO, banning

That's just their silly PR stuff Sue, it's not meant to be taken seriously, it's just meant to keep the parks in the media and get people talking about them ;)
 
Darren B said:
Alton Towers is a death trap, and I shall never return there again.

I can't believe that after the horrific events of last month that they've allowed another destructive, terrifying collision to happen on Sonic. I hope it gets removed.

Then there's Air. Who in their right minds would ever put someone through such a tragic experienceWhen it broke down similarly on my trip last year Being left on a lift hill for 20 minutes has altered 80 people's lives forever. Imagine the emotional scars <///3. I hope Air gets removed.

And then to wrap it up they allow power failure to disrupt the monorail, leaving people to suffer like dogs in a hot car. How very dare they! I hope it gets...

No offense here, but what the hell are you on about? The incident at Air is not even near 'tragic' speaking from first hand experience when it did the same thing last year on my visit. The ride is known to shut down (not break down) from time to time, especially on that lift. Even people who were interviewed were admitting that breaking down is a risk and although it was a bit distressing at that time, it's not going to put them off riding rollercoasters. Why would Air get removed because of it?

Again, the monorail didn't leave anyone emotionally scarred, again where have you got that from? Look up the photos of that incident and you can see that AT were serving the people with refreshments to keep them from dehydrating and the doors and windows of the monorail were flung open to stop anyone from overheating. Even claustrophobic people wouldn't have had a problem since they had access to open air. Please research a bit more into an incident before stating such a thing.

At the end of the day, this happens in EVERY theme park from time to time and if you are not prepared for the risk of a ride breaking down, don't go to them. The smiler was a terrible and tragic accident but that doesn't mean every ride is a death hazard.
 
Neil20143 said:
Darren B said:
Alton Towers is a death trap, and I shall never return there again.

I can't believe that after the horrific events of last month that they've allowed another destructive, terrifying collision to happen on Sonic. I hope it gets removed.

Then there's Air. Who in their right minds would ever put someone through such a tragic experienceWhen it broke down similarly on my trip last year Being left on a lift hill for 20 minutes has altered 80 people's lives forever. Imagine the emotional scars <///3. I hope Air gets removed.

And then to wrap it up they allow power failure to disrupt the monorail, leaving people to suffer like dogs in a hot car. How very dare they! I hope it gets...

No offense here, but what the hell are you on about? The incident at Air is not even near 'tragic' speaking from first hand experience when it did the same thing last year on my visit. The ride is known to shut down (not break down) from time to time, especially on that lift. Even people who were interviewed were admitting that breaking down is a risk and although it was a bit distressing at that time, it's not going to put them off riding rollercoasters. Why would Air get removed because of it?

Again, the monorail didn't leave anyone emotionally scarred, again where have you got that from? Look up the photos of that incident and you can see that AT were serving the people with refreshments to keep them from dehydrating and the doors and windows of the monorail were flung open to stop anyone from overheating. Even claustrophobic people wouldn't have had a problem since they had access to open air. Please research a bit more into an incident before stating such a thing.

At the end of the day, this happens in EVERY theme park from time to time and if you are not prepared for the risk of a ride breaking down, don't go to them. The smiler was a terrible and tragic accident but that doesn't mean every ride is a death hazard.

What are you on mate...

Obviously the post was tongue in cheek
 
I have to agree, even a small child or someone with no theme park or coaster knowledge could see it was 100% sarcasm.
 
Mysterious Sue said:
Maybe it's karma for Merlin filling the media with thier own **** stories over the last decade. The haunted monk anyone? Banning people from putting thier arms up because of BO, banning screaming...

Maybe Alton could just refuse to promote thier bogof tickets anymore with any papers doing a hatchet job...
Haha, yes!

I think we need some proper news as the conversation keeps going in circles now. Wonder how long it will be before we actually get some. Probably months and months.

Edit: Another first post-accident photo. I think the girls are really brave for doing this, although they might have felt like they needed to after all the hype. It probably helps with coming to terms with the changes but it is pretty heavy stuff! Bless them for being so determined to fight back after their injuries!
http://www.itv.com/news/2015-07-04/roll ... mputation/
 
Seriously, every damn day Alton is appearing on my feed because of another ride breakdown....what the actual ****? And the annoying thing is, people are sharing it and moaning about the place...
 
I had some awful woman try and tell me how unsafe rollercoasters now are whilst at work tonight. I had to get someone else to finish her order so I didn't spit in her chips and punch her in the face. People legitimately think the power cut the other day was life threatening and completely Alton Towers' fault. Ugh, general public.
 
I remember when I went Alton back in April, as I was waiting for Ripsaw it got stuck for 10 minutes with riders on it. If that happened today it would have made national **** headlines for **** sake!

If I had taken pictures back in April and set them to say, the Daily Mail or the Mirror, their reaction would be "**** off, this isnt newsworthy" whilst now it would be gold to them.
 
Poll time.

What was more violent for riders?

A ) The recent collision on spinball.
B ) The straightening bar that you bash into on the way back to the station that lines the cars up for unloading.
 
Jordanovichy said:
I had some awful woman try and tell me how unsafe rollercoasters now are whilst at work tonight. I had to get someone else to finish her order so I didn't spit in her chips and punch her in the face. People legitimately think the power cut the other day was life threatening and completely Alton Towers' fault. Ugh, general public.

Similar thing happened to me. I won't go into details, but it was frustrating coming from a friend who is seemingly clever.
 
Gazza said:
A ) The recent collision on spinball.

Sorry if I'm being stupid or not understanding sarcasm etc. but was this actually a thing? I knew there was an incident but had they actually collided??
 
^ Reports say it was a nudge at walking speed and the riders claimed to be injured. Basically they were a bunch of **** pussies and drama queens.
 
Yeah it really was a nothing 'incident' from the sounds of it.

But still, somebody wants to become a millionaire so went to the papers.
 
Last time I was at Alton a wasp flew out of bin and stung me on the arm. It was near Oblivion so it may have been the vibrations from the coaster that made the wasp angry. There were absolutely no precautions to minimise the wasp-anger rate in the park, and once I had been stung I was panicked to realise they didn't have a trained wasp response team.
I'll have to sell my story to the Mail, hopefully they'll pay me enough to get a Merlin annual pass :).
 
I bet that Alton's staff have to do some BS procedure that makes a mountain out of a mole hill, causing those guests on Spinball to realise there was an issue and freak out about it. Because there is NO WAY a regular nudge on a wild mouse style coaster could ever be considered a big deal. It happens all the time.
 
I think one of the contributing factors why the media are hanging on to every problem is not only down to the skilful lawyers dripping information and idiotic guests wanting their five mins of fame, but down to the way Merlin (and AT in particular) respect the media.

I've always thought that Alton Towers have a "holier than thou" attitude towards the media. It's not like they need the publicity so they can afford to be borderline arrogant. I've had first hand experience being classed as "not real media" (which I full appreciate and accept) and when I went to do the Guardian interview a few weeks ago, it felt like the reporter was being treated as a burden despite him doing a positive piece. It was one of the hottest days of the year and not once was he offered a drink!

Having met a a lot of park PR people over the years, there is a huge gulf between Merlin and other parks. Most, but not all, of the Merlin people tend to be grey suited, corporate conditioned PR people with no actual passion or care for the rides or the park. It's a job working for the world's second largest amusement park company, something great to put on the CV. That's why we see lame PR stunts that have next-to-no relevance to the ride itself. It's stuff designed to grab headline and get people talking. I don't doubt that style of publicity at all, but I think a change of tact where they concentrated on the fun and enjoyment that a ride can offer and why they're good would be a welcome change.

This is why this the accident caused a storm here in the UK, whereas similar accidents (if not worse ones) in the USA are only minor blips on the bad-news radar. Rides in the USA tend to be promoted as the "best this" or "world record that" or "highest whatever". It's all about the excitement and joy the rider will get when they give it a whirl. People want to ride the coasters due to they way they are promoted, and not just inserted into the public consciousness through some silly stunt with drag queens on a ride, bringing bottle of wee to the park or, dare I say it, silly things like monorails breaking down. If the ride has a reputation for being the coolest thing in the world EVER when it is launched, that vibe will stick with it for the rest of the coaster's life. Because the Smiler had a lacklustre and forgettable launch, it will only now be remembered for the accident on 2nd June 2015.

Finally, if you are irritated, like I am, with the sensationalised and ill-researched reporting by some of the gutter press, then email the editor. I have emailed countless publications in the last month. Not in an aggressive way, but to "inform them that their level of journalism should maintain it's high standard and reports on factual occurrences". Don't whinge about it on social media, on a forum or sign a petition as that will make little difference. Bombard the editor with an email politely informing them of reality and who knows, they might actually pay attention.
 
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