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M&D's Tsunami derailed

But even when people have talked about it they haven't cared as much as Smiler.

Just going off anecdotal evidence really but everyone that has mentioned it to me hasn't been anywhere near as shocked and concerned as they were for Smiler - I agree with Hixee I think it's the fact it's not somewhere like Alton.
 
Yea and Smiler had a huge marketing campaign behind it and is still Alton's 'new roller coaster'. A lot more people would have been aware the thing exists and much more likely to have been on it.

I bet most people in the UK had never even heard of M&D's let alone Tsunami. Just made the Smiler accident much more high profile. This accident could potentially be a lot worst though.
 
It doesn't really matter in the long term if this is worse though, it won't have the same impact on the industry as the Smiler accident did is my point.

We won't get the celebrity victims, it won't get the press, you won't see a drop in visitors across the UK.

In terms of people worrying this will be another nail in the coffin, it won't. Maybe for M&Ds but the effects won't go much further.
 
^ This is true which is a great thing for the UK industry as I think another high profile Smiler type accident at a Merlin park would have huge consequences right across the UK in terms of visitor numbers and then we could see a repeat of what has happened at Alton with a lot of closures to keep costs down etc.

On the flip side of this though, if any of the poor people involved in this are seriously injured through loss of limb etc they deserve as much of a multi-million pound pay out as the Smiler girls got. As this accident isn't as high profile and M&D's isn't owned by a huge company I suspect they may not get no where near as much.
 
They deserve as much as the Smiler victims (injuries dependant obviously) but they won't get it.

People that lose limbs because an idiot hits them in their car deserve as much as the Smiler victims, but don't get it.

TBF, it's the Smiler victims who got a hugely inflated payout compared to similar accidents, so they're probably the ones that instead didn't deserve what they got.
 
Ben said:
This is absolutely awful, but, does anyone feel this has had less of an impact than Smiler? Like, less people in the GP that I've seen seem to care?
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I agree. As other CFers stated, everybody knows Alton Towers, not everybody knows M&Ds. Dump on top the news about Brexit and it's subsequent political party fallouts, Wimbledon, England Football Team losing and Roy Hodgson's resignation has buried this news somewhat. I'll probably get a bit of stick here from the politically correct brigade, but the Smiler crash involved two pretty young girls. Trashy tabloids love young, pretty girls because they appeal to the core readership; the story will generate large page spreads if they can splash a image of a young, pretty girl on the page. There was also the romantic story of the front four Smiler riders being on dates. Also, fortunately, it appears there are no life-changing injuries and those involved in the Tsunami crash will make a recovery. Trashy papers and 24 hour news channels would rather peddle doom and gloom.
 
It's Brexit. It's literally all Brexit.

I also think there's a perception that M&Ds is a funfair. Most GP won't have heard of it and the pics don't paint it in the best light so it just looks like another trashy funfair - places that despite actual figures are renowned for being death-traps.

Compare that with somewhere like Alton - the golden child of UK tourist attractions for about 30 years. Owned by a reputable company with an excellent history of health and safety. Quality=safe. It's like getting food poisoning from a Michelin star restaurant in comparison with getting it from a dirty kebab shop. Nobody likes to talk about it, but there's an air of 'to be expected' with low brow places like that, so it's less newsworthy.
 
Initial TV coverage differed a lot too (due to the big business / funfair difference for sure) ; and that means the TV doesn't have all that stock-helicopter footage of people trapped on a ride that they can just reuse over and over again; just some grainy phone video of people milling around the upside-down Tsunami train and a few tweeted pictures.

Like Ian says ; not as good a story (visually).
 
Re: M&D's Tsunami derailed

I think it's also due to the fact that The Smiler already had large prior press and national storylines. It was easier for them to bring it up and use its (and Alton's) name to sell more copies than M&D's have.
 
This is such an awful thing to happen, and It's safe to assume that it will be the end of the Park now. Financially this will sure take them under.

In relation to the Smiler, I mean one of the obvious differences is also the fact Alton hails itself as The UK's Best Resort. So ultimately to see any form of accident there is going to be big news regardless. Both accidents are horrendous, but naturally Alton was always set up to have more press coverage.

I hope everyone involved recovers from this, with no major issues.

What also I find slightly worrying is that Oakwood has recently purchased a really old rollercoaster from this place... If I was the management, I would definitely be reconsidering this decision. Oakwood has had its fair share of bad publicity over the years, they really need to move away from that.
 
I'm not convinced the park will be finished tbh. As long as the others get out of hospital with 'only' broken bones and nothing life changing it won't be as bad for them. So far they've have been very lucky with the injuries. Not sure what the going rate for a broken leg is, probably like 10 grand? Whereas losing a leg completely would run into the hundreds of thousands or millions. As others have said, Brexit and the football have taken a lot of attention away from this - nobody cares.

My amateur prediction is a big fine (£100k or so), maybe another 100k for compo, Tsunami being flogged to an exotic park or another fairground company. Possibly scrapped.
 
I agree, I don't see this finishing the park off - I'm not expert but surely most of the costs will be paid for by their public liability insurance?

The bad reputation this accident has created will have an impact for a while I'm sure, but I doubt the park will close.
 
I wouldn't say that compensation will finish the park off, but what about the HSE if it comes out that this was sheer negligence?
 
^I'm assuming that since we've heard nothing, that there was nothing too serious in the end. Either that, or the VICTIMS!!!! weren't pretty enough to worry about reporting. Being Scotland-based, I can see that.
 
Yeah sounds like they've all be alright, which is mental.

But literally the media don't care.

This is the only article that's recent and isn't about this crash really - worth a read though for a LOL because you can tell A. It was really her fault or she'd have pushed it more by now and B. The whole rundown of the accident just wouldn't have happened like she said it did, even at M&Ds - https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.mi...ims-mds-theme-park-8338052.amp?client=safari#
 
It says the log was overturned, but then it says the other rider was still in the log and calling for help? Must've overturned, chucked the woman out, then righted itself with the other rider still in the log... Never has a log flume been more spiteful towards an individual.
 
...as well as that, this travelling flume allegedly...
plunges visitors down a 137ft ravine, with two smaller 65ft drops
Click to expand...


"I was in agony. The ride was still going and I had to lift my other leg out of the way to stop it being hit by other boats coming past."
Click to expand...

I wasn't aware that flume rides had the ability to overtake!
 
Nice to see someone is benefitting from this. "What, the coaster at the same park I was injured at has crashed? Better tell everyone my story there from 3 years ago! Who cares about the conditions of the people involved in this accident?"

Seriously though, can someone actually explain this log flume incident to me? It's so poorly worded I have no clue what happened.

And plus, not only does it feature "a 137ft drop, with two smaller 65ft drops", but this 'fact' that the ride has three drops is literally right above a picture of the ride which clearly only has two drops!
 
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