Accident at Alton Towers

[Smithy]

Here's something;

http://forums.towersalmanac.com/index.p ... opic=11936

A car stalled on the second big drop. The ride shut down as designed, with other cars held at various blocks before and after the stalled car. The ride operator re-started the ride thinking that the stalled car (which had valleyed) would also start and continue its journey. Of course it couldn't, but since the ride had been restarted the stalled car effectively vanished. A second car collided with it.

The report in to the incident found that the member of staff had inadequate training. She also had access to keys that allowed her to override the block system, a procedure that should only authorised by a more qualified person, such as maintenance. Alton Towers were fined.

Eerily similar.

 

[Howie]

Rumours appearing on the Alton FB page (only in the comments mind you) that all Smiler merchandise has been removed from the shelves, and all Smiler branding is being taken off the ride itself.
Not seen this confirmed in any real news items yet... but it would make sense, I guess.
Could a re-brand be on the cards?

 

[Casio]

Just conjecture of course (and maybe it's already been mentioned), but could the reason for shutting Spinball, Dragon's Fury and Rattlesnake be because those rides 'bump' cars? That is, they effectively crash all the time? So they're just trying to eliminate this with new operating procedures to reduce any chance of train collision? I can't think of any other coasters that do at Merlin, the log flumes do but I doubt much can be done about that.

 

[mcg0ughchris]

The sensible thing would be a rebrand. The whole smiler concept is centered around claiming victims, would seem massively out of place now given the circumstances. What could they possibly change it to though, it has a while lot of effects unless they choose to drop some of those as well.

I'll Deffo not be sad to hear the end of the horrendous music

 

[ems991]

I find it difficult to believe that they would be considering a rebrand so quickly after the incident. I do wonder if they will leave it closed until next season not only to deal with the determined cause of the crash but maybe also to try and make the ride more reliable. I have no idea how they would go about doing that, but say the cause was human error through complacency as there have been so many problems with the smiler, would you not take this opportunity to try and eliminate the potential for complacency as much as possible as well as redo the safety procedures/training etc

 

[mcg0ughchris]

The real problem is the dodgy track though. This Coaster has stalled more times than any other I've seen. They'll probably do major work to the track over the off season.

Even if they keep the name and colour scheme etc they have to change some of the slogans.

Marmelisation
Smiler claiming victims

They'll definitely look at getting rid of those at the very least.

 

[Smithy]

The sensible thing would be a rebrand. The whole smiler concept is centered around claiming victims, would seem massively out of place now given the circumstances. What could they possibly change it to though, it has a while lot of effects unless they choose to drop some of those as well.

I'll Deffo not be sad to hear the end of the horrendous music

Good point, wouldn't be the smartest to keep the marketing and branding around if there's even any mention of 'victims'.

But I love the music

They won't necessarily be considering a re-brand as yet, rather just removing all elements of theming and branding around the ride so as to not face accusations of insensitivity. They're already lucky the media haven't caught on that there's a giant big theme running through the ride about you being 'marmalised'.

 

[cjbrandy]

Ive been predicting a rebrand for a while now, was the first to mention it! The Smiler was a great brand but now its ****, they need to rebrand the ride with a new theme and show it as being "safer".

I loved the music too, I really didn't find it that annoying at all.

 

[mcg0ughchris]

I'm surprised since they've nitpicked every other detail. I'm sure they'll use it at some point.

I've got to say though waiting in line for 90 mins in that opening month with a couple of breakdowns thrown in and having to listen to that music on repeat is my worst queue memory ever. Felt ill before I even got on the coaster.

It'd be interesting to see if they risk reopening it this season. Instinct tells me we'll not be seeing it again until 2016. Hopefully they get X Sector back up and running ASAP though.

Unless they're keeping X Sector closed while they do minor changes to the appearance and merch for Smiler in time for a Summer hols reopening with the new procedures in place

 

[elephant58]

I think they've removed the branding for sensitivity reasons and things like that. Once the caused of the accident is found and the park make plans to reopen the ride, the branding will most likely return, I personally think. Also, I don't see what's so bad about 'You Belong to the Smiler.' And if never seen any mention of 'victims' in the ride's marketing anywhere.....

 

[SaiyanHajime]

Found this piece from a few days ago. I'm sure some people have seen it already but I'm glad to see a news outlet doing a related article with an unusually sensible view (with added promo for adventure island which isn't that well known). There was a news article with Drayton manor reassuring people too elsewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB6amMU9R9U

Am I the only person who think the way Adventure Island piped in is really unprofessional and laughable?

Like, they know they aren't comparable in any way shape or form to the quality day out that is Alton, but they're hitting them when they're down with a childish "well that can't happen on OUR ride!"

The real problem is the dodgy track though. This Coaster has stalled more times than any other I've seen. They'll probably do major work to the track over the off season.

Since Smiler first opened, I've been in two minds about how much of a ridiculous disaster it is. Not from a H&S perspective even, just from imagining Alton pitching the idea and Gerst being like "Yup, yup, we can definitely do that!" Only to go home and rock in the corner every evening wondering how the hell they were going to get all that track to fit and align correctly, hoping for the best.

The stalling I can somewhat forgive, because it really is an impressive thing that's got a lot of track to navigate and a lot of potential to loose momentum. Even B&Ms stall. What's fishy, IMO, is stuff like the track separation... That when it was put together no one thought, "that being off by so much isn't acceptable, we need to re-manufacturer this piece of track." Am I being OTT here? What if this had happened during the day when it was operating? And it makes an accident like this crash look, to those of us who know about the past issues, like it must be more than just human error.


As for a rebrand - I dunno yet. I'm really interested to see how this accident actually affects the visitor numbers this year now... A friend visited Thorpe today and said it was really quiet for a weekend. Are people not going because Saw is closed, their most popular ride in fairness, or because people are actually concerned about H&S?

 

[mcg0ughchris]

The funny thing about the public and the health and safety aspect is that they never put things into perspective and are easily led by media hyping up the dangers.

There's been more disasters over the past X amount of years with aeroplanes but that doesn't stop people rushing in and booking hols. I honestly think it'll blow over relatively quickly but time will tell.

I do remember being really excited following the plans and construction of Smiler. When I got to the park and actually saw and had a ride on it you realise how much of a stupid idea it was to take on that huge project. Gerstlauer should have turned it down, were they strapped for cash at the time? It's poor engineering. Aspects of the track didn't even fit together properly before the completion if I remember correctly?

 

[cjbrandy]

Ive always thought from the moment I saw it in person that parts of the track look like they are almost forced into positions they don't want to be in.

 

[SpeedyWorm]

I am not so certain the general public will forget this over time as people keep saying squarely due to the OTT hyperbole of media. Even the tragic deaths on Hydro/Drenched and Space Invader were given virtually no coverage at all by comparison and in those incidents people actually died. There were no headlines screaming for those rides to be torn down in the aftermath. And remember even as recently as back then there was no Twitter spreading innuendo like wildfire of deaths and limbs flying all over the place like there has been with Smiler.

The media has created a creepy narrative especially for Smiler about it being an accident waiting happen and laying out every single problem the ride as encountered as if its some kind of evidence that alton towers have been gambling with lives. Nothing even remotely like this happened in the aftermath of The Big Ones crashes. Words like 'cursed' and 'deathtrap' have been used on front pages and the repeated phrase ''Why was this ride still allowed to be running'' has been used by the press all week.

Enthusiasts know this is nonsense but this will stick firmly in the mind of the GP. This may even run deeper than a new lick of paint.

Merlin's reputation has been seriously harmed more by the hatchet job the media has done than the incident itself.

 

[SilverArrow]

Found this piece from a few days ago. I'm sure some people have seen it already but I'm glad to see a news outlet doing a related article with an unusually sensible view (with added promo for adventure island which isn't that well known). There was a news article with Drayton manor reassuring people too elsewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB6amMU9R9U

Am I the only person who think the way Adventure Island piped in is really unprofessional and laughable?

Like, they know they aren't comparable in any way shape or form to the quality day out that is Alton, but they're hitting them when they're down with a childish "well that can't happen on OUR ride!"

The real problem is the dodgy track though. This Coaster has stalled more times than any other I've seen. They'll probably do major work to the track over the off season.

Since Smiler first opened, I've been in two minds about how much of a ridiculous disaster it is. Not from a H&S perspective even, just from imagining Alton pitching the idea and Gerst being like "Yup, yup, we can definitely do that!" Only to go home and rock in the corner every evening wondering how the hell they were going to get all that track to fit and align correctly, hoping for the best.

The stalling I can somewhat forgive, because it really is an impressive thing that's got a lot of track to navigate and a lot of potential to loose momentum. Even B&Ms stall. What's fishy, IMO, is stuff like the track separation... That when it was put together no one thought, "that being off by so much isn't acceptable, we need to re-manufacturer this piece of track." Am I being OTT here? What if this had happened during the day when it was operating? And it makes an accident like this crash look, to those of us who know about the past issues, like it must be more than just human error.


As for a rebrand - I dunno yet. I'm really interested to see how this accident actually affects the visitor numbers this year now... A friend visited Thorpe today and said it was really quiet for a weekend. Are people not going because Saw is closed, their most popular ride in fairness, or because people are actually concerned about H&S?

I saw it more as though they had taken an opportunity to assure people as obviously this accident will affects people's views of the whole industry not just AT. I like that AI and Drayton (and probably other UK parks) have been quick to point out how safe rides are. Even thought they are covering their own skins it helps counter the hype. I haven't seen any of the parks make an outright dig at AT as even when they say "our rides are safe" they can only really comment on their own operations anyway. I don't know whether Adventure Island volunteered to be on the program or not- it seemed to me like the program had invited on someone other than AT to talk to give a perspective on coaster safety (rather than the multitude of negative or pot stirring people who's views have been used a lot). It would be awkward if they had asked say Thorpe Park to talk about it given they are merlin operated.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

The track stuff is cos Gerst are weird and set the footers after putting the track in place... Therefore it always looks forced into place rather than pretty much every other company... It's not of course an unsafe version of putting rides together mind, must be more cost effective/easier since Gerst layouts tend to be complex in their own way...

Probably not helped by TG Cruise (the people who actually built the ride) being really useless at their apparent specialist role... They also built Saw... I think they also did the ground survey, and we know how that ended... Perhaps these issues are not down to Gerst, but the company chosen by Merlin/Towers to build it instead... They did put in a piece of track the wrong way around after all...

What this incident has shown is how easy it is for an incident to blow up even quicker than ever... Claims of lost limbs at 14:10 on the day pretty much weren't there? Yet have any of the 4 lost any limbs? Sheer luck that they haven't of course, but 4 people survive deathtrap ride crash doesn't sell papers... That the media point out all these apparent incidents (the breakdowns with celebs/media tend to be the higher ones) when there's only the bolt and shredded wheels that are of any real concern show what they want to portray, rather than inform...

Rebranding claims are very early to say, irrespective of the park apparently removing all marketing/merch, which again sounds like a sensible and standard procedure for any park... Sure NTG did similar after the death... That's not been rebranded either, think only Hydro has ever had a rebrand directly linked to its incident? And that brand wasn't as strong as Smiler's...

 

[elephant58]

I am not so certain the general public will forget this over time as people keep saying squarely due to the OTT hyperbole of media. Even the tragic deaths on Hydro/Drenched and Space Invader were given virtually no coverage at all by comparison and in those incidents people actually died. There were no headlines screaming for those rides to be torn down in the aftermath. And remember even as recently as back then there was no Twitter spreading innuendo like wildfire of deaths and limbs flying all over the place like there has been with Smiler.

The media has created a creepy narrative especially for Smiler about it being an accident waiting happen and laying out every single problem the ride as encountered as if its some kind of evidence that alton towers have been gambling with lives. Nothing even remotely like this happened in the aftermath of The Big Ones crashes. Words like 'cursed' and 'deathtrap' have been used on front pages and the repeated phrase ''Why was this ride still allowed to be running'' has been used by the press all week.

Enthusiasts know this is nonsense but this will stick firmly in the mind of the GP. This may even run deeper than a new lick of paint.

Merlin's reputation has been seriously harmed more by the hatchet job the media has done than the incident itself.

Whilst I agree with you on the media overreacting, their stories are already becoming less OTT and less frequent. So I don't think it would be hard to believe, that in a year, a lot of people won't be thinking about it.

 

[Ian]

I think there are two reasons why Merlin's numbers will go down. The first is, obviously, due to the accident. The second is because it's public knowledge rides are closed. Would you pay to go to Alton Towers knowing a whole section of the park is closed, or go to Chessington if two major rides are closed? Probably not.

There will be a slump in attendance but they will claw it back over years. The Merlin theme parks are so ingrained in the UK visitor attraction psyche, people won't avoid them long term. I think we'll be in for a quiet summer from Merlin in terms of the stupid PR stunts we occasionally see. Instead they will be rebranding as a quality, safe day out and not "look how wacky we are" kind of affair. BY the Halloween events, the mood will change and by the start of the 2017 season, all will be back to normal.

 

[stanford911]

According to the Alton Towers app the following rides are closed:
-Spinball
-Nemesis: Sub Terra
-Oblivion
-Rita
-Smiler (obv)
-Conga River Rapids
-The Flume

This is going to really hit them hard for the next few days while they get their ducks in a row, as a lot of people aren't going to want to go if everything's closed. Best of luck to them though, I'll still be going up next weekend.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

Flume and Rapids open at 11am...

Rita is probably buggered...

Terry is severely buggered...