elephant58
Hyper Poster
It makes me genuinely angry that people can be this stupid, but then again if they buy the Mail, what should we expect?
Accident at Alton Towers
- Thread starter silenthillXD
- Start date
Robbie
Hyper Poster
Nice try, but I can easily see the Daily Mail spinning that to say Alton Towers is unsafe because a guest got into a ride area.PeteA said:
"Questions are being asked about whether Alton Towers is safe to visit after a man was able to access a dangerous ride area this afternoon. The customer entered a restricted section of the park and caused a ride have an emergency shut-down as the safety of the riders were put in danger. This latest incident has led people to ask if Alton Towers can be trusted to look after customers"
SaiyanHajime
CF Legend
Dunno if any of you have seen Spinball this year, but when i visited a few weeks back I noticed it has a LOT of new fencing protecting restricted areas already - BEFORE this incident.
There's this thing I like to call "special snowflake syndrome" - basically, people do stupid things sometimes because they have a mitigating circumstance that, in their moment of one track mindedness, makes them do otherwise considered stupid, dangerous things to achieve a goal.
We all do it. Speeding when driving to work or attempting to get on a train when the doors are closing and you've been told to stand clear, all because you're late for work. You're a special snowflake, you have a reason to break the rules, so they don't apply to you.
All the fencing around Spinball is littered with "ride area danger of death" signs. But if you really want to get your phone back, and the ride staff told you you have to wait until the end of the day, but you have to leave early, suddenly you're a special snowflake. You'll be fine, you won't go near the track, you're not THAT stupid. When I worked at a park (not Alton) I would constantly have guests making comments about how stupid it was that they couldn't wait on platforms or within locked gates for their families whilst the ride is in motion. That they "wouldn't go near the ride". Well no, you probably wouldn't, but you might. I'd actually put money on this incident not being due to somone IN a ride area, but more a preventative, that person looks like they MIGHT be about to put themselves in danger. People think of estops as being a last minute panic response, but in reality, the second they suspect a potential danger it'll get whacked. Estopping coasters once they've left a block is obviously pointless because they then cannot stop, gravity has them, so staff must work preventatively.
It's really difficult to communicate such things to the average Joe without going into great detail. The next question would be WHY CAN'T ROLLER COASTERS BE STOPPED? THATS DANGEROUS.
People are dangerous. There is always an element of danger with everything.
Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk
There's this thing I like to call "special snowflake syndrome" - basically, people do stupid things sometimes because they have a mitigating circumstance that, in their moment of one track mindedness, makes them do otherwise considered stupid, dangerous things to achieve a goal.
We all do it. Speeding when driving to work or attempting to get on a train when the doors are closing and you've been told to stand clear, all because you're late for work. You're a special snowflake, you have a reason to break the rules, so they don't apply to you.
All the fencing around Spinball is littered with "ride area danger of death" signs. But if you really want to get your phone back, and the ride staff told you you have to wait until the end of the day, but you have to leave early, suddenly you're a special snowflake. You'll be fine, you won't go near the track, you're not THAT stupid. When I worked at a park (not Alton) I would constantly have guests making comments about how stupid it was that they couldn't wait on platforms or within locked gates for their families whilst the ride is in motion. That they "wouldn't go near the ride". Well no, you probably wouldn't, but you might. I'd actually put money on this incident not being due to somone IN a ride area, but more a preventative, that person looks like they MIGHT be about to put themselves in danger. People think of estops as being a last minute panic response, but in reality, the second they suspect a potential danger it'll get whacked. Estopping coasters once they've left a block is obviously pointless because they then cannot stop, gravity has them, so staff must work preventatively.
It's really difficult to communicate such things to the average Joe without going into great detail. The next question would be WHY CAN'T ROLLER COASTERS BE STOPPED? THATS DANGEROUS.
People are dangerous. There is always an element of danger with everything.
Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk
caffeine_demon
Strata Poster
Oh, This comment is awesome:
"THat ride in the picture looked small and overloaded with the weight of 4 people on it which is a fair amount weight. THere should be a user warning on these rides which warns people they use them at their own risk and there is no guarantee of safety on them and people should be warned that they might shatter"
"THat ride in the picture looked small and overloaded with the weight of 4 people on it which is a fair amount weight. THere should be a user warning on these rides which warns people they use them at their own risk and there is no guarantee of safety on them and people should be warned that they might shatter"
airtime_uk_ash
Mega Poster
caffeine_demon said:
May I take this opportunity to apologise for the general public of Great Britain these idiots I assure you are not representative of the entire population!
Also the fact smiler is on a 60 minute q on a Monday at the end of October means these numpties aren't winning!!!
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GuyWithAStick
Captain Basic
They might shatter? Oh my god I'm dying. :lol:
Also, I agree 100% with Joey's Special Snowflake idea. I've seen so many examples at all the parks I've been to. I can't film on coasters? No, it's ok, I have a YouTube channel I'm trying to start! I can't lean over the airgates? But I want to talk to my friend who's on the train! No loose articles while riding? But I don't want anyone to steal them! All reasons people would break the rules. The reason these rules are in place is to make the ride safer for everyone. It's not to ruin the fun, it's to create a safe environment to let everyone have fun.
Also, I agree 100% with Joey's Special Snowflake idea. I've seen so many examples at all the parks I've been to. I can't film on coasters? No, it's ok, I have a YouTube channel I'm trying to start! I can't lean over the airgates? But I want to talk to my friend who's on the train! No loose articles while riding? But I don't want anyone to steal them! All reasons people would break the rules. The reason these rules are in place is to make the ride safer for everyone. It's not to ruin the fun, it's to create a safe environment to let everyone have fun.
TommyAlex
Mega Poster
caffeine_demon said:
By that logic, these 'warnings' should apply to literally anything ever created. Everything you do is you taking a risk, no matter how small that risk may be.
Of course, there's no point trying to explain that to any of these people who think that roller coasters are death traps.
TommyAlex said:
I think - and hope - it's just ignorance. People rarely give a thought to what kind of work goes into things they rarely interact with. To the casual observer, the process of making a rollercoaster seems to begin and end with "acquire track, bend in a knot, put in supports 'till it looks stable, and clause your way out of legal ramifications whenever somebody inevitably dies". We're annoyed when it comes to coasters, because we know coasters rather intricately, but I'm willing to bet everybody on here is guilty of something similar when it comes to other stuff. "It's just ____, how complicated can it be?"
Or in another form, whenever something goes wrong, "It shouldn't be that hard to make this work, it's just a simple process of _____". We naturally tend to assume the people responsible were lazy, incompetent, or even malicious, because superficially, the problem seems like it'd be trivially easy to prevent (see: traffic lights, ink printers, politics, and other seemingly simple but horribly complex stuff).
Because I like XKCD, and I think this image is relevant, I'm going to post this recent reminder of how easy it is to overlook that a shocking number of manpower is required to make even basic stuff work well:
Hmm, just noticed the crash celebs appear to be fading out of favour. On a little Twitter stalk, I noticed Balch's is now set to private. Why the Mirror hasn't turned that into a story is beyond me. Leah and Joe (who I actually have respect for) tweeted about not attending the Pride of Britain Awards this year when last year they were the little darlings. although they did recently appear at a local charity event alongside the Chuckle Brothers.
TLARides
Hyper Poster
According to Coasters101, the ride's safety system had been overridden manually by the workers themselves. There's a camera on the batwing element where it stalled. They would've seen the car there and wouldn't have launched the ride. If you ask me, either the ride operators were trying to get fired or they just REALLY wanted the ride removed. ATR would never remove a ride they probably treasure the most. Before it was opened they put the ride logo on sheep in the area, as well as a mobile app game that was released on the ride's opening day in 2013. In a way, it kinda seems like they spend more money on the decoration than on the ride itself. I'm not entirely sure. The ride is still one of my favourites though.
Pink Cadillac
Giga Poster
TLARides said:
SaiyanHajime
CF Legend
I guess you never make mistakes, ever.
Don't be **** ridiculous.
Why am I even giving you attention.
Pink Cadillac
Giga Poster
Mrs Roper: "For every branch of the old oak tree that falls a member of the Alton Towers ride line-up will die!!" *punches override button*
Too bad she's now resorted to leaping over ride safety fences to carry out her devilish deeds.
Too bad she's now resorted to leaping over ride safety fences to carry out her devilish deeds.
