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So the older girl on the front row "is still critically ill although surgeons have managed to save both her crushed legs," which could be where the "lost leg" rumour started originally. Sounds like good news anyway. Also looks like the press are finally getting more accurate, and are starting...

Interesting quote from Adventure Island:- "It is impossible for two cars on Rage to collide as the independent dual computer system prevents a car starting its ride until the previous car is back in the station. Our first action on hearing of the tragic incident at Alton Towers was to...

That's no surprise Snoo - it's Fox News's sister channel and owned by Murdoch! It's not usually as bad but Kay Burley is an odious witch. It was a slow news day in the UK yesterday, which won't have pleased Merlin as it left Alton top of the BBC news.

"Health and safety investigators have handed the Staffordshire-based theme park a prohibition notice – a legally enforced ban – on operating the Smiler until action is taken to deal with the cause of its failure." This could mean anything, as it doesn't reveal the cause of the failure, but the...

I'm quite shocked at the usefulness of that CCTV - the fidelity of the Knot footage looks rubbish! Once the stalled train stopped moving it wouldn't exactly stand out. Based on that I reckon they'll have to put some form of tracking in before they can reopen it. Makes you wonder about Saw as...

But as Ben pointed out earlier, it's pretty much unprecedented to close an entire park like this. I can remember being at Alton in years gone by when the whole of X-Sector happened to be shut. Doesn't stop them opening the park, especially for the likes of CBeebies Land. They'd open if they...

Yep, was there last week, that's exactly what it is! Quite well done too, they're kind of plonked around the animal walk-through but they have some nice movement. And eggs. There's also a "Rockin' Rhino" ride which was quite nicely decorated. While I was there, with all the space they've got...

I agree, I think that statement from Nick Varney suggests very strongly that it's a procedural/human failure, and probably not a technical failure, hence the continued park closure. It's actually more likely still to be a multiple human/process failure - not counting the trains back in, not...

^Beat me to it! If they were confident it was due to human error, than they may have to demonstrate to H&S that staff & procedures are safe before they can reopen in general.

^Seems to be pretty unlikely - if the train was "released" on the lift hill you'd expect it to fall back under gravity not move forwards. One more interesting speculative comment - I've read a report, from someone in the queue at the time, that prior to the stall it was announced that they were...

If I ran a park with a Gerstlauer coaster, I'd have been on the phone/email yesterday afternoon asking them if there's anything to worry about. If it was an Infinity model I'd be dispatching one train until further notice! But then the coaster ops I saw at Tripsdrill a while back weren't...

The odd thing in that article is that eyewitnesses describe the populated train "stopping on the loop and then suddenly dropping and crashing." Wouldn't have thought there's a block brake half-way round an inversion? Could just be inaccurate, but the text is pretty specific.

Count them out, count them in. There could be a flaw in the defined procedure, but it's much more likely to be a human error via a failure to follow the process (probably compounded by something technical). I'll be very surprised if AT aren't culpable.

No doubt there'll be a contributory technical failure, but the fact remains that a "test train" was sent around the track and then ignored. Surely the ride op procedures will say "check the test train"? Can't imagine that not being in the Gerstlauer manual.

Re: Alton Towers | Farmyard Retheme to "CBeebies Land" I'll reply when it's not ten to midnight on a school night! :)

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1 Looking at the video, I can't shake the idea that they've wired the screens wrong! Either that or their programming is buggy. Love the content though, and the fact Alton have finally embraced some theming tech. I wish they'd used LED...

Re: Alton Towers | The Smiler | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1 You've just reminded me of the ERT on Lynet - I lasted about 45 mins before spew avoidance measures were required!

Just to throw in my views on The Hobbit, as I've seen it in 48fps 3D and 24fps 3D now (where the 24fps is a post-processed-down version of what they shot in 48fps but looks perfectly normal). For me, the 48fps image is SO crisp and detailed that it shows up every photographic discrepancy and...

Back in the mists of time (approx. 1985), when Enterprise was over by the Corkscrew, my mate & I were on it when it got stuck in vertical for 20 minutes. Now THAT was a cycle! :) Admittedly my mate got off & threw-up...

Re: Alton Towers | SW7 | Unknown (Gestlauer?) World's 1st On the plans the spider-thingie has LCD screens all around it's "head". Could be excellent (as long as they don't follow tradition and break in the first 6 months!). It reminds me of War of the Worlds and Tripods (shows age).