Accident at Alton Towers

[SilverArrow]

Do merlin have multicar rides at their European parks? Are any of those closed?

 

[elephant58]

^^I'm not entirely sure they'd want to ride the Smiler.

 

[Ben]

Do merlin have multicar rides at their European parks? Are any of those closed?

There's a Wild Mouse at most (all?) of the Legolands, and they're all open.

Funnily enough it's probably more to do with UK media than actual safety.

 

[mcg0ughchris]

^^I'm not entirely sure they'd want to ride the Smiler.

Chocolate factory it is then

 

[SilverArrow]

Do merlin have multicar rides at their European parks? Are any of those closed?

There's a Wild Mouse at most (all?) of the Legolands, and they're all open.

Funnily enough it's probably more to do with UK media than actual safety.

Yeah that's what I thought but I wondered anyway. Basically ridiculous media hype means you have to be super careful what you do-even though whatever you do will get twisted negatively anyway.

 

[Robbie]

At least Alton Towers have done the decent thing and offered ALL 16 of the guests involved free fast passes to come back and ride The Smiler when it's fully operational.

Alternatively they can also use that fast pass for a single ride of any of Alton Towers fantastic attraction (not including Nemesis, Oblivion, Rita, Air, Thirteen or Sonic Spinball)

I'd have thought that's the very, very, least they can do!

 

[mcg0ughchris]

At least Alton Towers have done the decent thing and offered ALL 16 of the guests involved free fast passes to come back and ride The Smiler when it's fully operational.

Alternatively they can also use that fast pass for a single ride of any of Alton Towers fantastic attraction (not including Nemesis, Oblivion, Rita, Air, Thirteen or Sonic Spinball)

I'd have thought that's the very, very, least they can do!

They should probably include the admission fee for the theme park free to.

In all seriousness the compensation solicitors will be queueing up to take this on. They'll probably end up handing out settlements equal to how much the Smiler cost in the first place.

 

[Jake]

http://www.snappytv.com/tc/628458/157163

Full Sky News interview with Nick Varney.

Kay Burley is a bitch.

She's the worst creature of them all!

In a weird way, Nick is kinda cute.

 

[Smithy]

Not sure if it's been mentioned but could it be possible that the four ride closures will be because they have operating systems that if a certain set of events occur then it's possible to override a shutdown of the block system?

 

[elephant58]

At least Alton Towers have done the decent thing and offered ALL 16 of the guests involved free fast passes to come back and ride The Smiler when it's fully operational.

Alternatively they can also use that fast pass for a single ride of any of Alton Towers fantastic attraction (not including Nemesis, Oblivion, Rita, Air, Thirteen or Sonic Spinball)

I'd have thought that's the very, very, least they can do!

They should probably include the admission fee for the theme park free to.

In all seriousness the compensation solicitors will be queueing up to take this on. They'll probably end up handing out settlements equal to how much the Smiler cost in the first place.

Considering there are several reports estimating 'up to £1 million' in total for compensation, I think that last statement is unlikely to become true.

 

[mcg0ughchris]

It'll be more than 1 million depending on the issues. If it does turn out that someone has lost a limb or use of a limb then there's gonna be bother for Merlin

 

[elephant58]

^The £1 million was including the amputation rumour and apparently to pay out for a lower leg amputation is something like between £79000 and £105000. The last bit was from the Mirror (I think), so most likely not entirely accurate. But £18m in compensation would be astonishingly high and would never happen.

 

[Smithy]

All irrelevant at this stage because Varney to his absolute credit has said the family will essentially have everything paid for, and no need to argue for a settlement.

The only reason they'll end up being a disagreement is if their solicitors try and take the piss and wring them for a stupid amount.

 

[SilverArrow]

Just watched both of those NV interviews:

BBC interview makes me go aww.

Sky interview just makes that woman look like an idiot. I don't watch loads of news interviews but that one is one of the worst conducted ones I've ever seen. Glad to see that a lot of other people agree both here and on twitter. She crossed the line from being an assertive interviewer asking the right questions that the public want to know to way over into just coming across as nasty and rude which just made her look bad instead. Also a bit rude asking details on people's injuries that are probably not for him to share anyway.

Oh and if you like terrible journalism and sensationalism this is here too (or that game one):
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/mi ... ee-9397443

 

[elephant58]

^It's in fact illegal for him to share, which is one of the reasons why the interview infuriated me so much. I did think his reaction was good though, being blunt with her when she basically demanded information he wasn't allowed to give.

 

[ThomVD]

British media are a **** joke. Why do they always try so hard to completely destroy all good things? (Bit frustrated after watching that god awful interview).

 

[SilverArrow]

^It's in fact illegal for him to share, which is one of the reasons why the interview infuriated me so much. I did think his reaction was good though, being blunt with her when she basically demanded information he wasn't allowed to give.

Yeah I'm sure it is hence why it was so stupid. She was just trying to wind him up to get him to spills some sort of juicy gossip that they can market. It didn't work though so it massively backfired imo.

British media are a **** joke. Why do they always try so hard to completely destroy all good things? (Bit frustrated after watching that god awful interview).

Agreed. Join the club!

Most intelligent people will know that these incidents are very very rare so all they want is to know that they company are taking it seriously and that changes are being made, which they have shown. The people who I've heard saying they don't want to ride rides again are people who don't like rides anyway saying "I told you rides were dangerous" because they are scared of rides and wouldn't have done them anyway.

 

[Bentleya]

The HSE website states the park can now open when the owners want it to, elimatiming HSE keeping the park closed.

http://press.hse.gov.uk/2015/health-and ... on-towers/

The investigation into the incident continues and HSE inspectors remain on site. They have served a Prohibition notice on the rollercoaster stopping its use until action is taken to deal with the cause of the failure.

Neil Craig, Head of Operations for HSE in the Midlands said:

“The Notice is specific to the ‘Smiler’ ride and does not affect other rides at the park. HSE expects the park operator to apply any early learning from the incident to wider risk management at the site.

“The decision about when to re-open the Park is for the owners to make.”

 

[Robbie]

All irrelevant at this stage because Varney to his absolute credit has said the family will essentially have everything paid for, and no need to argue for a settlement.

The only reason they'll end up being a disagreement is if their solicitors try and take the piss and wring them for a stupid amount.

It said on BBC News that the family of the girl from Leyland will be trying for a criminal prosecution as well as lots of compensation.

 

[elephant58]

British media are a **** joke. Why do they always try so hard to completely destroy all good things? (Bit frustrated after watching that god awful interview).

To be fair, I'm sure most countries have a decent share of tabloid ****. We do have some reliable news sources though, such as the BBC, Independent, etc.