elephant58
Hyper Poster
I think they'll open it at the start of next season, without too much attention and they might put minimum emphasis on the theme.
Accident at Alton Towers
- Thread starter silenthillXD
- Start date
cjbrandy
Hyper Poster
Whenever it re opens, you can be sure Kay Burley will rip it to shreds on Sky News and the DM and the Sun will attack the **** out of it. I can see the headlines now- Alton Towers reopens dangerous ride. Left wing broadsheet newspapers like The Guardian wont be much better either to be fair.
mcg0ughchris
Mega Poster
Honestly the best thing they could do is to bite the bullet and announce that the investigation is complete and that X problem was the cause, ride won't open until significant work has taken place to rectify it. Merlin keeps it closed this season, makes modifications over the off season to completely change theme and elements of the track and then open quietly within the first month of next season.
As Smithy said earlier an accident in this age is completely different to something ten years ago. Social media means that within a couple of clicks a very high % of people could view this on their FB, twitters etc. You've also got to factor in that the four people that were seriously injured all survived and are all (in particular the girls) going to be undergoing some sort of rehab well into next year which could be brought up at any point.
It really is tough because from a PR stand point Alton would be best off demolishing Smiler and announcing that it was poorly engineered and X, X and X was wrong and we're making an example out of it to show you that we're putting guests first and all of our other rides are completely safe
As Smithy said earlier an accident in this age is completely different to something ten years ago. Social media means that within a couple of clicks a very high % of people could view this on their FB, twitters etc. You've also got to factor in that the four people that were seriously injured all survived and are all (in particular the girls) going to be undergoing some sort of rehab well into next year which could be brought up at any point.
It really is tough because from a PR stand point Alton would be best off demolishing Smiler and announcing that it was poorly engineered and X, X and X was wrong and we're making an example out of it to show you that we're putting guests first and all of our other rides are completely safe
elephant58
Hyper Poster
I think people are forgetting that closing it will have severe backlash. Just look at all the facebook comments asking when it will reopen/why it isn't open, etc.
SilverArrow
Certified Ride Geek
No. Only Saw closed out of all of the eurofighters and infinity coasters if I recall correctly.LG95 said:
mcg0ughchris
Mega Poster
I understand that they're going to get complaints about the ride being closed but they're currently in damage limitation mode. Imagine if they opened the ride and it stalled again. Even if they followed the safety procedures to a tee and no one got hurt people would be all over it condemning it again. You've got to think about what's best for the Alton Towers brand, if it was your park and your money you might think about it differently. It's not as easy as sitting in a board room full of company directors and saying 'Maybe if we leave this closed until next year people will forget about the incident and we can carry on as normal'.
Merlin is a huge player in the UK, they won't be so naive as to not plan out what they're going to do long in advance, that'll include weighing up the pros and cons of whether it stays the same, gets a rebrand, gets removed.
Merlin is a huge player in the UK, they won't be so naive as to not plan out what they're going to do long in advance, that'll include weighing up the pros and cons of whether it stays the same, gets a rebrand, gets removed.
Nemesis Inferno
Strata Poster
Given that Smiler has a lot of unique groundwork, I don't think a relocation will be particularly viable or cost-effective...
People who are complaining that the ride is closed are idiots, but that's part and parcel of the selfish society we live in today...
The news stories since the incident have calmed down, and the public have turned against the stories via their portrayal in the media... Perhaps as a result of the Kay Burley interview, perhaps because the interest has waned and they can tell that the story is effectively over (until the results of the investigation come about)...
When the media are scraping the barrel via "think of the children" stories regarding t-shirts, you know that this has left the minds of many people... In the future it will be referred to as "the one that crashed", in the same way that some probably refer to BTM in Paris as "the one that had rocks fall on people"...
I wonder if other rides across the world that have had incidents/deaths have their stigma still to this day?
People who are complaining that the ride is closed are idiots, but that's part and parcel of the selfish society we live in today...
The news stories since the incident have calmed down, and the public have turned against the stories via their portrayal in the media... Perhaps as a result of the Kay Burley interview, perhaps because the interest has waned and they can tell that the story is effectively over (until the results of the investigation come about)...
When the media are scraping the barrel via "think of the children" stories regarding t-shirts, you know that this has left the minds of many people... In the future it will be referred to as "the one that crashed", in the same way that some probably refer to BTM in Paris as "the one that had rocks fall on people"...
I wonder if other rides across the world that have had incidents/deaths have their stigma still to this day?
mcg0ughchris
Mega Poster
I have been to Disneyland Paris 5 times over the years and I knew nothing about the accident on Big Thunder Mountain until someone brought it up in this thread.
On the other hand...
I was at work when the Smiler crash happened and found out about it within 30 minutes from many people that have no interest in Coasters via Facebook.
That's the difference between now and past accidents. Everyone knows everything and media outlets have ways of hyping up stories and getting them across on numerous different platforms.
You didn't have to actively go and search to find out about this Smiler crash, you didn't even have to buy a newspaper or watch the news on TV. It was literally everywhere, which means there's so much more pressure on big companies who rely on reputation to make money. Attendance drops in the long term would hurt more than a failed attraction. Which is why Merlin will play it smart
On the other hand...
I was at work when the Smiler crash happened and found out about it within 30 minutes from many people that have no interest in Coasters via Facebook.
That's the difference between now and past accidents. Everyone knows everything and media outlets have ways of hyping up stories and getting them across on numerous different platforms.
You didn't have to actively go and search to find out about this Smiler crash, you didn't even have to buy a newspaper or watch the news on TV. It was literally everywhere, which means there's so much more pressure on big companies who rely on reputation to make money. Attendance drops in the long term would hurt more than a failed attraction. Which is why Merlin will play it smart
I found it interesting as well that according to the accidents page on Wiki Alton Mouse had a similar accident back in the day. I never even knew that until Sunday when I was being morbid.
I think this one will be interesting to watch the recovery on because it's the first big UK accident in the time of social media - there's not really a precedent for it over here.
It's happened in other countries and New Texas Giant recovered just fine, but how will the British public react? Personally I think it'll still blow over in a year and still get ridership that more than warrants reopening it at some point but we'll see.
Is a death on a cred more easily forgettable than an injury that keeps the person around to remind us of it? (Christ, I sound like her out of Sex and the City)
I think this one will be interesting to watch the recovery on because it's the first big UK accident in the time of social media - there's not really a precedent for it over here.
It's happened in other countries and New Texas Giant recovered just fine, but how will the British public react? Personally I think it'll still blow over in a year and still get ridership that more than warrants reopening it at some point but we'll see.
Is a death on a cred more easily forgettable than an injury that keeps the person around to remind us of it? (Christ, I sound like her out of Sex and the City)
mcg0ughchris
Mega Poster
Ah Ben I wanted to post that question but thought it was too innapropriate coming from me lol
Chris Brown
Mr CoasterForce 2016
mcg0ughchris said:
Completely agree Chris, previous accidents cant really be compared to this because of the change in media outlets and news distribution that you have highlighted above. I think Merlin could have rode the storm had this accident occurred 5 years ago but for the reasons you stated they are going to have an extremely hard time.
SilverArrow
Certified Ride Geek
They're going to get stick whether they reopen it, retheme it or demolish it. There is no way of avoiding some negative press unfortunately. They're probably trying to forecast the reaction of each possible action- it's tricky because it's not only the extent of the negative hype but for how long it will be sustained and whether people will actually remember or care about it.
If they set their minds to reopening pretty much as-is (with the minimum upgrades) I think they could certainly do it- it just depends how careful they want to be.
I think they have the fanbase support that they could pull that off fine (partly because every knows how overly hyped the media is). For a lot of people it would take more than one accident (which they have already proved to have taken very seriously) to erase their memories of years of fun days out. The park holds a lot of memories with a lot of people in this country. If a new park had had an accident like this recently after opening I think the visitor numbers would have taken a bigger hit. A lot of people still trust Alton and I think that speaks volumes about the park (and any similar events elsewhere with other parks respectively) regardless of what they choose to do next.
If they set their minds to reopening pretty much as-is (with the minimum upgrades) I think they could certainly do it- it just depends how careful they want to be.
I think they have the fanbase support that they could pull that off fine (partly because every knows how overly hyped the media is). For a lot of people it would take more than one accident (which they have already proved to have taken very seriously) to erase their memories of years of fun days out. The park holds a lot of memories with a lot of people in this country. If a new park had had an accident like this recently after opening I think the visitor numbers would have taken a bigger hit. A lot of people still trust Alton and I think that speaks volumes about the park (and any similar events elsewhere with other parks respectively) regardless of what they choose to do next.
I was thinking about how I feel regarding the Smiler as I would class myself as general public with a vague interest in rollercoasters. I mean I browse various threads on this forum but I really don't have that much depth to my knowledge.
Personally I feel way more comfortable with the thought of it being human error as opposed to a system failure etc, just because these rides are designed to have fail safes etc that work. I would be much more comfortable riding something that had previously had an accident caused by somebodys mistake as opposed to a failure on the part of the ride itself. Thus if the cause of the crash was determined to be human error I can see them reopening the Smiler fairly easily.
I also think you need to remember that the press have spun the Smiler so that it has this dark past. That could make people uncomfortable, which have culminated in this. As Joe Bloggs would you ride a "cursed" ride?
I personally would like to see the carriages redesigned as well without those metal bars on the front. Just from personal paranoia. I know it's so unlikely that a ride will crash, especially twice but I think I would find those paranoias hard to dispel on the ride.
Personally I feel way more comfortable with the thought of it being human error as opposed to a system failure etc, just because these rides are designed to have fail safes etc that work. I would be much more comfortable riding something that had previously had an accident caused by somebodys mistake as opposed to a failure on the part of the ride itself. Thus if the cause of the crash was determined to be human error I can see them reopening the Smiler fairly easily.
I also think you need to remember that the press have spun the Smiler so that it has this dark past. That could make people uncomfortable, which have culminated in this. As Joe Bloggs would you ride a "cursed" ride?
I personally would like to see the carriages redesigned as well without those metal bars on the front. Just from personal paranoia. I know it's so unlikely that a ride will crash, especially twice but I think I would find those paranoias hard to dispel on the ride.
Robbie
Hyper Poster
Uh-oh...
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/al ... ks-5985495
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 59456.html
Air briefly breaks down, and 80 people get stuck on the Monorail. Everyday problems but the media links them to The Smiler crash (and the stories have Facebook comments like "If I was u id just stop going there"). This story ain't going away.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/al ... ks-5985495
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 59456.html
Air briefly breaks down, and 80 people get stuck on the Monorail. Everyday problems but the media links them to The Smiler crash (and the stories have Facebook comments like "If I was u id just stop going there"). This story ain't going away.
Rankle07
Roller Poster
Robbie said:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-st ... e-33357478
BBC post as well.
My friend said to me this morning "Why is Alton Towers having so many breakdowns recently?". This sort of thing is just bringing all little 'breakdowns' to the public eye.
Maybe the heat had something to do with the monorail halting?
Nemesis Inferno
Strata Poster
The media:
