Theme Park Discussion / The Smiler crashes at Alton Towers, UK.

I'm not sure how international this news has gone and I'm rather surprised to have not seen any discussions on the topic here on NE. Anyway, The Smiler, the newest addition to Alton Towers' large collection of 'extreme' rollercoasters, had a major crash yesterday, causing serious leg injuries to four riders. Today's reports suggest that one of the four injured passengers have actually lost one of their legs as a cause of the incident. Although, I do not know how true these reports are. 

The crash occurred yesterday afternoon at the UK's major theme park attraction, when one train carrying passengers collided with another, empty, test train that had stopped on the track. The ride had been delayed earlier in the day due to a fault. There is already a horrifying YouTube video circulating the internet, just moments after the crash. 
 

The Smiler has been plagued with faults and incidents during its short lifetime, since its arrival in 2013 and questions have to be asked as to whether the ride will reopen at all. It would be a huge loss to Alton Towers after they spent £18m to construct the attraction. The owners of Alton Towers, Merlin Entertainments witnessed a 3% drop in their shares yesterday and that figure could continue to drop throughout the aftermath. 

Alton Towers remains shut until further notice and will be sure to lose out on a lot of revenue as they enter the busy summer season. They will also have to deal with any legal implications the effected riders may bring forward. Hopefully all the passengers experience a speedy recovery and the park can be opened again in a shortly. After all, it does host the UK's best coaster, Nemesis. 

I saw it on BBC news this morning. Not sure if it made the Dutch news. 
The video is not horrifying at all to be honest, the crash is of course. 
I never liked the ride somehow, it looks terrible. 

Edit: Oh I see now in the video that there are two trains and not one. That's pretty horrible. 

The video isn't horrifying, but the sounds in it are.

I'm used to filtering out those sounds from playing so much roller coaster tycoon.

 What was the video of? I saw the youtube video of it still in motion before first resonders arrived and that gave me goosebumps knowing that the front row people lost their legs from that and there was nothing they could do while the coaster was still in motion. I'm actually surprised that video haven't been making the rounds in the news.

Yeah, I was talking about the screaming of the riders, just trapped on the ride whilst some of them had squashed legs.

This is horrible. I don't ever remember a time where a coaster crashed at full speed in the middle of the course like this. I'm interested to see how 2 trains ended up in the same block.

 

The prevailing theory seems to be that the ride block stopped and then maintenance sent the train in manual mode not realizing there was a stalled train. That's nothing more than a theory though and I'm not going to pretend to be an expert but I can't imagine what else it could have been.

One of the reports I read involved an interview with one of the people in the queue that saw the situation unfold and he clearly stated that the train carrying the people had stopped at the top of the lift hill for around 5/10 mins. 

 

To me it sounds like the block section worked exactly how it should and I believe one of the operators have overrode the system and let the second train carry on along the track, not realising that the test train was stuck in that sector. 

I basically agree with your theory Coasterbill.

One of the reports I read involved an interview with one of the people in the queue that saw the situation unfold and he clearly stated that the train carrying the people had stopped at the top of the lift hill for around 5/10 mins. 

 

To me it sounds like the block section worked exactly how it should and I believe one of the operators have overrode the system and let the second train carry on along the track, not realising that the test train was stuck in that sector. 

I basically agree with your theory Coasterbill.

 

I also read that as well. It's another reason that lends credence to the reason why Alton Towers as a whole park is closed today as well rather than closing off that section of the park so they can figure out if it was something in their training/operation materials and re-train their staffs since this theoretically could occur on any ride. As well as the policy of allowing guests on the ride while in maintenance mode and not automatic mode.

This ride has a section on its wikipedia page just for accidents that have happened on it.  One of the worst rides ever built, it seems. 

 

I have'nt seen any press on it stateside. Which is weird because sometimes the media will blow up a ride getting stuck on the lift... 

Only from domestic parks, though. I don't recall ever seeing news about any European or Asian park.

 

Shame about The Smiler, it seems this was a doomed project from the beginning. I hope Alton Towers recovers, because it's such a lovely place.

I have'nt seen any press on it stateside. Which is weird because sometimes the media will blow up a ride getting stuck on the lift... 

 

 

It was on CNN and Fox, as well as Yahoo! news.

Shame about The Smiler, it seems this was a doomed project from the beginning. I hope Alton Towers recovers, because it's such a lovely place.

 

It will recover, but I personally don't see them opening Smiler again. Or if they do, it will be with reduced trains and never more than 1 on the circuit at a time.

 

But it was always doomed, from the moment they chose to go with Gerstlauer.

On the plus side,they will need a massive advertising and development budget over the next few years to regain popularity.We might even get a decent coaster rather than more years of low budget family rides

We might even get a decent coaster rather than more years of low budget family rides

 

Never thought of it like that. That is a positive haha

The Smiler's construction was also rushed to have it open on time - that should have been the doom sign, not the fact that they choose Gerstauler as the manufacturer... they botched the construction and maintenance on that ride so much it could already be done for good when they loose the lawsuits requiring the removal of the ride (which could bring the whole sector into jeopardy)

 

We might even get a decent coaster rather than more years of low budget family rides

 

 

 

Never thought of it like that. That is a positive haha

 

We haven't got much at all up in the North. Kumali and Mumbo Jumbo at Flamingo Land and Odyssey at Fantasy Island. 

well now SAW - The ride is closed due to the incident at Alton Towers (though the rest of Thorpe Park is fine for the time being) - what do you guys think of the paranoia spreading?

Don't really get that logic of closing SAW. Smiler was plagued with problems since the beginning and the only thing in common between the 2 rides is the craator of both.

It's not just Saw. It's also Dragons Fury and Rattlesnake @ Chessington.

 

Dragons Fury & Rattlesnake are closed whilst staff go through further training.

 

Saw is closed for similar things, but also because the block system is the same as Smiler's and is prone to breaking, like Smiler's.

 

Basically, Merlin have become aware that there are certain aspects wrong with the way their rides are run, which led to the collision. Therefore they are taking action to resolve those issues.

 

I expect Saw to remain closed whilst Smiler's investigation is still ongoing and once a result is reached, Saw will reopen, depending on what the outcome of the investigation is (whether it was Human error or Manufacturer problems)