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​EXACTLY. You said it perfectly Richard. The way the media has sensationalised perfectly acceptable minor issues here and there (always to be expected from a ride of this size anyway).. well let's just say the Americans have nothing on them. This surely was a terrible accident, and my heart goes out to all those affected.. I don't know if it's true but the reports say riders were stuck for 4.5 hours.. and if that IS true, THAT is the most unacceptable thing.. Besides working out how the accident happened, they should also work heavily on their emergency response. I also think it's a bit dramatic to suddenly shut down all their gerstlauer coasters at all Merlin Parks. The media even says "Saw, a similar ride". Similar in what way? Saw and the Smiler are like saying Oprah Winfrey looks like Ben Stiller. Totally different car design, totally different scale of coaster. Basically, beyond the sincere sadness I feel for those that were injured, it's the media and merlin themselves turning into epic proportions. And to scrap it , or even talk of it.. over one accident, where there were no fatalities? I don't agree. Heck if Disney scrapped every ride they had had an accident with, they would have gone broke a long time ago. This is all a bit OTT to say the least, and instead of us focusing on those who truly deserve our attention, those injured.. it seems merlin and the media are the ones taking the spotlight with ridiculous claims and assumptions.

Ok, I think we get the message you are trying to both convey. How about we get back on topic instead of bitching about the past?

Hello everyone, long time reader first time poster here. I was at Dreamworld today. You can see there is a mine cart with water-dummies in the old loading station. Dreamworld must be planning something!

The stupidity of the British press is mind-numbing. The overall theme of their questioning to Alton Towers officials is that this ride was an accident waiting to happen, based on a series of minor, anecdotal incidents. It would be nice to see them swap the faux hard-hitting journalist routine for a discussion with independent industry engineers, who could dismiss these previous incidents for red herrings that they are so that the media narrative could focus on coming the the bottom of what happened this week. The black and white answer is obviously that either a computer or human made a mistake. But in the case of the latter I suspect there are grey areas at play here, such as how or why the computer system was able to be overridden, or if it faulted in allowing such an override to take place. Reports suggested it had just come out of a period of downtime, so there could well have been maintenance technicians present who do have the ability and authority to operate the ride in a manual mode. Or there may well be policies in place at Alton Towers that allows ride supervisors or operators to make manual maneuvers.

The 2014 Global Attractions Attendance Report is out. Congrats to the water parks on the Gold Coast. http://www.aecom.com/deployedfiles/Internet/Capabilities/Economics/_documents/Theme Index_2014_v1_1a.PDF