Roller Coaster Crash at Alton Towers

[rappa]

Pretty well every coaster uses proxies as they can't be false triggered by a foreign object like a bird. 

[Jakev8]

Looks she might be coming down for good.

[rappa]

Yeah UNILAD, always with the more accurate info. 

Seriously? You actually just posted that?

[pazzap]

Looks she might be coming down for good.

​Just speculation at this stage.. and i really hope it doesn't.. 

[pazzap]

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.

​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. 

 

[pushbutton]

Unfortunately that's what the British media does best. The Australian media is about a decade behind and still does a certain amount of actual journalism sometimes. They're catching up fast though!

[Zanstabar]

Couldn't agree more Pazzap, but just me nitpicking... 

 

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.

 

​I would probably compare this more-so to Ellen Degeneres and Oprah Winfrey. Both have very, very similar jobs that cater to the same market, however they are two very different people on all levels.

I understand Merlin's reasoning behind shutting down all Gerstlauer coaster, but as we can all vouch, this isn't a problem to do with the manufacturer, but rather some of the staff. If parks over the world shut down their El Loco's after Green Lantern, I would be understanding. That accident wasn't human error, but rather a problem with the ride itself. This mess on the other hand...

[Tim Dasco]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/alton-towers-crash-theme-park-says-rumours-of-the-smiler-being-removed-are-pure-speculation-10299138.html

 

Found this on Facebook.

[AllegroCrab]

If anyone wants to voluntarily boil their blood or cause a big hole to appear in the middle of their monitor, I recommend watching this interview. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kke3h2UeH3I&user=skynews

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

^that woman needs a shovel to the head.

[Gazza]

 

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.

 

 

It's not dramatic at all.

What does car design and scale of the ride have to do with it?

​Both rides would share a lot of parts commonality for things like brakes, the vertical lift system, sensors etc. But of course, the main thing that would be similar between both models is the control system, and something obviously went wrong with that aspect for this accident to happen (Either by the people operating it, or something wrong within the design of the control system)

[Reanimated35]

Wow and I thought Fox news was bad. I wonder if Sky are happy with such a rude bitch representing their company to a global audience.

[JacobSibbald]

It pained me to watch that thing rip to shreds a human being who is doing everything in his power to make extra sure that something like this never happens again. A person who refuses to acknowledge the rightful actions of someone else is the sole reason the journalistic field is constantly criticised for false claims and for being hysterical.

 

Fire the witch.

[rappa]

Yes that interview was just disgusting. 

And yes Gazza is right, whilst each install is Customised, typically all coasters of a same model will share the control PLC code so a flaw that allows curtain conditions to lead to an accident (which sounds like is the case here) are likely to be found in every installation. The fact that Saw probably shares operational procedures being the same park operator means it absolutely should be closed until the investigation is complete and the flaw rectified. 

 

I spent an hour yesterday chasing a PLC bug that appeared when we changed something seemingly unrelated. These things can take time to completely nail down.  

 

The only other option is to run it with a single car and that would just be a capacity nightmare. 

[Reanimated35]

Assuming there's a manual override function on the auto block brakes, couldn't it be changed to require a key to be inserted for example, so then only when the person with the key shows up they're knowing exactly what could happen if they override it? 

[rappa]

You'll find on nearly all panels the 'mode' switch for the ride is a key switch. 

Different parks have different rules. For example at Movie World only maintenance staff can run manual mode and move trains, etc. Where as at Disney bringing trains on and offline is standard practice for operational staff.  

[Gazza]

As far as I know, its a pretty common thing that a key is required for special functions (Eg if a ride is e-stopped a key is needed to reset)

Though, nothing stopping a person with the authority to run the ride in manual from making a mistake.

[Zanstabar]

Geez, is she the British Nancy Grace?

How rude. That's is definitely not someone that I would not like represent a company.

[AllegroCrab]

Assuming there's a manual override function on the auto block brakes, couldn't it be changed to require a key to be inserted for example, so then only when the person with the key shows up they're knowing exactly what could happen if they override it? 

​Something like this is most likely there in the first place. Who's saying that this person with a key isn't ever going to make a mistake though?

[Richard]

That interview is crazy! Here you have a CEO taking responsibility for the incident offering complete humility and substance, and an interviewer hellbent on keeping things going around in circles to try and make some ridiculous point about safety that makes absolutely no sense.

You have to applaud the Alton Towers/Merlin response in all this. Really offering a level of public responsibility for the incident that you don't typically see.  Certainly different from say a Disney response. Australia's media lost all interest in Green Lantern within a day or two, so we never saw an actual public response from VRTP.

Edited June 7, 2015 by Richard

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I mean the point she kept trying to make - that they're going to extra lengths to ensure safety -  that's like saying that a car manufacturer, or an airliner manufacturer builds unsafe passenger carrying vehicles because one vehicle crash identifies a one-in-a-million fault, which - nevertheless each manufacturer immediately spends a fortune retrofitting every one in their fleet...

[Noxegon]

Sky News is very closely related to Fox News; it's tabloid television of the worst kind. This is far from the first time Kay Burley has gone off the reservation:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/sky-news-anchor-kay-burley-199426

 

 

[Zanstabar]

Ambitious Kay Burley's job as a Sky News anchor is under threat after she reduced Peter Andre to tears with brutal questioning about his kids.

Katie Price's ex had expected to be quizzed about his new album - instead Burley grilled him on how he would feel if Katie Price's new husband, cage fighter Alex Reid, wanted to adopt his children.

It is not the first time Kay Burley has made a hash of it.

In an interview in 2008 she asked Suffolk serial killer Steve Wright's wife: "Do you think if you'd had a better sex life he wouldn't have done this?" On the day of the 9/11 outrage, Burley told viewers: "The entire eastern seaboard of the United States has been decimated by a terrorist attack." She also challenged radio presenter James O'Brien on air for slamming Chelsea footballer Frank Lampard's parenting skills, not revealing her ex-husband was Lampard's agent.

Burley was seen with her hand around photographer Kirsty Wigglesworth's neck during a row in 2008.

What a cruel and heartless woman. Her so called "reporting" is definitely in worse shape than most of the injured from this accident. Being put with an interview like that, I think everyone at Merlin needs a round of applause. They handled the interview professionally and in a calm manor. It would be pretty easy for the CEO to just raise his voice as much as hers and turn this into an episode of Jerry Springer: Theme Park Edition, but thankfully he didn't, and now they don't have a bigger problem on their hands. 

Also, how the bloody hell do you get removing the trains and having the ride torn down confused?!? Is she that tapped out?! Surely journalists have to at least do some credible background reading before they get into an interview!

[Brad2912]

What an unprofessional cow that woman is

 

i felt embarrassed for the CEO that he had to listen to her, and he deserves applause for not walking off mid-interview.

[rappa]

I actually applaud him for being the face or the company at this time rather thane enlisting some trained media spokesman. 

 

Same thing happened at MW with the Greeb Lantern incident with the General Manager and it just give the organisation so much more credibility.