I've been on The Smiler a few times and I can say that the ride almost injures you without it crashing. I've been on lots of rollercoasters and been to a lot of parks in my life: all of Thorpe Park, a few Six Flags parks in the US and Disney, and I must say it's pretty intense for a rollercoaster.

Yeah it's something like 1 in 6,700 chance of dying in a car crash, 1 in 300 million chance of dying on a roller coaster.

Of course no consolation to those involved today, although maybe something for people to realise who thinks this accident means all rides are death traps.

No ones dead as far as anyone's aware. Nothing officially confirmed, a few people are just spreading that on Twitter and telling the media for attention.

So far 4 people with major injuries. They've got 4 people off the coaster so far, 12 are still trapped on the coaster while emergency services try to get them out.

Sky News were showing some pretty eye opening aerial pictures not too long ago:

http://i.imgur.com/wCrtMMD.png

Smashing

52miles an hour
no other ride like it.

Maybe its time to stop that ride

I hope there are no serious injuries, the lawyers at alton towers won't be smiling that's for sure.

here is a video just after the crash, lots of swearing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVvVI9PLoOc

THAT'S why I don't like fairgrounds. :worry:

Alton Towers Resort ‏@altontowers 8m8 minutes ago
3of3: We will be posting regular updates on the theme park closure on both our website and social media channels

Alton Towers Resort
2of3: Guests with pre-booked tickets & those arriving at the theme park will have the choice of a full refund or an alternative dated ticket


Alton Towers Resort
1of3: The decision has been taken that Alton Towers theme park will not open tomorrow 3/6/15 following the dreadful incident on The Smiler

Alton Towers Resort ‏@altontowers 8m8 minutes ago
3of3: We will be posting regular updates on the theme park closure on both our website and social media channels
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Alton Towers Resort ‏@altontowers 8m8 minutes ago
2of3: Guests with pre-booked tickets & those arriving at the theme park will have the choice of a full refund or an alternative dated ticket
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Alton Towers Resort ‏@altontowers 8m8 minutes ago
1of3: The decision has been taken that Alton Towers theme park will not open tomorrow 3/6/15 following the dreadful incident on The Smiler

I sent a Mess to a Irish Mod
to merge mine( in the correct section) with yours
and then move yours to the correct section.


I assume it can be done?

http://media.skynews.com/media/image...-1-720x960.jpg

http://media.skynews.com/media/image...-1-720x960.jpg

Tragic accident... but LOL @ the Sun and the Star. Not like them to go overboard with the "SHOCK/HORROR" headlines.

(Love the Star's "Blatter on a platter" though).

This is awful.

I went on The Smiler last July when I was there, I can't imagine how terrified those people must have been, especially being trapped there for over four hours. I hope that they recover!

I went on the smiler once and it was really rough, one loop in particular was quite painful if anything. I gather that this particular accident was not really a structural problem with the layout (?) but still, smaller problems have been going wrong with this ride for a while now, I've regularly heard people saying it was closed for maintenance because of some issue or another. I honestly don't think it was the best idea sticking that many loops on such a small patch of land. I hope maybe in the future Alton Towers can just focus on building good fun rides appropriate to the land available rather than trying to break a new world record with each new build, I reckon they might struggle to attract new people if/when this reopens.

My son went last month :/ just glad it wasn't worse, they're already attempting to blame the operative. Surely modern rollercoasters can't be manually operated?

The Boss said that had a Fail Safe
to stop this going on.

But it Failed


Its all done by computers

They Fecked up

Its Closed today

Merlin Shares have gone down

Sign Of The Times

Yes some parts


But that empty carriage
sneaked on - due to a Computer Error

Life changing injuries is never a good thing to hear

Yes they trusted the Tech bloke
to do the master program
that let a Empty Carriage get in the way.



I would not hire him


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/...3285570483.jpg

4 badly injured

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz3c0DcvTO0

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/...3264176152.jpg

The rider that has lost a leg is speculation at the moment.

Rumours also around that a woman could be paralyzed from the waist down, and that another rider has lost a finger.

All speculation though until any emergency services, Alton Towers or Merlin Entertainments confirm anything to the press. Since the press would also making up yesterday that someone had died, I'm not believing anything until it comes from someone official.

They can, but in simple no.

The ride cannot run on manual at all when there are guests on the ride. Even when the ride is run on manual engineers have to be on site and The Smiler also sounds a constant alarm with a warning prompt before every manual action is taken. In this case though it wouldn't have been run on manual because it cannot and isn't run on manual when the park is open to the public.

From what I've heard and from what I understand about how The Smiler is operated, it mainly seems to be computer error at the moment, although I believe there could be a certain degree of human error. None of that will be confirmed though until the investigation has completed.

Merlin Entertainments, now closes other rides on other parks

Must be the same Computer Program


http://news.sky.com/story/1496893/al...se-major-rides


http://media.skynews.com/media/image...-1-720x960.jpg

[Alton Towers will remain closed for a fifth day after a crash
on a rollercoaster left four people with serious injuries.
The amusement park in north Staffordshire will not reopen on Sunday due
to the ongoing investigation into the cause of the accident, officials have confirmed.]


http://news.sky.com/story/1497387/al...-for-fifth-day