[Marcus.]

Four people have been seriously injured after two carriages on The Smiler rollercoaster at Alton Towers collided.

According to the West Midlands Ambulance Service, there were 16 people riding in one carriage on the attraction when the crash happened just after 2pm.

It is believed the passengers crashed into a stationary carriage which was empty at the time.

Danny Simm, who was at the Staffordshire theme park when the accident happened, tweeted: "People unconscious, knocked out. Blood everywhere. It really was shocking. Air ambulances landing now, people still stuck."

Lloyd Coller, who was visiting Alton Towers for the day, told Sky News: "I didn’t actually see it but I heard it. It sounded exactly like a car crash – just metal on metal."

Another witness, Tom Whelton, said that The Smiler had also broken down three hours earlier following technical difficulties.

An air ambulance has arrived at the scene with a trauma doctor on board, and everyone on board the ride is receiving triage.

Four road ambulances, accompanied by senior paramedic managers, have also arrived on the scene to cope with the potential casualties.

A spokeswoman added: "Ambulance staff and medics are working quickly with resort staff to gain access to the seriously injured."

In a statement, Alton Towers said: "There has been an incident on the Smiler this afternoon involving two carriages coming together on a low section of the track. One of the carriages was empty and the other had 16 guests in.

The resort’s fully qualified first responders were on the scene immediately to assist with the evacuation which is ongoing, and the area has been closed to allow for access to emergency services vehicles.

"To ensure the safe and timely evacuation of guests, a platform is being constructed. This will take a few minutes but will enable us to proceed more quickly.

"There will be a full investigation once we have recovered the guests, who are our priority."

According to the official website of The Smiler, the £18m ride is the world's first 14 looping rollercoaster.

It opened in May 2013 - and the ride was affected by two incidents within the space of just six months.

Two months after it opened, in July, a metal bolt fell off the ride - leaving a gap in the track. Some 48 people had to be rescued.

Then, in November 2013, passengers sat in the front seats of the ride were hit when several of the rollercoaster's wheels fell off.

The resort claims the ride features "a series of twisted psychological effects including optical illusions, blinding lights and near-misses designed to mess with your mind".

[Pete.]

Pray for them

[arista]

[Four people have been seriously injured after two carriages on the Smiler rollercoaster
at Alton Towers collided this afternoon.Four people have been seriously injured
after two carriages on the Smiler rollercoaster at Alton Towers collided this afternoon.]


A empty carriage just sitting there?
Who the feck is in charge?



http://news.sky.com/story/1494944/ca...rs-smiler-ride

[Kizzy]

[T*]

I don't get why this thread has been abandoned, this is huge news, it's ****ing horrible omg
Hope all will be okay

[T*]

There's live pics of the rescue on bbc news rn

[Pete.]

Originally Posted by Tøm

There's live pics of the rescue on bbc news rn

nnn let the people live

[T*]

Originally Posted by Petemitch

nnn let the people live

It's good we're actually getting updates because Alton towers were being quiet about it

[Pete.]

Originally Posted by Tøm

It's good we're actually getting updates because Alton towers were being quiet about it

I think they should let the injured be attended to without media interference.

[Pete.]

But yh Alton Towers should be saying more, I think they've set up a hotline

[arista]

Boy Injured

[arista]

Helicopters taking away injured

[arista]

52miles an hour
no other ride like it.

Maybe its time to stop that ride

[Kizzy]

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

[Gypsy]

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

Youtube video

[Marsh.]

THAT'S why I don't like fairgrounds.

[Marcus.]

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

[arista]

[Livia]

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).

[M X]

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!

[RichardG]

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.

[Kizzy]

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?

[arista]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

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?

Yes some parts


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

[Jamesy]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

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?

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.

[arista]

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