Ian-S

People asking for extensions on their passes are being ridiculous - as Mer says - there are plenty of other attractions for them to visit - people will do anything for a freebie.  Makes me mad and I shouldn't look but going on AT, TP and CWOA facebook pages enrages me - some of the comments from people are just stupid and many insensitive.  I don't know how Alton Towers have kept their cool with people asking the same questions over and over again, but as proved many times this week they have remained utterly profesional.
 
I was at Thorpe Park on Thursday and although expected that Saw would be down, as it is one of my favourite rides there I was a bit disappointed - but not to the point of whining about it on social media sites - they have shut it for a reason and I would like to think that a lot of people would accept that and understand why they have done it.  No - you have people actually asking for money towards petrol costs "I drove 200 miles and Saw was closed" - well duh - rides are subject to availability.
 
I nearly lost my marbles whilst queuing for Samurai when a pair of plebs behind us starting saying "yeah Saw is closed because 2 people were killed on it the other day" - I literally smacked my hand on my forehead.  I will admit I'm not the smartest of people but how some people get through their day is beyond me.
 
Following that interview with Nick Varney conducted by the lovely Kay Burley I have the utmost respect for him.  Not just because of how she put words into his mouth and barely let him speak but because he remained calm and composed- even the first interview that he gave following the incident at Alton Towers you could see that he was clearly affected by what had happened and actually does care.  Prior to this I just assumed he was a money grabbing big wig only interested in profit.
 
I really should stop looking at things which I know are going to wind me up - but has anyone seen Kay Burleys Twitter account? - The woman just doesn't give a flying fig about how that interview went - and doesn't give 2 hoots about what people think of her in relation to it.  
 
Waffle over.....

There really is no cause for Alton Towers to remain closed at this point. I have every sympathy for the injured riders and I think a 'period of respect' to them was rightly observed. But the rest of the park is safe, it's been gone over with a fine toothed comb and it's time to start proving to the uneducated public that theme park rides are not million pound deathtraps. 

Alas, the media care not of their knowledge, only power. Even if they had the intellect many enthusiasts have, they would be forced to report otherwise.

Sorry to double post and stuff, but as you lot are some of the main users of the site, I wanted some feedback on the redesign that will be deployed in around 2 weeks
That's the page for an individual park
The page for a single ride, not quite sure what other stats and info to add to this page yet, ideas are appreciated.
The new calendar page, note that the times are placeholders for now, but they will be obviously correct, maybe with ERT and other events shown above the main regular open times. You can click each of the days either in the past or the future to view the queue times for that day/predicted queue times for that day. It's still very much a work in progress, but hopefully the redesign will make the site easier to use, especially on mobiles. Finally, I will also start to log weather data, could be interesting for seeing if rides get busier/quieter depending on the weather. Any feedback is appreciated.

The way this story has snowballed over the last three days truly shows you the magnitude and seriousness of the crash. Saw, Fury and Rattlesnake being closed seems to now be the top story on BBC news at 6. I do feel like the fuss today from the media would not nearly be as big if Chessingtons coasters hadn't been closed. It seems to have made the story far larger and the media more critical of the way Merlin run their parks. 
 
The only positive I can get from this is seeing some great aerial shots of the parks in action. 

Oh yes. Don't worry. I'm going to complain, but will sit and write a detailed and concise letter. I have complained to the NHS, Local MP, train service and many many more. I'm a seasons letter of complaint writer!
I plan to address her dis-interest in the interviewee.
Constantly taking any words said by interviewee out of context.
Her aggressive manor and demeanour.
Her constant interruption.
Her rudeness throughout.
He insensitive questioning when asking if someone had lost a limb.
Her attempt to sensationalise the story by implying the rides had been running unsafe, with no evidence or even suggestion as to why she kept questioning this, and making the point time and time again.
And that's just off the top of my head! It will probably be tomorrow when wife and baby go out before I can write a proper letter.

I got 8 minutes into that interview and the rest wouldn't buffer (thankfully). She's the most condescending, scaremongering, insensitive interviewer I have ever watched. To CONSTANTLY inturrupt him whilst he was talking about the extra safety measures being put in place is one thing, but to come out and say None of us care about Merlin's sympathy and all we want to know is if someone has lost a limb is another. 'Sir, sir, sir' Jesus Christ be quiet.

Never liked Kay Burley - even more so now. Let the man speak ffs. How he kept his cool is admirable. She is just downright rude not to mention ignorant, ill informed etc. actually angry after watching that! Maybe she is menopausal or probably more so, a complete and utter bit#%

Don't give them ideas.

What Merlin should have done was run those rides on ultra low capacity, even yesterday they had very short queues. We often take mini-me to Cheesy after school and the place is more often than not completely empty.
It shows what little they know of the industry that it's taken them three days to realise Saw is closed and isthe same manufacturer.

If one writes a letter of complaint to anybody, please, please, re-read it, check the spelling, not on "spell check", and check the grammar. Correct structure and punctuation adds to the impact of a letter.

Re: complaints:
http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/complain/tv-and-radio-complaints/
https://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/webflow/broadcast-complaints/

LOL so do I take it you agreed with the way she interviewed him?Interview implies asking a question, get the answer, then ask another, either related or not, she didn't let him finish one sentence and quiet often interrupted him before he'd even started talking. She is a repulsive, fear mongering hack undeserving of her position, nothing more.
If that makes me insensitive, guilty as charged.

From the circumstances of The Smiler crash I would guess it is more to do with the evacuation and response to breakdown/valleying incidents than it is to general day to day operating of the ride itself.

The woman in that interview should be lynched.

Following the interview I have emailed Nick Varney praising him for being a great representative for the theme park industry during this rubbish time. I know it is the media's job to scaremonger, get attention and exaggerate, but the interviewer seemed to come from the point of view that any ride that takes the tiniest, minimalised risk in order to entertain millions of people should be shut down.
 
This woman tried to trash the industry I grew up with and that I know so many people enjoy. That kind of interviewing will only perpetuate the misinformation and totally unfounded Claim Culture that unfortunately surrounds theme parks. I'm not angry because its what I expect from Sky News, but it's so irritating and undermining to be honest.

What an disgusting interview.... She has clearly no idea of all the health and safety procedures which are already in place on rides like that. Adding a further one (also if maybe unnecessary as the ones in place should be enough) just shows the professional side of the parks. Stating that the rides would have been unsafe all the time is just wrong and after what happened disgusting to say. What bothered me even more is that she was just rude and also filled the whole time of the interview with the same comments instead of asking more relevant questions and fill the interview with interesting facts. 

That interview is vile. This happens so frequently, but people still inexplicably return to view Sky. I don't get it.
 
So, we still have no idea what happened, mostly because that useless journalist wouldn't lit him tell us.

I have a real respect and admiration for Nick Varney having watched that.  Daft interviewer, kept going round in circles and not listening to the answers.  I know NV is paid handsomely, but he's a human like the rest of us, had had a week from hell, and is trying to balance the support to the injured guests and handling the HSE investigations.  To keep his composure is a sign of a really gifted person.  I get the feeling that among the enthusiast community, there is a general core of support, sympathy and understanding for Merlin.  And a nice touch from electricBill to drop a note of support.

I know I'm normally very against a lot of Merlin's decisions and the way they run the place. However they way they are handling this is very well. Not sure why Varney agreed to have an interview with sky but he did handle it very well. The media will always exaggerate and ask difficult questions(especially when that person has no knowledge of he subject and won't accept any answer than the one they are looking for).

She also blatantly ignored everything that he said. I do applaud him for not losing it with her though. I doubt I could have made it
that far through an interview without just telling her to shut up.

Should have gone with the BBC. She's like this though, she doesn't have very much respect in the industry thankfully. Just another Murdoch mouth-piece.

Let's just say she is not well liked within the industry, including colleagues.

The article says:
 
"A Chessington spokeswoman said the two rides at the park there were safe, but staff working on them needed further training before they could be reopened."
 
In my opinion a wrong thing to say. This makes it sound like the stuff has not been trained enough until now to operate such rides, which I can't imagine. This will be a hard time for the staff now. 

The way I see it, it's OK for us to speculate within reason, most here have a basic grasp of how rollercoasters work, in fact far more of a grasp it seems than most of the 'qualified' journalists who are being paid to speculate and assume about what happened, and judge those that were there, over their reactions and how the situation was handled.