Posted June 2, 201510 yr comment_210052 Breaking news just on the BBC, two Smiller trains/carriages have crashed into each other on The Smiler today, no other confirmed details other than the site/area is being evacuated and an Air Ambulance is on site. Will post links when available. Edit: Alton Towers statement one carriage was empty and the other had 16 passengers on, collision was on a low section of track at slow speed, read into that what you will.
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210055 Breaking News on Sky. Two cars on The Smiler have crashed in to one-another!
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210056 Sky News and BBC now reporting it. One car had 16 people in it, the other was empty. Air ambulances arriving on the scene now.
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210059 Well then that is a bit more serious than a bolt. I wonder how the ride even let 2 trains on the same block. I hope everyone involved is ok.
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210060 West Midlands Ambulance Service are saying 4 people seriously injured as a car with 16 people collided with an empty car.
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210061 The buck here, is probably gonna end up on Gerstlauer's door... The ride system should be working out itself that the block is still full with a valley... Not good at all...
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210062 I think this is the worst incident I have heard so far for a uk theme park since the Hydro tragedy 11 years ago, hope everyone is okay!
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210063 This is terrible, forget when something this major happened at a UK park, but just hope everyone is ok. On a less important note, was going to do a lift walk on Smiler this Saturday, but that's obviously off now, not sure what to do
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210065 People could hear them all screaming for help apparently, I really hope everyone involved is okay and that this will be thoroughly looked into
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210066 Not trying to cause an argument but maybe try and show a bit more respect to the 4 people injured. Complaining about your lift walk maybe isn't appropriate. No ride system should ever allow a collision. I hope Gerst get some serious investigating on how this was allowed to happen.
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210069 Crikey, this is awful. Really hope none of the injuries are life-changing / lasting. This is going to really affect the park as well. Let's just hope the cause of this is found quickly and any issues can been resolved.
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210071 The only positive is that the first train was empty. I feel that if the first train wasn't empty this wouldn't have happened...
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210072 Not good news, hope everyone is ok. 4 people are seriously injured apparently. What I don't understand is why a car was running empty when it had a queue? Was there a problem with this car, hense why it crashed?
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210073 Trains can be sent round empty for a number of reasons, and empty trains are prone to stalling there Bottom line, if the block system was working correctly the collision wouldn't have happened... Unless it was over-ridden by an engineer etc
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210074 There are a couple of not nice looking pictures coming through, certainly hop everyone is ok and that is the most important thing. This shouldnt be able to happen empty or not, I can't quite understand how it has.
June 2, 201510 yr Author comment_210075 I think it's safe to assume the worst injured are sitting in the front, I don't think it's being insensitive to talk about things. The guy on Sky News isn't doing them any favours though, reading of wiki and making stuff up (80 people stuck on a ride doesn't sound plausible tbh). They're now interviewing a guy on Sky who is at the park, he's saying something to the effect that he got stuck on the smiler earlier and the ride team sent another car round while they were stuck, this was about 3 hours before the actual accident.
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210077 I feel that if the first train wasn't empty this wouldn't have happened... Well you could just say this wouldn't have happened if the ride hadn't broken down so it didn't have be tested after with empty trains but there you go.
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210078 The ride encountered technical difficulties and they sent it round testing. An announcement was made which said they had fixed it.
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210079 And people said this thing would last five years... Hopefully everyone makes a full recovery though, as you can see blood in a couple of the photos.
June 2, 201510 yr Author comment_210080 Yeah somebody please ring sky and tell them sending empty cars round is nothing unusual and normal procedure, they seem to be under the impression it means something else.
June 2, 201510 yr comment_210081 This must have caused major stess on that part of the track where it crashed as well. I hope they keep it closed until they 100% know what went wrong and how for it never to happen again.
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