July 4, 201510 yr comment_212452 Tabloid "news"papers have always been a joke tbh, nothing worthy of reading ever. The problem is people feel the need to buy them in between their lunch at Greggs and their Jobcentre visit, so we'll never see the end of them unfortunately. The problem isn't so much the print newspaper, it's the online pages where the paper organisations are 'thriving'. Its the race to get a story up first with the most sensational hook to get people clicking. With this, sources and facts come later, I was reading the Independent story yesterday and it was crammed full of wrong information, with parts that contradicted itself and a tweet from 2013 used as a source for the Air story. This is getting beyond a joke now, a powercut has absolutely nothing to do with the terrible incident on The Smiler, so why the hell is it being reported on national news? Breakdowns and lift hill stoppages are regular occurrences in theme parks all over the world so why pick on Alton Towers? It's absolutely disgusting, if there is any new news on The Smiler then yes, report it as news but to be publishing lifthill stoppages and powercuts in national news is absolute craziness and frankly disrespectful to those involved in the incident on The Smiler. The worse part of me is the obvious glee from the articles about the injuries sustained. Notice how their recovery and their positivity in the tweets from the victims isn't being reported at all.
July 4, 201510 yr comment_212453 Just come across this on Facebook - http://www.unilad.co.uk/articles/four-rides-shut-at-alton-towers-amid-more-chaos-for-the-park/ This is really starting to annoy me now. Daily I see negative publicity about Towers, which must be really hard for Towers.
July 4, 201510 yr Author comment_212455 Do these rides have backup generators in the event of a power failure?
July 4, 201510 yr comment_212456 Most rides do not have a backup generators but I know saw has one to power the vertical lift evac tower
July 4, 201510 yr comment_212462 Well today on park I heard with my own ears Rita's breakdown announcement...but then it was closed for the rest of the day. Prepare for another pointless report!
July 4, 201510 yr comment_212471 Sees webpage is unilad...... Ignores... The problem is, we/you're not most people... I don't bother clicking on the link, but just looking at the comments of these pages that get shared just make me want hit my head against the wall about how misinformed and easily led they are to jump on the bandwagon about things without properly thinking and finding out first; saying that, I blame the newspapers and other organisations on Facebook etc. that share the scaremongering stories more than most of the stupid people on Facebook.
July 4, 201510 yr Author comment_212472 Most rides do not have a backup generators but I know saw has one to power the vertical lift evac tower The reason I asked is my dad is a 1950's trained sparky (took them 7 years to get their qualifications back then) and well I'll just repeat what he said, 'considering how many millions these rides cost to build it seems a bit silly not to spend a few more grand to have a generator backup that can roll on/free trapped cars so they can return to the station for evac. if the power goes out, rather than having people stuck on lift hills for hours on end'. He doesn't quiet understand how coasters work but I wondered the same too.
July 4, 201510 yr comment_212474 The problem is, we/you're not most people... I don't bother clicking on the link, but just looking at the comments of these pages that get shared just make me want hit my head against the wall about how misinformed and easily led they are to jump on the bandwagon about things without properly thinking and finding out first; saying that, I blame the newspapers and other organisations on Facebook etc. that share the scaremongering stories more than most of the stupid people on Facebook.It's extremely frustrating that people believe all the rubbish being written in the media, I've lost all energy and enthusiasm for trying to convince them that it is being misreported now, but maybe Towers should release a statement highlighting the fact that the instances are typical of theme parks etc? Or would that just make things worse?
July 5, 201510 yr comment_212499 It would make things worse. I'm so tempted to post about the Big Thunder Mountain derailment from a few years back in reply to these comments but it would do more harm then good. So far, Towers twitter and Facebook has been spot on with their replies.
July 5, 201510 yr comment_212501 What's the point in spending thousands on backup generators that you will rarely ever need? Bear in mind that the ride will have a train in the station, its not that simple (and risky) to do... Dispatching another train during a power cut, even with a backup generator could cause massive problems...
July 5, 201510 yr Author comment_212502 What's the point in spending thousands on backup generators that you will rarely ever need?... Well thank goodness the NHS doesn't share your opinion Yes, I am aware of the logistics surrounding loading/unloading if a train is already in the station.
July 5, 201510 yr comment_212513 Well thank goodness the NHS doesn't share your opinion Well thank goodness your comparison is insane
July 5, 201510 yr Author comment_212519 It,s not insane, Benin decided to be clever and say there was no point in installing generator backups because they would be rarely used and would lead to logistical problems in operation, I simply said that I'm glad the NHS didn't employ the same principle when building all the hospitals, if you don't understand the reasoning for why I said that, don't comment.
July 5, 201510 yr comment_212520 It's just very very unrelated to the subject matter and comes off a bit very oddly. Had you said thank goodness Towers, or a theme park company didn't share his opinion, it would;ve made alot more sense and may have had some impact on the conversation. PS Most rides have generators that can last for between 3-5 hours.
July 5, 201510 yr comment_212521 It,s not insane, Benin decided to be clever and say there was no point in installing generator backups because they would be rarely used and would lead to logistical problems in operation, I simply said that I'm glad the NHS didn't employ the same principle when building all the hospitals, if you don't understand the reasoning for why I said that, don't comment. Wouldn't back up generators be essential in a power cut to keep people alive. A back up generator to get a Colossus train back to the break run doesn't seem nearly as essential or important as the reason the NHS has them.
July 5, 201510 yr Author comment_212524 Theme parks and hospitals are not comparable at all. That wasn't the point, the cost was but you all seemed focused on the hospital part.
July 5, 201510 yr comment_212525 I guess I'm the only one that found Ian's joke funny I got the humour, but it just doesn't seem like a logical comparison in any way.
July 5, 201510 yr comment_212540 So this exists now, which I quite strongly believe in. https://www.change.org/p/everyone-stop-the-media-madness
July 5, 201510 yr comment_212543 It won't lead to the death of Alton Towers. What needs to stop is people even caring about gossip sites and tabloids. No one gives a damn about them really, it's just conversation fodder. Yes the park's reputation is damaged but nothing the papers can say now will be anything on the crash that already happened. Why are new articles even being posted?
July 5, 201510 yr comment_212544 If you ignore the Alton Towers part (I don't believe it will lead to Towers' death either) the principal is good. Yes it's some people's fault for believing everything they read but most people are generally going to believe what they read, and the papers know this. Therefore they are more at fault. This incident is the one that has opened my eyes due to what I have learned recently on here, but most people won't have that.
July 5, 201510 yr comment_212549 The papers just want you to share and distribute their articles and that includes signing up a petition about them (internet petitions don't actually do anything anyway and just gives them more attention). The more outlandish, deliberately silly and negative articles there are, the more people will pay attention to them. It's just about money and attention, I highly doubt the people writing them even care about theme park safety at all. And if people choose to believe these stories then that's their loss, not Alton Towers' as millions of people will still go to the park anyway.
July 5, 201510 yr comment_212550 Online petitions can make quite a big difference. A few months ago the whole thing about acquitting everyone who has been wrongly punished of being gay through history in Britain started as an online petition, and that happened for real.
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