September 27, 20168 yr comment_242067 The full expert report is available to download on the HSE website, in the zip file link at the bottom of the page: http://press.hse.gov.uk/2016/alton-towers-owners-fined-over-smiler-crash/ After reading in some news articles that this report found engineers felt pressured to reduce downtime as it related to bonuses(!), I googled just to see if the report was available (as I know with air crashes, you can view the AAIB reports online) and found it. Obviously due to freedom of information, names and quotes from staff have been fully blacked out, and the report is only on the first 33 pages. The rest contains: Fairground and Amusement Parks - Guidance On Safe Practice Amusement Devices Safety Council - Safety of Amusement Devices: Design (Which still could be interesting!) As for the downtime affecting bonuses - the news articles that mentioned this referred to Stephen Flannagan, who compiled the report, so presumably is correct (haven't read the report yet so don't know if it's mentioned in there or will be a blacked out quote). Makes the whole incident even more messed up to be honest.
September 27, 20168 yr comment_242068 Merlin bonuses for salaried staff are notorious amongst many people who work/worked there. Not just downtime, but ipad survey scores and attendance figures too. This is amoral when the ipad survey questions are so vague and don't relate to individual departments, yet affect everyone, and attendance figures are often set greedily high which can get hugely affected by things not under anyone's control like weather. There is high pressure to get the bonus when people are already severely underpaid well under the average salary for high pressure and high responsibilty jobs.
September 27, 20168 yr comment_242070 Having just read the report - yes it clearly states the bonuses thing I've print screened the main parts, although it's still worth having a look at the whole thing. The part about one of the engineers actually going out to the second lift hlll but still not seeing the stalled train...just wow.
September 27, 20168 yr Author comment_242074 it is bad yes but I'm willing to give them a small amount of slack as even being a geek it was difficult for me to see the valley area through the track from the second lift hill by the toilets the other week, I can't imagine the view is any clearer down by the track. Unfortunately you cannot blame Merlin for having performance related pay, blame capitalism for that.
September 28, 20168 yr comment_242083 Is the bonuses thing really that bad though? As much as it's a good headline I'm not sure you can directly link that and the accident - the ride had been shut an hour and had a long queue - I expect the engineers were keen to fix the ride as soon as possible regardless of what ever bonus they get. I also doubt that it's very unusual - I expect engineers in other industry's will have similar payments for hitting targets.
September 28, 20168 yr comment_242088 14 hours ago, Coaster Jamie said: £5 million isn't anywhere near enough in my opinion. Despite the fact that Merlin's response after the crash was, on the most part, good - I think that the complete lack of safety protocols and appalling procedures that caused the crash deserved a much higher fine than £5 million. The fact that the crash was so avoidable is the worst thing, with the correct procedures in place it simply wouldn't have happened. Now that the full details have been released it really makes you think though; how many rides at Merlin parks were running without the correct safety procedures, and for how long? Probably not an issue as such, The Smiler being a relatively new ride would not have the procedures as ingrained as say, Nemesis where rules and guidelines are twenty years young. If we remember they closed all their multi-car rides too to update procedures, procedures they thought were adequate before the incident. Certainly when I operated Fury and Rattlesnake, there was a lot of reliance on visual checking combined with the CCTV to ensure all cars were counted for in a shutdown. The 5 million figure sounds low but I suppose if we think of the amount of money that will paid to the victims for potentially the rest of their lives, the profits that were massively hit across the UK theme parks and that Merlin from day one have never said they were innocent shows that the fine was appropriate. I know some have laughed when it was said that Merlin wasn't an emotionless, corporate entity, but lets face it, other companies such as Six Flags would rather have endless court appearances and not take the blame for incidents in their park. Merlin did the right thing by saying they were at fault and I find that commendable. Just a shame it took the loss of limbs to see that.
September 28, 20168 yr Author comment_242094 Was I naughty to laugh at a certain person yesterday who while walking up (fairly normally for someone with one leg) saw a camera and suddenly started walking with a heavily pronounced limp?
October 6, 20168 yr comment_242485 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-37561226 She's got a great lawyer and must be raking it in from the media now.
October 6, 20168 yr comment_242489 So even though money won't bring her leg back she's still going to sue the park because....... Reasons? Mean she already had compensation pay for that shiny leg of hers that many others who have lost a limb (lost a limb) would never have the chance of getting... Further attempts to become relevant because the well is running dry since the park have been charged... I've no idea what she expects to happen...
October 6, 20168 yr Author comment_242509 Didn't see the interview but my eyes nearly rolled out the back of my head when I saw the trailer on breakfast, those two are a good fit for each other, they don't just share the same first name. (As you can probably guess I'm not a fan, I know someone who works with Victoria Derbyshire and they're not too complementary of her).
January 30, 20178 yr comment_247152 Vicky Balch is back in the papers today doing a nude photoshoot because obviously a lingerie shoot wasn't enough publicity...
January 30, 20178 yr comment_247155 3 hours ago, MattyMoo said: Vicky Balch is back in the papers today doing a nude photoshoot because obviously a lingerie shoot wasn't enough publicity... This post is useless without pics...
January 30, 20178 yr comment_247156 Mustve found a market for disability fetishes then. Strange world! One way of dealing with the situation I suppose!
August 17, 20187 yr comment_259487 5 hours ago, Marley said: Can this be unpinned now? Daily Mail says no.
August 20, 20187 yr comment_259533 Daily Star: OUTRAGE as theme park website hides reference to devastated Smiler crash.
December 7, 20195 yr comment_267756 No it's just that people are idiots and will believe any old nonsense they read on the front page...
December 7, 20195 yr comment_267759 8 hours ago, Ivsetti said: These comments were posted on a Daily Mirror article about "The London Resort". Just goes to show how many people still distrust Alton Towers (and for some people by extension rides in general) even 4 years on and after Alton Towers have allegedly implemented "much more stringent safety measures". Just ask her how many deaths have happened at Alton Towers and how many have happened in Walt Disney World alone.
December 8, 20195 yr comment_267760 The recovered popularity of Alton Towers suggests that it's just a few loudmouths online, repeating garbage they read whether they believe it or not
December 8, 20195 yr comment_267765 To be honest, most parks in any first world country are generally safe. Accidents do sometimes happen, but are generally rare. Unfortunately I think the U.K. has somewhat always had a “Is this safe” sort of culture, where a noticeable proportion of the popularity will question the whole reliability side attractions.
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