What I'm more shocked about is that none of the public called 999. Especially the person who filmed that video, surely they were close enough to see that the injuries were serious?

I'm sure they would expect the staff to be doing that.

This is just disrespectful.

http://money.aol.co.uk/2015/06/03/injury-lawyers-accused-of-capitalising-on-alton-towers-tragedy/

This is now just far too much. Can't the newspapers cut the bullsh*t blasting out their backsides and the law firms lay off...and just leave Alton Towers to get on with the investigation? Because I reckon this mess will be cleared up much quicker if it weren't for any of this scam.

My mum asked me today 'are you going to ride the smiler when you next go to alton towers?'

I replied 'no, it's probably closed for a little while'.

She replied 'oh, good. I wouldn't want you to get hurt.'

So, I replied: 'Well then you shouldnt let me in a car, walk to school, go in fields of cows, or stand outside in a thunder storm.'

She replied 'oh. Have you been on it before?'

I said 'yes...'

She gasped. 

 

 

It's surprising how even those who hear the back of all your nerdiness can still be consumed by all this negative coverage. It's also very disappointing too.

Alton Towers have community first responders, trained by the ambulance service.

They deal with incidents around the local area and would have assessed the situation and given high quality medical support immediately.

There is alot of 'he said/she said' and it's far too early to point fingers at what caused this tragic accident.

I'll be having alot of people question me at work tomorrow, so I'm not looking forward to having to re-live all this 'Daily Mail' garbage people have been fed, but that is the media these days. 

 

The 11 minutes wait to call 999 is confusing, I understand that guests/GP may not want to ring 999 as they assume the park have done it but I'm positive the decision to call 999 was made as soon as the full extent of the accident was noticeable.

Still in shock as the coverage this has got, I'm hoping Alton Towers reopens on Saturday & Saw The Ride can return to normal operation soon.

 

On a side note, I'm so pleased to read on forums here and there are being supportive to each other, to the park and to the victims affected on that day... I'm proud to know that in the darkest of situations, we can stand united to support one and other rather that finger point and blame... fingers crossed the investigation is concluded as soon as possible. 

This is another example of the media twisting the context to make a story, unfortunate personal experience tells me that had those people been bleeding out, even if they'd have called the emergency services at the time the collision happened, it wouldn't have saved them, you have about 30 seconds to stem the bleeding if the main artery in the leg is severed, after that it's game over.

The 11 minutes has likely made no difference overall to the outcome.

Or instead of luck it was a rushed, poorly engineered business investment which was executed poorly and run by staff who were following insufficient protocols. Then again like you said it could just be luck. 

 

You sound just like an internet troll with that kind of inane rubbish. A lot of the media stuff keeps going back to all its apparent problems in 2013. It gets journalists stuck, a simple breakdown. It stalled. Well so has Vampire, Dragons Fury, Colossus, Saw and Spinball, are they all executed badly investments as well? It threw a 'wheel' at someone, well bolts come off rollercoasters all the time, shall we get all those closed too. Staff following insufficient protocols. You can't prove any of that at all, that judgement is based on absolutely nothing and from what I can see, everyone involved with this incident has dealt with it with absolute professionalism. 

 

 

I have to say that if I had booked time off work and spent a fortune on the over priced hotel, I would be a little bit frustrated (at no one or anything) that the holiday wasn't cancelled but I was not able to do the main thing I had planned, obviously it pales in comparison to those who suffered injury on and those than had to watch the incident, It still must be somewhat disappointing on a personal and financial level that the park is closed down, even though the circumstances are incredibly upsetting and distressing. I am surprised there is nothing for the hotel guests, is there any reason they couldn't open Nemesis and Air just for hotel guests and on single train operation. At least give the people who have spent a small fortune and using up precious holiday time something to do in the park? Apolicies of this sounds like an insensitive post, it's not intended in that way, but hopefully you understand my point.

 

 

It's not an insensitive post, thats what people will be saying and thinking. I can't decide whether I think it's the right call for the park to make, however presumably they want to co-operate fully with the investigators and maybe it was their decision to keep the park closed until all rides have been checked over.

This is now just far too much. Can't the newspapers cut the bullsh*t blasting out their backsides and the law firms lay off...and just leave Alton Towers to get on with the investigation? Because I reckon this mess will be cleared up much quicker if it weren't for any of this scam.

That's not the way the world works.

 

You sound just like an internet troll with that kind of inane rubbish. A lot of the media stuff keeps going back to all its apparent problems in 2013. It gets journalists stuck, a simple breakdown. It stalled. Well so has Vampire, Dragons Fury, Colossus, Saw and Spinball, are they all executed badly investments as well? It threw a 'wheel' at someone, well bolts come off rollercoasters all the time, shall we get all those closed too. Staff following insufficient protocols. You can't prove any of that at all, that judgement is based on absolutely nothing and from what I can see, everyone involved with this incident has dealt with it with absolute professionalism. 

 

This!

 

Something obviously went horribly wrong, but accidents happen. The ride was 100% safe. As safe as every other rollercoaster you've been on (minus the Chinese Knockoffs of course). Rather than speculate, we need to wait to see if we hear anything as to why it happened and hope that it is impossible to replicate on any other coaster. 

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.

http://news.sky.com/story/1496893/alton-towers-and-thorpe-park-close-major-rides

 

Seems like they close down a few rides now for a while. Will be interesting to see how the media will react to that. I am sure there will be articles claiming that this rides had not been safe for visitors. 

I know saw is shut but why is this affecting cwoa. Is it related at all?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33025024

I know saw is shut but why is this affecting cwoa. Is it related at all?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33025024

 

the sky one says it's because their introducing some new protocol, which would make sense that it's affecting all the rides with alot of cars

I wonder if other theme parks will also do the same by closing rides made by gurst just to double check them, I think it would be unlikely though

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

I know saw is shut but why is this affecting cwoa. Is it related at all?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33025024

 

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 park will remain shut tomorrow, as confirmed by their social media team.

First and foremost, it is absolutely right that Merlin are ensuring that the investigation is thorough, and I think everyone accepts and appreciates that.

 

The fact the park is going to remain closed tomorrow is somewhat surprising.  Obviously the weekend is going to be far busier than during the week.  The loss of revenue must be absolutely huge - not just admission prices, but also the cancelled hotel bookings plus secondary spend (food outlets, merchandise, photos, the side show games etc.)

 

To take the decision to keep the entire park closed 4 days on, when they could by now successfully completely close off X Sector and re-open the rest of the park is (in my opinion) quite worrying.   I know Merlin obviously have a duty of care, but they are also a business who are losing a lot of money.  I wonder if the decision to keep the park closed is their decision, or has been enforced by the HSE.

tbh I think it's too soon to open anyway considering how much the incidents still plastered all over the media

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.

when I originally posted it didn't have that, it was just 4 rides closed if which 2 were at chessington.

Nick Varney (CEO of Merlin) is giving an interview/update on Sky News at 2.30 today.

http://press.hse.gov.uk/2015/health-and-safety-executive-statement-update-on-investigation-into-incident-at-alton-towers/

Parks choice to decide when it opens according to this new report

With the closure of other rides it seems they have finally worked out precisely who this incident was able to occur. Not wanting to speculate needlessly, but I think the closure of other block heavy rides specifically for 'updated procedures' to be implemented points rather heavily to the initial incident having been 'human error', in that someone did something to start the train on its course, but that that person was actually following procedures as they had been trained to do. 

 

While I'm sure the initial closure was seen as a necessity I think this park-wide prolonged closure is doing more harm than good now. It's really dragging the story out in the media, and screams out that the whole park is unsafe when we know that isn't the case. If H&Se were forcing the park to remain closed they would surely close all Merlin parks; the operational procedures do not vary wildly between the parks so if they believed they were fundamentally flawed and unsafe they'd close the lot.

Nick Varney (CEO of Merlin) is giving an interview/update on Sky News at 2.30 today.

Good luck to him, poison dwarf will likely be the interviewer.

Yep Kay Burley is sharpening her tools as I type this...

Sky New have been flying their helicopter over both Thorpe and Chessington in the last half-hour to show viewers what Saw, Rattlesnake and Dragon's Fury look like. Both parks look very quiet from what I could see from the air.

Nick Varney on Sky live now...

 

http://news.sky.com/watch-live