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The Smiler Incident 02/06/2015


Ian-S

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Today one of the local rags had a picture of Smiler on their front page with the header, Roller-coasters, Are They Safe?

So much facepalm.

Yes and no.

No - nothing is 100% safe. Everything we do is a risk, but we calculate the risk constantly in our minds and weigh up the risk vs the benefit. Getting out of bed is a risk (could pull a muscle in your back, could twist an ankle standing up etc) but it's something we need to do so the risk is worth taking. Is going on a roller coaster a risk worth taking, to a lot of people yes, but a lot of people are 'scared' or more accurately their brain thinks the risk vs reward for going on the roller coaster is not worth it.

Yes - They have a very small incident rate, the safety systems and fail safes should make an accident impossible. The rules and regulations should make them as safe as practically possible. There will be risk assessments which will reduce any possible risk to 0, or as close to 0 as as it can be. So theoretically everything should be done to make t as safe as humanly possible.

So on a balanced view, yes it is safe, but it's impossible for ANYTHING to be 100% safe.

You might have guessed, I work as a risk manager ;-) lol.

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Time on lift hill up to 20 minutes now...

 

Moaning about the response times of the initial 999 call and the evac, though clearly both were done in quite average times in my opinion (especially the evac, what with platform construction and the height and angle involved)...

 

He does have a moan about the bystanders only filming things and isn't utterly negative over the park really, aside from nervousness and moaning about having to get off in the station twice and the lift stop, which is understandable really as it did add up to the incident...

 

Very graphic description really, bit too much, but it doesn't point the finger or proclaim that the park isn't safe at least...

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Time on lift hill up to 20 minutes now...

 

All reports I've read have stated about there being a stop on the lift hill for about 20 minutes.

 

---

 

About the bystanders thing, I can understand his anger about it.  However, I think it's only natural for guests to think that the park would call 999.  Certainly not defending anyone's decision to not call 999, but I can see why in the heat of the moment whilst at a theme park, people's first reaction isn't to call 999.

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He has some valid points and they're not being overly egg'd up by the media ATM.

I think it would really piss me off if some bystander was more interested in filming me on their phone rather than using it for what it is primarily designed for, but I can understand the other side, you always think someone else will be making 'that' call, and never think to do it yourself as a bystander. His hands don't look as bad as they've been made out to be though.

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I think he does have a point about the 999 call being delayed, he could see someone filming him with a phone, so of course he would want them to call 999 if he was in agony.

 

The delay of calling 999 in regards to the park...

 

10 minutes is an average time I've always said, but people seem to think that the park should've been quicker...

 

 

I'm sure initial reports stated 10 minutes... Then again the reports have been grabbing whatever first pieces of info they can grab and rolling with it, even if it's false...

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He wasn't complaining about the park (that's not how I read it anyway), he was complaining about bystanders filming them instead of using their phones to call for help and one girl who he was able to shout at to do that, simply stopped filming and walked off.

It usually doesn't matter how many people call 999 over an incident, the 999 service is able to collate and organise things so that 50 ambulances don't turn up.

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Time on lift hill up to 20 minutes now...

 

Moaning about the response times of the initial 999 call and the evac, though clearly both were done in quite average times in my opinion (especially the evac, what with platform construction and the height and angle involved)...

 

He does have a moan about the bystanders only filming things and isn't utterly negative over the park really, aside from nervousness and moaning about having to get off in the station twice and the lift stop, which is understandable really as it did add up to the incident...

 

Very graphic description really, bit too much, but it doesn't point the finger or proclaim that the park isn't safe at least...

Not really moaning though is it.  Imagine going through that, of course he's going to be angry, it is a horrific accident and should not have happened.

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I really don't like the things that keep coming from the lawyers regarding compensation claims and the like. It seems they are trying to publicly posture themselves rather than just dealing with things privately. Totally not necessary or appropriate while the victims are still laying in their hospital beds, that stuff shouldn't be for now. It's like Merlin have disarmed them by admitting liability and not fighting litigation, they don't seem to know how to deal with that.

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Given that Alton Towers medical are the first responders for resort 999 calls and ambulance trained...

Given the situation...

- Ride staff realise what's going on

- Call to First Responders

- They arrive

- They get into a position to assess injuries

...11 minutes isn't long.

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Just as a point to bare in mind:  Had she broken any rules?  Had she done anything wrong?  

 

The answer is no.  Yes, the interview is awful, but there's nothing stopping her from conducting an awful interview.

 

Just ignore these sorts of interviews - giving it all this publicity is the worst thing we can do!

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Just as a point to bare in mind:  Had she broken any rules?  Had she done anything wrong?  

 

Not rules as such, but the NUJ code of cunduct by which they purport to abide includes

 

 

 

Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair.

Does her/his utmost to correct harmful inaccuracies.

Differentiates between fact and opinion.

Does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest.

 

All of which I'd say were missed by quite a long way here, especially in aggressively trying to force him to disclose others medical conditions. Really not on that.

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OFCOM is what the FOS is to banking, a regularity body funded by the very people who they are supposed to be keeping in line, it's like the poachers paying the gamekeepers wages, you have to break some serious rules for these bodies to even take notice, let alone do something, unless of course you're Russian or work for PressTV then every complaint is upheld by default.

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