Is there a possiblilty that this ride will be closed for a long time until it is deemed safe by health and safety again like Slammer(although not caused by an incident) and Hydro as I think the best thing for this ride is for it to be closed for a while at least so everyone knows its safe. That video chills me to the bone as they sound so scared, I would scared as hell if I was on there, my thoughts go out to the injured teenagers who were on that ride. I hope their recovery is speedy!

...No

E-stop cuts the power, you can't override an E stop.

It's the ride computer's job to "be an arse" to stop these things happening before it's even possible for them to occur.

There are no blind spots ever.

I know what you're saying but if the e-stop was engaged, how was the second train dispatched from the top of the lift hill?

Was the e-stop engaged? With all the lies spurting out from sky and the BBC I don't think we have a very clear picture of what happened. 

I really hope all involved are ok, and feel for all the people who witnessed it.

 

I went on the smiler twice in October 2013. I love roller coasters, and have done a few backstage tours with a friend of mine. I read everything I can, and have a basic understanding of the how roller coasters work.... and I just can not work out anyway this should be possible on a recent roller coaster. This isn't a 1980s/90s roller coaster. This is a 2 year old roller coaster with every modern system available to it. 

 

I can only think There has to have been multiple failures. Both technical and manual/operator for this to happen. The operator should have a complete view of the track (wether direct visual or via cameras) So someone should have spotted the train on the track.

It should stop at the bottom of the lift hill, it could then have been stopped on the lift hill, which reports say it was. I can't understand how the train passed all these possible safety points and made it to the other car.

 

Like I said it is a horrible accident and I really hope everyone is ok. Not being a medic I can't discuss the people, but being a roller coaster enthusiast and being fascinated by the technology I feel it is the only question I can ask.

The e-stop was 100% engaged, or there was an automatic system shut down, or the train wouldn't have sat at the top of the lift hill like it does in some videos.

 

It would've had to have been over ridden by either gerstlauer or maintenance, but it's not gerstlauer as they didn't even know the incident had happened, so it can therefore be concluded, from the information at hand, that it was a human error.

Terrible. Thank god no one has died.

Whereabouts on the lift hill did the vehicle stop? At the crest, or...?

 

If going over the crest maybe the chain or dog was incapable of holding the vehicle for that amount of time and something broke, and that caused it to release?

I honestly find it revolting how many of you are bickering over what went wrong and almost oblivious to the fact that 16 people, 4 of which seriously, have been injured.

Who gives a pigs bum what the stock level is, who cares that the manufacture weren't notified instantly.

The e-stop was 100% engaged...

It would've had to have been over ridden by either gerstlauer or maintenance ...so it can therefore be concluded, from the information at hand, that it was a human error.

You can't conclude any of that, as that's not how rides are operated. E-stop totally cuts the power, and would require a routine evacuation if there are riders on board during the E-stop. This suggests it was a block shutdown rather than an E-stop, but we don't know.

Gerstlaurer do not live on site. You don't need the manufacturer or in most cases maintenance to restart the ride, this can be done by managers in the ride operations department. Again, we don't know.

Multiple failsafes are in place to overcome human error, it can't simply be human error.

There's absolutely no point guessing what happened.

Whereabouts on the lift hill did the vehicle stop? At the crest, or...?

 

If going over the crest maybe the chain or dog was incapable of holding the vehicle for that amount of time and something broke, and that caused it to release?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10318089

 

Rewind the video back to 16:44 (time of day) and you can clearly see the train stalled on the circuit and the full train sat at the top of the lift (as per the blocking system).

 

Somehow 10 - 15 minutes later the train at the top of the lift started moving again, which obviously shouldn't have happened. I'm sure we will find out at somepoint what caused it to start moving.

 

What I don't like about The smiler is that when it stops on the lifts and needs to be evacuated it is rolled back down slowly rather than evacuated on the lift. Maybe they attempted this but it started moving the wrong way.

 

I'm sure we will find out at somepoint what caused it to start moving.

Ricky, as sad as it is for those involved, it's not going to make a jot of difference to their wellbeing if we sit here watching the rampant speculation on the TV in silence, or whether we come onto the forum and talk about it, honestly the last thing on their minds is going to be what we're saying, at least we're not running around asking for gory details or posting 'blood and gore' videos all over twitter.

For the record, the second car appeared to be sat 4/5th of the way up the lift hill on the pull side of the crest, it wasn't hanging over the edge ala Oblivion.

Images of the position of cars before crash here. (Hopefully link works as never used site before)

 

http://postimg.org/gallery/pfhqn3hq/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11646279/Alton-Towers-Smiler-ride-crash.html 

 

Video of people describing what happened.

 

Sounds like the car did stop at the top of the lift.

'Reports' = one atention whore on twitter posting **** he heard from his brothers friends boyfriends dog.

It could be true, but I really wish Sky and Beeb would stop taking every little tweet they see as gospel and giving it the label of a 'report'.

Loads of news outlets do that these days, it's quite amusing how much these places take Twitter as the entire truth devoid of any bias or over-exaggeration...

 

Interesting about the train being stuck on the lift for numerous minutes, although the footage the BBC showed pretty much absolutely bugger all to actually prove it had been stopped and restarted after a rather lengthy period of time...

Here's another report on gerstlauer. Interesting, not necessarily very related to this specific incident.

http://www.looopings.nl/weblog/3854/Foutje-bedankt-nieuwe-mega-achtbaan-past-niet-in-elkaar.html

Here's another report on gerstlauer. Interesting, not necessarily very related to this specific incident.

http://www.looopings.nl/weblog/3854/Foutje-bedankt-nieuwe-mega-achtbaan-past-niet-in-elkaar.html

That happens on many of their coasters, possibly because Gerstlauer cement their supports into the ground (as opposed to bolting them in) before attaching the track. It's nothing to be concerned of I think, even if it does look quite concerning during construction!

Thoughts are with the people injured, lets hope they make a full recovery.

Awful news. I have friends who work on the ride.

I am saddened and shocked.

My thoughts with anyone affected.

Oh Gerstlauer... :roll:

The fact that the ride system itself failed to stop the carriage twice (remember there is not only the lift hill, but the emergency trims under The Flasher also) then I fear that this might just be the end of The Smiler. Especially seeing as the public's and no doubt the HSE's view of the ride has been low from the start.

 

You cannot stop a train through trim brakes alone, they are there to slow the train down for various reasons, not to bring the train to a stop...

 

If rides were closed/torn down because of being involved in an incident, then we wouldn't have many rides left really... Vampire would close, Fury would close, Big Dipper, Big One, TTD, Xcelerator, California Screamin, Matterhorn, Big Thunder Mountain... I could REALLY go on, but for the sake of everyone's sanity, I shall not...

Well no, that would be entirely pointless. It's just because the ride didn't exactly have the best reputation beforehand, and now with this incident being exaggerated beyond belief on social media, I do wonder, depending on the outcome of the investigation, whether or not the attraction is deemed safe by the public. If it does turn out that it was the computer's fault, then the ride itself is to be blamed, which won't look good in many people's eyes.

 

Of course they could just close it for a while and let the whole thing blow over. This'll reassure the public that it's safe, and then it can continue from there on out. I expect this is what they'll actually do.

This incident is very shocking I am really lost for words really. 

Was every so slightly relieved to hear reports that the serious injuries are to people legs and not their necks/spines/skulls. Still bad, but hopefully less bad. 

Already seen it but there is no need to apologise for posting it, everybody can decide whether to watch it or not themselves.

I really hope the 4 people injured make a speedy recovery and aren't put off coasters for life. tbh in my opinion I think this is Merlin's fault. Karacho never has any problems and that is an Infinity Coaster also, Rage, Speed, and all of the other gerstlauers in Europe and the world never have problems like smiler does! Saw and Smiler break down a terrible amount yet the others seem to barely break down. might be just me but I think this is down to Merlin and not Gerst