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Ash

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though I am surprised nobody picked up on the broken structure before then..

If the facebook nonsense is to be believed (ie posts from morons) plenty of people did pick up on it, but didn't bother telling staff. And apparently that is now the staffs fault. Genius,

It is also now reported on the BBC, somewhat more reliably and less sensationalist than the Daily Fail.

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I have just seen all of the comments made on facebook. Not really sure what to make on the matter now to be honest.

I think the best thing to do is put the pitchforks away until the inspection/report comes in. It seems that some people are just rushing to stupid conclusions and blaming all workers in the park at the time which of course is ridiculous.

As for the people who said they should close the park,

1) Terrible events like this while very rare do still happen. The majority of parks in the UK (not sure on Europe) have experienced issues like this over the years. Blackpool, Loudoun Castle to name but a few. Does this mean that all those parks should close too? No of course not. They investigate the issue and ensure that it never happens again. Of course it is a terrible time for that little girl's family but alot of these posters on Facebook clearly have not thought about the situation rationally. The only way closing the park could be justified is if these kind of accidents happened annually.

2) Do these people realise how many people would loose their job and that their area could potentially suffer as a result?

Luckily incidents like these are not common and whilst they can be fatal I believe that people just need to wait until the facts come in before they start crushing the park.

As a last thing, may I also add. No way is that bridge 30 ft tall.

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Reading through some morons' posts on the CWoA Facebook page has really angered me.

Those who work on the rides thoroughly check queue-lines and public areas every morning before the park even opens to the public, and I refuse to believe that this 'huge gap' was present in the morning. They would not have opened the ride at all until the issue was fixed, if it had been present in the morning (and presumably picked up on by staff).

Having visited twice already this year, I can safely say that whilst the ride (and the queue-line) is a bit tired, it is by NO means falling apart; this damage to the fencing must have been sustained at some point during the day. I have every faith that if the gap HAD been reported by a guest that the park would have responded immediately- after all they will take H&S extremely​ seriously.

These imbeciles on the FB page claiming CWoA 'don't care' or that they are simply negligent are complete rubbish imo. Of course this is tragic and must be horrible for those involved, but it seems like a freak accident as opposed to anything else.

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There isn't a danger of the park closing. If it's found to be negligent then the park will be fined and so forth. Whilst accidents are rare in the theme park industry, they do happen and to suggest otherwise is ridiculous. From Big Thunder Mountain crashing and derailing in California to the sad death on Hydro at Oakwood in 2004.

What we are talking about is a queueline fence. Whilst there are two stories going around, there was clearly an issue in the queue. Whilst people on the daily mail website are saying they reported the fence and no one cared.. I personally think thats bollocks. This is a park that will close a ride to cut a few small leaves on a bush. But anyway, if the park even reveals the findings, all of this is conjecture.

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What we are talking about is a queueline fence. Whilst there are two stories going around, there was clearly an issue in the queue. Whilst people on the daily mail website are saying they reported the fence and no one cared.. I personally think thats bollocks. This is a park that will close a ride to cut a few small leaves on a bush. But anyway, if the park even reveals the findings, all of this is conjecture.

People reading and commenting on the Daily Mail are to be believed about as much the people who write it. Not a lot. A lot of the comments flying about clearly stem from the poorly written, unclarified and sensationalist Mail article which the hard of understanding read as fact.

Chessington should lock their page until these morons calm down.

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The incident occurred in the extension, which should only be open when the park is at its peak....

What a silly decision.

Do you have to be so insensitive all the time Steve? A 4 year old girl has been injured and has brain damage, it's not something that can be swept under the carpet and go unnoticed.
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Do you have to be so insensitive all the time Steve? A 4 year old girl has been injured and has brain damage, it's not something that can be swept under the carpet and go unnoticed.

It's not insensitive, but why close a ride that has nothing wrong with it. You can simply close the extension where the incident actually occured

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Totally understand your point Steve but the GP are unlikely to make a disconnect between the ride and queue, they see them as an entire unit. Right now as far as the GP are concerned, someone has been injured at Tomb Blaster and I think they would rather the ride as a whole unit be closed until a full investigation is complete; and if anything, just out of respect for the girl to make doubly sure everything about the ride and its queue is safe. Times like this could also allow them to evaluate all kinds of aspects about the ride and their procedures.

Edited by Original Glazed
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The incident occurred in the extension, which should only be open when the park is at its peak....

I have never understood why they have kept the bridges open when the ride rarley ever gets a queue long enough to justify it.

Just to add, the park was fairly busy on Thursday, and there was a queue stretching right around the courtyard at times when I passed. It was during half term, after all.

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Totally understand your point Steve but the GP are unlikely to make a disconnect between the ride and queue, they see them as an entire unit. Right now as far as the GP are concerned, someone has been injured at Tomb Blaster and I think they would rather the ride as a whole unit be closed until a full investigation is complete; and if anything, just out of respect for the girl to make doubly sure everything about the ride and its queue is safe. Times like this could also allow them to evaluate all kinds of aspects about the ride and their procedures.

I wouldn't think it is the parks direct choice, most visitors will not even know this has happened and I'm sure the park would rather be completely up and running.

My guess would be the HSE (or whichever authority has a finger in that pie) have wanted the site kept exactly as is while they carry out their investigation, it is them who probably see that 'unit' as a whole and consider it unsafe all round until they have worked out exactly what went wrong. It may have happened in the outside queue extension, but you can bet similar a type of parts, manufacturer, designer, builder, procedures and quality will have been used throughout. Until you know which it is that has led to the accident you wait.

It's for the best and I'm confident wont effect the attraction long term.

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I think what's happened here is extremely sad.

My thoughts are with the family of the girl at this time, and let's hope thae that chessington will be able to sort everything out before the ride reopens, and something like that happens again.

We don't want that

As far as I'm aware, this is actually the first major chessington insodent that made the news

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I was at the hotel last night and the 'boardwalk' over the river has been closed along with the walkway to the right of the hotel. It may be that Chessington are closing off all 'wooden bridge' type elements at the moment.

Just to re-clarify the incident did not occur on one of the 'bridges,' it occured on the raised walkway near the ride exit, where presumably one of the wooden fence panels was missing (most likely thanks to a guest during the day). I believe the HSE investigation is complete now so it should be interesting to see whether Chessington are a little more open and informative of the whole thing, as I imagine they weren't at fault.

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According to the opening times on Chessies website Halloween Hocus Pocus has lost an hour so is now closing at 7 instead of 8. This really annoys me as it was always a struggle to get the two main coasters done in the dark but now it will be even harder. First an hour lost at Fright Nights and now this. They've also highlighted the weekdays from 9th-21th July in pink to warn possible visitors that they expect lots of local schools.

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Absolutely, more comparable to Alton Towers than Thorpe for their general Halloween 'ambience' (obviously on a much smaller scale, though). Plenty of lighting, smoke and pumpkins everywhere (although it'll be interesting to see whether it's as good this year (at all UK parks) what with the endless budget cuts :/

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  • Mattgwise changed the title to Chessington General Discussion

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