September 23, 20159 yr comment_218642 Also does anyone know if they were still using the strobe light in the indoor section or was it turned off on my visit it was pitch black and was better that way!
September 23, 20159 yr comment_218644 I have only been once this year before the smiler accident happened, and I remember the strobes being used, although they aren't on permanently, but the projection mapping ensures the room isn't completely dark surely? And besides riding it, yes I guess the annoying theme tune I do indeed miss, just becomes a bit too much to handle after a while aha!
September 24, 20159 yr comment_218649 Although The Smiler is not my favourite ride at Towers, I do miss it - walking into X-Sector and seeing it there looking all alone, dirty and no signage/screen on was odd. And although that blinking tune can get annoying (especially if you are stuck in a 3 hour queue) I have to admit I miss it.....a bit
September 24, 20159 yr comment_218689 walking into X-Sector and seeing it there looking all alone, dirty and no signage/screen on was odd. I agree. When I went to Towers in July, I can't help but to notice the brown marks all over the rails. If it's going to reopen next season, they could use the closed season to repaint it...while possibly replacing the wheels on the trains to make it like a whole new ride again.
September 24, 20159 yr comment_218754 There's talk on certain Alton Towers fansites of it re-opening tomorrow. I doubt it will, but at least the work taking place on the ride shows that they are planning to re-open it at some stage (probably next year).
September 24, 20159 yr comment_218761 Oh I hope not, I turned down the chance to go next week because it was closed, I can imagine the gloating now it if re-opens.
September 24, 20159 yr comment_218762 I give it until the 11th- it's just before Scarefest and all eyes are on Thorpe with FN.
September 24, 20159 yr comment_218764 It won't open until the HSE report is released. If it's open I will eat my hat.
September 24, 20159 yr comment_218765 It won't open until the HSE report is released. Is a thought, and one I've said previously I expect to be the case for good reason. But it is no certainty and shouldn't be stated as such.
September 24, 20159 yr comment_218766 It won't open until the HSE report is released. If it's open I will eat my hat. HSE report in the morning, ride opens in afternoon, simple
September 24, 20159 yr comment_218769 It won't open until the HSE report is released. If it's open I will eat my hat. The ride will open as soon as the prohibition notice is lifted. The full report could take a lengthy period of time to put together. I expect one morning people will enter the park and head to X-Sector to see all the signage back up along with the music blaring out. On that morning I think Merlin will release a short statement along the lines of: "The Smiler will re-open today. This is what happened and these are the steps we've taken to ensure it can never happen again. The HSE are satisfied with the action taken and have deemed the ride safe to run" I believe a 2015 opening is highly likely, probably a week or so before Scarefest starts in order to get any negative press out of the way.
September 24, 20159 yr comment_218772 I can't see them releasing a press statement about reopening until it is open (if that makes sense) - the media will be on it like flies around poop and Merlin might want to make as little fuss as possible. Just my thoughts but I may be totally wrong. I really didn't think it would reopen at all this season but with whats been going on around the site with works being done its looking like a possibility - who knows. Will be good if it does reopen this season and brings X-Sector back to life
September 25, 20159 yr comment_218782 It won't open until the HSE report is released. If it's open I will eat my hat. As mentioned, the HSE report will take a rather long time to be completed, if any company had to wait that long before they could do any work, there would be a lot of empty factories across the country... Whether it will actually be open today, is still anyone's guess...
September 25, 20159 yr comment_218811 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11890128/Medics-win-bravery-award-for-breaking-rules-to-save-Alton-Towers-crash-victim-Leah-Washington.html Well deserved in my opinion!
September 25, 20159 yr comment_218821 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11890128/Medics-win-bravery-award-for-breaking-rules-to-save-Alton-Towers-crash-victim-Leah-Washington.html Well deserved in my opinion! Expect them to be fired soon by the HSE. Joking apart (I hope) it wouldn't surprise me if the HSE would give them a telling off for not following health and safety rules.
September 25, 20159 yr comment_218823 Good work those people. We generally get left alone in the emergency services unless things go very wrong, it's just accepted we have to put ourselves in situations sometimes. It's only if something we do is dangerous by design or plan that it gets taken up; this is clearly a spare of the moment thing, the right thing, and it didn't put other people in danger.
September 26, 20159 yr comment_218881 I've found over the years that it's not the paramedics that stop things hapenning due to 'health and safety' it's those further up the food chain, such as the attending copper or perhaps an attending doctor. Good for them, the deserve it.
September 26, 20159 yr comment_218887 I've found over the years that it's not the paramedics that stop things hapenning due to 'health and safety' it's those further up the food chain, such as the attending copper or perhaps an attending doctor. A little off topic, but that is utter rubbish. The number one priority for police and doctors is to save life and limb, they would never, ever prevent a medic do anything to achieve that. They would work with them to help them achieve that.
September 26, 20159 yr comment_218894 Really? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2104935/Fire-chief-told-policeman-leave-drowning-man-3ft-deep-lake-half-boot-deep.html Probably wrong for me to name copper/doctor, should have just said people further up the food chain.
September 26, 20159 yr comment_218895 Weren't you someone who was shocked the Mail got its facts wrong about the crash originally?
September 26, 20159 yr comment_218898 ...but Mr Nicholls advised me strongly not to go in...If there had been signs of life we would have gone in immediately. Advised, not ordered. And on the basis that the patient was already dead, not that it was a 'health and safety' issue to rescue them. There's no need to take any undue risk to retrieve a dead body quickly, and the fire officer, having been on scene longest, was in a position to have made that call and his advice be considered. The whole of that story is 'Fireman makes controversial call on a man being deceased', maybe he was wrong, but that is another matter. Amazing reporting by the Fail as ever, twisting the story to make gullible people believe that health and safety has indeed gone mad. I've found over the years ...read 'I read the Daily Mail once'. Sorry, this is way off topic, but these nonsense sweeping statements wind me up.
September 26, 20159 yr comment_218901 I'm mid 40's, seen and done plenty and stopped reading newspapers years ago, that was just the first article that came up on Google. You're immediate reaction was 'nobody would ever tell someone not to save a life' to my 'sweeping' statement, when the very article that originally sparked this debate, reported just that, medics ignoring health and safety rules to save the life of one of the accident victims.
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