Alton Towers

[Vegas Seagull]

Rollercoaster smash, 4 seriously injured on 1st ride after staff had delayed opening due to technical issues

 

[Bedsex]

The Smiler apparently - that ride has had lots of technical issues since it was built.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

I believe they use to test rides prior to public use with dummies as to get as real as possible test results,does not seem to be the case in this incident ?

 

[Ninja Elephant]

I believe they use to test rides prior to public use with dummies as to get as real as possible test results,does not seem to be the case in this incident ?

The ride has been open for a long time, including today. They had a technical problem hours ago, presumably they did a health and saftey check of some kind before allowing people to carry on using the ride.

 

[brighton_girl87]

I believe they use to test rides prior to public use with dummies as to get as real as possible test results,does not seem to be the case in this incident ?

They do when it's just been built but surely not each time it closes down just for a few hours, due to technical difficulties?

I loved the story a few years ago of when Swarm at Thorpe Park was tested with dummies for the first time and most of them came back with missing limbs!

 

[Spider]

They do when it's just been built but surely not each time it closes down just for a few hours, due to technical difficulties?

I loved the story a few years ago of when Swarm at Thorpe Park was tested with dummies for the first time and most of them came back with missing limbs!

Yeah they definitely don't use water dummies after every technical fault. In this case it would not have helped. Roller coasters have a system of block brakes that divide the track into sections - one train is not allowed by the system into the next 'section' before the sensor at the next block brake has told it that the previous train has passed through. Obviously there was a system fault that allowed one train to enter a section that previous train had not exited. The train in front had failed to make it up a hill and rolled back into the track.

This is a very strange case, though, because apparently the train that crashed had been kept on a brake for 10-15 minutes before it started moving again, so something weird must have happened for the system to suddenly decide it was safe to move again. Also very odd because it had been after a technical fault, and the train that was crashed into was empty - it would seem natural to assume that if you're sending round a test train empty after a break down, you would wait until that train had made a complete circuit before sending people round. Looks bad for Alton a Towers as the ride has failed to make it over this part of the track on several occasions, and they should certainly be aware of this when sending round an empty train, as the lighter weight would make a stall far more likely.