topic Re: Alton Towers face prosecution in Off-Topic

Alton Towers face prosecution

Cleoriff — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 11:23:26 GMT

The owner of Alton Towers is to be prosecuted over the Smiler rollercoaster which left 5 people seriously injured

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35658850

I am really pleased at this decision. If this encourages other parks to take safety more seriously we would hopefully see less horrific accidents of this type

Re: Alton Towers face prosecution

Bambino — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 11:35:05 GMT

I'm not surprised by that decision in the least. Absolutely correct to hold them accountable. People's lives were changed forever because of this.

Re: Alton Towers face prosecution

Cleoriff — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 11:46:52 GMT

I know we always say incidents like this shouldn't affect our lives.

It affected me as I had two family members who had been on this ride 2 weeks before. They obviously were lucky.

Re: Alton Towers face prosecution

jonsie — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 11:47:25 GMT

Quite right. I know there has to be an investigation but why does it take so long....

Re: Alton Towers face prosecution

Cleoriff — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 11:58:10 GMT

@jonsie wrote:
Quite right. I know there has to be an investigation but why does it take so long....

Exactly The accident happened June 2nd last year. The court case isn't till April 22nd...

Re: Alton Towers face prosecution

MI5 — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 12:07:46 GMT

Good.

Re: Alton Towers face prosecution

viridis — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 13:01:04 GMT

I hope they scrap that thing, no roller coaster should ever need to be winched together when built due to being off by 6 inches.

Re: Alton Towers face prosecution

PhoneChanger — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 14:19:20 GMT

@viridis they won't scrap a £16M ride, they have already announced their aim is to re-open the attraction later this year.

The issue at hand, and for what they will be held accountable for, is that staff executed a manual over-ride on a safety system which was triggered due to the stalled train.

They have already made a number of improvements for this year, which is the addition of restart switches and triggers which have to be done manually at key sections of the track (and outside as well, so they can't just check the cameras and re-start it), if all buttons haven't been reset then they cannot restart the ride, hopefully minimizing the risk going forward.

Whilst the incident should never have happened, Alton Towers and Nick Varney have handled with situation extremely well, they closed the park, they immediately provided aid and financial assistance to those involved and continue to do so to this day.

Re: Alton Towers face prosecution

viridis — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 14:31:11 GMT

Sorry, but I'd say a ride that bolts flung off and the track separated due to stresses of poor construction has no place at alton towers.

Re: Alton Towers face prosecution

Cleoriff — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 18:42:21 GMT

Also, it is very convenient that Alton Towers stated 'the crash was caused by human error'.

This shifts blame, allows them to 'sack' the staff members ....whilst working hard on their roller coaster to ensure it is kept running and earns them massive profits. Cynical? I don't think so.

Re: Alton Towers face prosecution

Cleoriff — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 18:45:17 GMT

As for the improvements? These should have been done before they opened the rollercoaster to the unsuspecting public.

Re: Alton Towers face prosecution

Bambino — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 18:59:50 GMT

They aren't going to wriggle out of this, and hopefully will pay a hefty price for their negligence, but I think it would be better publicity for Alton Towers if they tore the ride down.