grumpyfan

I don't think anyone here would disagree with you, but for a school administrator, who has to answer to a multitude of parents and a school board, not taking them to the park, was probably in the interest of keeping their job. Not that I think anyone would be in jeopardy by going to the park, but the wacko parents who've been watching Sky news, and are now in full panic mode, would likely call for his head if he allowed them to continue the trip.

A reasonable scenario, but I think the more likely (based on reports) is that Ringo is frustrated because this is the fourth time today the attraction has had issues and he's been called to fix it. The three times before were due to a misbehaving sensor. So, in order to speed things along, and get it running again as quickly as possible, he assumes that it's the same issue as before, skips all the formalities and checks and just does a reset and releases the train while in Manual mode. All speculation of course, but probably closer to reality, just because of human nature.

Wow! She is really nasty, and annoying. Is she related to Piers Morgan?

You turn your nose up at crappy little carnival/fair coasters You know the names of and have a list of new coasters you want to ride this year You know the names of and manufacturers of the coasters opening this year

Looks incredible. Love their continued attention to detail with these highly themed areas. The Africa section has really been transformed in the last year with the addition of the Harambe theater (Festival of the Lion King show), and now this! I can't wait to see it and experience it firsthand in 22 days!

I think I'm kind of with Robb on this, but can everyone just stop with ALL the speculation on Smiler being removed? It's not even pertinent to the discussion right now. First, they need to understand what happened, then decide what can be done to prevent it from happening again. Sure, it's had a few (very public) operational issues and stalls, but nobody has been killed on it. Not that this is the measure by which an attraction should be removed, but as pointed out, there have been many others where people were killed on, and the attractions are still operating today (Disney has a few). I feel pretty confident in saying, whatever happened, be it human error, ride/computer malfunction or almost anything else, it can still be fixed or improved to prevent the situation from recurring and the ride will be even safer than before.

Their statement and actions would seem to indicate that they've uncovered some gaps in how re-starts are handled. They will certainly re-train everyone who is involved with the maintenance and operation of these rides on the procedures and perhaps make some changes to the way certain types of issues are resolved. If I had to guess, they might require multiple people now to declare the coaster "clear" for restart, or they may even go to the extreme of off-loading any stranded (held) trains, and do a full re-start like they would in the mornings before allowing any guests to ride.

Thanks, I found a news article where somebody who was on it and seems to confirm this. Kind of chilling. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-rollercoaster-crash-passenger-5824114

I've read various reports that seem to explain things, but leave out a few details that I'm wondering about. 1) The train with the passengers, sat on the first(?) lift hill for 5-15 minutes. Was it in fact the first lift hill, or the second or a brake run? 2) While it was sitting, this means the empty train would have been stopped somewhere as well. Was it on the second lift hill or a brake run, or had it already valleyed and sitting at the bottom of the batwing? 3) Ultimately, the question for me is where was the empty train when the first was released from its hold position? If it had already valleyed, then clearly, maintenance screwed up by not doing a visual check and then releasing the loaded train. But, if it was stopped at another section, then valleyed after being released, then that would point to a block not being registered and/or a brake section that failed when it should have stopped the loaded train. 4) One more question. I have a basic understanding of how blocks work on coasters, and sensors indicate when a train rolls past one registering that it has passed that section. But, what happens when a valley occurs and it rocks back and forth over the same sensor? Could the sensor/computer have registered the empty train as being past that block, but not been able to detect the rollback?

The press is just doing their usual, reporting the worst of the worst and sensationalizing it to get more viewers. Dispicable and highly irritating, because the real story is usually much less dramatic than how they paint it.

Ridiculous!!! Nobody has died on this thing! There are plenty of attractions still standing and running on a daily basis that have been attributed to deaths or accidents much worse than these. Disney has had several attractions where people died on them or shortly after riding them, yet they're still running. None of the incidents listed are major, just bad publicity for the park and perhaps a black eye for their reputation. Public perception is easily swayed, especially in this day and time with most news cycles lasting only a day or two. People don't care. They forget quickly and move on to the next Kardashian/Jenner.

Don't hold your breath, I would not be surprised if the ride remains closed for the entire season. Depending on how long it takes to complete their investigation, and any changes they recommend, which could lead to some re-design or engineering changes, yes, it could be awhile before it reopens.

Silly and unnecessary. The ride has had some minor issues, up until now, but nothing has happened here that can't be fixed. It would be a shame to see them scrap it. People just need to calm down and wait to see what the investigation reveals and how the manufacturer and park reacts to it. I'm pretty confident that once the investigation is complete, AT will do everything withing their capabilities to make everything safe and enjoyable. Those who insist it's still dangerous, should simply not ride it.

Interesting they are looking at the control systems, maybe it isn't 100% clear cut human error. Or entirely possibly it's just standard practice to eliminate any doubt of the control systems It's just a normal investigation procedure. Investigate everything related to the operation of the attraction, top to bottom. Just because one thing "seems" likely, doesn't mean there aren't other contributing factors from supporting systems and processes. The idea being to look at EVERYTHING and eliminate those that were working correctly, or as designed, which will leave the primary contributors outstanding. It's kind of like sifting or filtering. Also, they need to gain a thorough understanding of how all the systems work or are supposed to work and tie together. Sometimes these can lead to identification of gaps in the processes that allows for incidents such as this to happen.

Wouldn't their remaining closed seem to indicate that human error played at least some part in this accident? I'm just guessing that they're interviewing all maintenance people as well as ride operators for all rides, reviewing and revising operating procedures with the ride manufacturers and then eventually re-training on the new safety precautions. This was no small thing, and as we all know here, it's the kind of thing that should not happen in the normal operation of a modern coaster. Keeping the park closed for a few days to resolve any potential issues is both necessary and a good measure toward showing the public that safety of their guests is a top concern. I would expect on their re-opening, a new and very public campaign promoting these new steps they're taking.