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p. 235: Nemesis Reborn announced for Spring 2024!

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From http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-35658850:

 

Smiler crash: Alton Towers owner to be prosecuted

 

The owner of Alton Towers is to be prosecuted over the Smiler rollercoaster crash which left five people seriously injured. Two women lost a leg and three others were seriously injured when their carriage collided with a stationary carriage on the same track last year.

 

Merlin Attractions Operation Ltd will appear at North Staffordshire Justice Centre on 22 April. It will face a charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

 

Neil Craig, head of operations for The Health and Safety Executive in the Midlands, said: "This was a serious incident with life-changing consequences for five people. We have conducted a very thorough investigation and consider that there is sufficient evidence and that it is in the public interest to bring a prosecution."

 

Four people sitting in the front row of the carriage were among those most seriously hurt in the crash. Vicky Balch, 20, from Lancashire, had six rounds of surgery in a bid to save her leg before needing an amputation. Leah Washington, 17, from Barnsley, also had one of her legs amputated, while her 18-year-old boyfriend, Joe Pugh, shattered his knees. Daniel Thorpe, 27, from Buxton in Derbyshire, was treated for a collapsed lung and lower leg injuries. Another passenger, Chanda Chauhan, 49, from Wednesbury, had surgery after suffering internal injuries.

 

Following an initial investigation, Alton Towers said human error caused the crash. The theme park said staff misunderstood a shutdown message and wrongly restarted the ride. "This led to a decision to manually restart the ride, overriding the control system without appropriate safety protocols being followed correctly," a spokesperson said at the time. No technical or mechanical issues were found with the ride itself.

 

Alton Towers had a "significant" fall in visitor numbers after the accident on June 2, which resulted in the 500-acre theme park in Staffordshire being shut down for four days. However, it was reported on Thursday profits at the park have edged up, despite last summer's accident. The Poole-based company, which also owns Legoland and the London Eye, said group pre-tax profits rose 0.3% to £250m from 2014.

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From http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-35658850:

 

Smiler crash: Alton Towers owner to be prosecuted

 

The owner of Alton Towers is to be prosecuted over the Smiler rollercoaster crash which left five people seriously injured. Two women lost a leg and three others were seriously injured when their carriage collided with a stationary carriage on the same track last year.

 

Merlin Attractions Operation Ltd will appear at North Staffordshire Justice Centre on 22 April. It will face a charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

 

Neil Craig, head of operations for The Health and Safety Executive in the Midlands, said: "This was a serious incident with life-changing consequences for five people. We have conducted a very thorough investigation and consider that there is sufficient evidence and that it is in the public interest to bring a prosecution."

 

Four people sitting in the front row of the carriage were among those most seriously hurt in the crash. Vicky Balch, 20, from Lancashire, had six rounds of surgery in a bid to save her leg before needing an amputation. Leah Washington, 17, from Barnsley, also had one of her legs amputated, while her 18-year-old boyfriend, Joe Pugh, shattered his knees. Daniel Thorpe, 27, from Buxton in Derbyshire, was treated for a collapsed lung and lower leg injuries. Another passenger, Chanda Chauhan, 49, from Wednesbury, had surgery after suffering internal injuries.

 

Following an initial investigation, Alton Towers said human error caused the crash. The theme park said staff misunderstood a shutdown message and wrongly restarted the ride. "This led to a decision to manually restart the ride, overriding the control system without appropriate safety protocols being followed correctly," a spokesperson said at the time. No technical or mechanical issues were found with the ride itself.

 

Alton Towers had a "significant" fall in visitor numbers after the accident on June 2, which resulted in the 500-acre theme park in Staffordshire being shut down for four days. However, it was reported on Thursday profits at the park have edged up, despite last summer's accident. The Poole-based company, which also owns Legoland and the London Eye, said group pre-tax profits rose 0.3% to £250m from 2014.

 

So in British legal terms, what exactly does this mean? Who exactly are they going to "prosecute?" The park? The head of operations? Who actually goes to jail (if anyone) if they follow through with this?

Edited by robbalvey
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It will just be a big fine, no-one will go to jail.

 

The company also received a big fine when that kid fell from the Tomb blaster ride at Chessington a few years ago (it made Merlin finally spend some money fix issues across the park). I'm not sure if that would be taken into consideration and the fine would be higher because of this.

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I believe this Health & Safety prosecution will just result in a fine to Merlin, which looking at the type of prosecution can be an unlimited amount. There is a possibility of imprisonment in this type of prosecution, but as the HSE has stated they are prosecuting Merlin Attractions Operations Ltd, I don't see this happening, if they had stated they would be prosecuting the individuals who went against the operating guidelines as well, then possibly. Imprisonment can be either a maximum of 6 months or two years depending if the trial takes place in a Magistrates or Crown Court.

 

This is obviously entirely separate to the cases that the individual victims will be bringing against Merlin, although I imagine these will all be settled out of court, judging on how Merlin have been handling this side of things (well at least how they have appeared to be handling things in the press) since the accident, offering support to the victims.

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I think they're prosecuting Merlin instead of a person because the people followed the operating procedures that Merlin had provided? So the parent company gets prosecuted for failing to ensure the safety of the guests.

 

If the op had wilfully ignored standard operating procedures then they could be on the hook personally for a fine and/or prison, like the electrician from Lightwater Valley that was prosecuted as well as the park for not following procedure.

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I think they're prosecuting Merlin instead of a person because the people followed the operating procedures that Merlin had provided? So the parent company gets prosecuted for failing to ensure the safety of the guests..

 

The BBC report about the prosecution says:

 

The theme park said staff misunderstood a shutdown message and wrongly restarted the ride.

"This led to a decision to manually restart the ride, overriding the control system without appropriate safety protocols being followed correctly," a spokesperson said at the time.

 

The protocols weren't followed, as you might expect given whats happened. It seems in cases like this that regardless of the actions of their employees, Merlin are ultimately responsible for the safety of the guests and thats why they're being prosecuted.

 

I didn't really like the wording (assuming its accurate) 'The theme park said staff misunderstood a shutdown message and wrongly restarted the ride.'. What sort of shutdown messages would they get in the operating booth? It just seems to deflect from the fact they must have not bothered checking (looking) why the ride had stopped in the first place, and just restarted it assuming it was an error. I think there's a difference between 'misunderstanding a shutdown message' and not properly double checking why the ride has stopped.

 

Are the individuals involved likely to face criminal charges of any sort?

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I don't feel like they are being clear enough, maybe the reporter can't get too technical but I really wish there will be an accident report that analyze everything that happened thoroughly.

 

It's already fairly clear what happened in the incident...

 

1. There was a regular breakdown, which prompted empty cars to be cycled through once it was rectified.

2. Riders were loaded into the car and dispatched.

3. The last empty car (Car A) stalled in the batwing.

4. The system stopped the following car filled with riders (Car B), on the first lift hill as the stalled Car A hadn't cleared the next block.

5. The staff overrode the safety system and restarted the system, Car B on the first lift was dispatched into the next block.

6. Car B collided with Car A in the batwing.

 

Obviously step 5 is where we don't know exactly what happened and what the safety system warning actually said to prompt the ride staff/maintenance staff to misunderstand it and override the system, but I imagine we probably won't find out the actual details of what actually happened here. Regardless of what did happen Merlin is ultimately responsible as the systems were not in place to prevent this 'human error' from happening, hence why they have added visual verification points around the ride now, that need to be activated by staff members before the ride can be restarted. (I presume this might be added to all multi-car coasters in the future, at least in Merlin parks I guess).

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I don't feel like they are being clear enough, maybe the reporter can't get too technical but I really wish there will be an accident report that analyze everything that happened thoroughly.

 

It's already fairly clear what happened in the incident...

 

1. There was a regular breakdown, which prompted empty cars to be cycled through once it was rectified.

2. Riders were loaded into the car and dispatched.

3. The last empty car (Car A) stalled in the batwing.

4. The system stopped the following car filled with riders (Car B), on the first lift hill as the stalled Car A hadn't cleared the next block.

5. The staff overrode the safety system and restarted the system, Car B on the first lift was dispatched into the next block.

6. Car B collided with Car A in the batwing.

 

Obviously step 5 is where we don't know exactly what happened and what the safety system warning actually said to prompt the ride staff/maintenance staff to misunderstand it and override the system, but I imagine we probably won't find out the actual details of what actually happened here. Regardless of what did happen Merlin is ultimately responsible as the systems were not in place to prevent this 'human error' from happening, hence why they have added visual verification points around the ride now, that need to be activated by staff members before the ride can be restarted. (I presume this might be added to all multi-car coasters in the future, at least in Merlin parks I guess).

 

My best guess would be that as they had been having problems with the ride beforehand they may have been having problems with the block sensors. It was a windy day so maybe the trains had been slower than normal getting through the blocks due to the wind and it was making the system think something was wrong, but it wasn't.

In a "Boy who cried wolf" scenario when there actually was something wrong the ops assumed it was just the same thing it had been doing previously and over rode it.They will have more than likely been informed of a train being stuck on the track but just assumed people were talking about the one on the lift hill. Complacency mixed with the likely mounting pressure to get through the ever increasing queue line quicker probably resulted in the necessary checks not being done.

 

In other news, Alton Towers have confirmed in their blog that The Flume is being removed, you can read it here https://www.altontowers.com/useful-info/blog/exciting-developments-for-our-2016-season/

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^I find it a shame that they decided to remove the Flume, but it was certainly getting old. Alton have been telling everyone on their Facebook page that they've got some exciting, top secret plans for the site, which sounds promising. They also said that it's their intention to start construction on the site before the end of the 2016 season, which is very interesting indeed.

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It's always a shame when a log flume gets removed. That sucks.

 

Hopefully they will replace it with one like Chiapas, although there was a poster that appeared on a window in Alton Towers some time ago about a Secret Weapon from Switzerland that would be in that area. So something from Intamin or B&M could well be put in The Flume's spot.

Here is a photo of the article, this is from quite some time ago so plans may have changed or this could have just been put there to screw with enthusiasts.

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We now also know about Nemesis repaint and station:

 

We are well underway with a complete re-paint of the Nemesis track. We have brought in a specialist company who were able to shot blast the whole track, right back to the base metal. An anti-corrosion paint was first applied before we then gave Nemmy a further two coats of specialist track paint to get her looking as good as new! Meanwhile, we have commenced with the first stage of a two year station monster refurbishment, with the front elevation of the station being restored to its original themed concept.
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