Alton Towers "crash"

[DB11]

Following the dreadful incident on The Smiler at Alton Towers theme park yesterday and the decision to close the theme park today, a further decision has been taken for the theme park to remain closed tomorrow Thursday 4th June.

 

http://www.altontowers.com/

[Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot]

Hope Thomas Cook are taking notes.

[ramboacdc]

5live reporting this morning that leah (the girl who was named yesterday) has suffered "leg, hip and hand injuries." Could mean the finger bit is true.

should get an update at some point today apparently. 

[J.Lisemore]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-rollercoaster-crash-teen-5819072

[ramboacdc]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-rollercoaster-crash-teen-5819072

all speculation and rumour. 

also it has been confirmed it hit the other one at 20mph.  I like to read the mirror usually but this is some awful writing! 

[Babylon]

The eldest lad has a punctured lung and a fractured leg. Named as Daniel Thorpe of Buxton.

[StanSP]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33011347

 

11 minutes. Far too long considering the severity.

[stripeyfox]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33011347

11 minutes. Far too long considering the severity.

Yeah it sounds like the park's major incident plan was slow to kick in. Park closed again tomorrow...

[Finnaldo]

I'm surprised on a place like that there's not a on site ambulance to be honest.

[Rincewind]

Would be a bit off putting to about to go on a ride and see an ambulance parked next to it.

[Jaspa]

Would be a bit off putting to about to go on a ride and see an ambulance parked next to it.

 

How about if you dressed the ambulance up as a ride and if anything goes wrong it speeds out

[Parafox]

I'm surprised on a place like that there's not a on site ambulance to be honest.

 

Cost

 

All public sporting and mass-attendance leisure one-off leisure events (music festivals for example) are required by law to have professional medical cover (the MacPherson report following Hillsborough).

 

This does not cover things like theme parks who would be expected to voluntarily provide medical cover for their individual sites at a cost to themselves per annum They would need to employ emergency medical responses 12hrs/7 days a week at the minimum. That's money they will risk not spending against the risk of a serious incident occurring.

How about if you dressed the ambulance up as a ride and if anything goes wrong it speeds out

 

Trust me, it's really not that exciting

[Rincewind]

St Johns usually attend these events. Handy if you have a splinter.

[The Horse's Mouth]

I think FIFA did it to distract attention away from them

[ramboacdc]

I think FIFA did it to distract attention away from them

 

seems vice versa really this story has becomed buried. poor charles kennedy's family too don't know whats happened!

[Rocket-Ron]

St Johns usually attend these events. Handy if you have a splinter.

Having been on many first aid courses through St. John's I can honestly tell you they do a lot more than splinters Ken.

I have also witnessed them doing cpr on a homeless person once.

And they mostly do it voluntarily.

[Rincewind]

Having been on many first aid courses through St. John's I can honestly tell you they do a lot more than splinters Ken.

I have also witnessed them doing cpr on a homeless person once.

And they mostly do it voluntarily.

I know. I have a brother who was a member. I have high respect for the work they do. At the Leicester Beer Fest they have the Red Cross there. Thank goodness never seen them deal with anything major.

My brother was saying though that  they are not allowed to do anything more than basic first aid.The amount of training must have increased though.

[ramboacdc]

Two major rides at Alton Towers and Thorpe Park will be closed "for the foreseeable future" following a serious crash on Tuesday.

The Smiler, which left four people with "significant lower limb injuries" after two carriages collided earlier this week, will remain shut once Alton Towers reopens to the public in the coming days.

 

http://news.sky.com/story/1496893/alton-towers-and-thorpe-park-close-major-rides

[yorkie1999]

Surely this answer is to only have one train running at a time.

[ADK]

Surely this answer is to only have one train running at a time.

 

And make 1/5 the money?

[stripeyfox]

Surely this answer is to only have one train running at a time.

That severely limits ride capacity though. It is safe to have more than one train as long as they are in separate sectors - and the computer controls this.

There seems to have been some sort of human error here as has been discussed, either with the ride operating in "maintenance" mode inadvertently or with an operator overriding a safety message

[Captain...]

The fact they are closing other rides suggests it may have been a technical issue after all, although it does say safety protocols rather than a technical fault, so I'm not really sure.

[ADK]

I imagine they would be under pressure to close the park until they can identify the cause of the fault.

[Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot]

Why are Thorpe Park closing a ride? Must be a flaw with the systems of roller coasters in general, only thing that makes sense.

[stripeyfox]

Why are Thorpe Park closing a ride? Must be a flaw with the systems of roller coasters in general, only thing that makes sense.

I think it is more procedure based. Reading between the lines, I think it is related to staff not checking the track for stuck trains before re starting the ride. The rides at Thorpe Park (which I think is also owned by Merlin) are also multi-train rides so will remain closed until the company can re-train operators into the correct re-start procedures.