@@martynchannel2983 Exactly - so they didn't clear every section of the track. Anything that could not be seen by cameras should have been checked by actually looking. Those block sections work that way for a reason.
If you've sat front row on The Smiler, you know how messed up that accident was. The entire metal mesh screen and bar just crumpled into those people's legs and knees. That's so messed up. It's worse when you realise that during that time, the ride was mocking them by laughing manically.
Interesting fact. A few years after the smiler crash, I was on a ride at Thorpe Park (operated by the same company) and the ride I was on failed to finish properly. In order to override the system and lower it down/ let us off, we had to wait about 10 minutes until a management representative, maintenence engineer and first aid were all on site and in agreement before the system override coukd be activated. I'm guessing this was a new policy since the smiler crash.
I remember hearing that after the Smiler crash, a bunch of rides in both Alton Towers and Thorpe Park had their safety mechanisms and procedures changed. Definitely think this incident created much safer rollercoasters in the UK, just a shame it had to come from something so horrific!
Block breaks should never be allowed to be manually overridden unti it is confirmed that the train in front has passed through the following set of block breaks. I think the main culprit here are the staff who didn't think they should have told the maintenance team a 5th train had been added. That is incomprehensible negligance.
You said that the block breaks should never have been released until they confirmed the train in front had passed the following set of breaks. The maintenance team obviously didn't do that. Would they have looked for a fifth train if they knew about it? Probably. But as you said, they still should have confirmed the track was clear rather than assume it was clear. The questions I would have is whether there were specific procedures in place that the maintenance team had to follow before releasing the train, were the staff trained in these procedures, and did they follow the procedures. If you assume they should have used "common sense" then the track operator would be the negligent party.
The protocols in place call for a clear visual confirmation that all block sections are clear before clearing out the ghost train. They counted 4 carts and assumed the section clear, they did not have visual confirmation and should have never released the block. There has never been a protocol where simply counting the carts was enough to clear a ghost cart. I assume the visual confirmation would have taken a little time to get to the section; line of guests and already having the ride shut down put time pressure to release it on an assumption.
If you’re scared of this ride, I’m telling you : I don’t think that Alton Towers wants this to happen again because the park would probably close if an accident happened twice because of them. So, I’m pretty sure they’re being even more careful than other parks.
@@gameraspindlethorn6229 Of course, but it could happen on any ride. Doesn't mean you shouldn't ride them because if you follow that logic, you shouldn't do anything ever again. The odds of dying on a roller coaster are much lower than the odds of dying in a car crash while driving to the park. Also, yes human error could happen again but in that case, there were major issues in the way things were handled that made parks all around the worlds take many precautions. Because yes, an accident in one park hurts every park out there, so whenever things like these happen, every respectable park will take measures to increase their security.
@@rienn8559 Most well known parks are. They haven't always been like this but nowadays, every coaster incident gets covered on every news outlet possible so they have to protect their reputation.
If u have driven there, the roads close to Alton towers r at have at least maybe 200x times more risk compared to the rides. The Smiler got to be one of their main attractions, and one of their most expensive ones. Alton Towers needs this ride. Considering the age of Oblivion, first drop coaster, and Nemesis, being retracked now, and Wickerman (goin all out on their presentation and buildup before the ride, they r dedicated to keeping this right. Having 5 coasters at once shocked me, I never seen this much in person, that and surely they cant afford to make the same mistake again. Communication will have to be on point with operators and maintenance team. That and only supervisors with permissions have power to override anything and i bet they got pr and bosses down their neck about any mistakes.
The accounts of how the two young women with the crushed legs suffered, and then had to wait for hours for rescue in horrendous pain, is one of the saddest stories I've ever heard. I don't think I would go to one of these parks now.
Fun fact: the fault that appeared that the ride engineers had to investigate was actually in regards to the wind sensor which had made the ride unhappy. Also this ride literally never gets ghost trains because they double up each of the sensors. Also, the ride was safe enough before the crash in my opinion given that the ride system gave multiple errors and stopped the train at the block section. Also: Queue line was very busy because other rides had to close down due to the high wind speeds.
I mean, it probably wasn’t safe enough before if an accident was possible. The changes eliminated human error from creating another accident in the future.
@@superdudextreme2789 an accident can be forced on ANY ride. Manual Block mode gives the engineers (Very Rightly may I add) full control over the ride and its block sections. If you have ever played No limits and gone into manual mode in the control panel, then you will know what I am on about. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but they really didn't change much after the crash, just more CCTV.
I can't imagine the pain they were in, for such a long period of time as well. Their lives have been forever changed and I just hope they are happy and loving and living life 💕
@@dogbog99not exactly, as some had to pay for prosthetics.. as well as consistent checkup appointments and treatments, including therapy for some. They lost so much
Really neat underrated video! As a huge rollercoaster fanatic the smiler crash has always been interesting to me and it's cool to see someone go in detail to it again
fun fact, i was actually at the park that same day. I went on the smiler too before this happened, I thank my lucky stars i wasnt on the ride at the point of the incident.
my aunt was there on that day, she didnt see it happen but she did see ambulances, me and my mum went on it the day before, and honest to good i am so grateful i wasnt on any the train that crashed.
Thank you for the clear explaination. I've ridden this both before and after the crash. It's horendous what happened... but if one good thing came from it, rollercoaster safety is now even greater than before.
Ironically, after this accident, people have less reason to be scared of rollercoasters. It sounds insane, but due to this accident, all theme parks in the UK will be much more diligent about the safety of the coasters, not wanting to get a hefty lawsuit. Especially alton towers, another crash like this could well and truly end them. I've been on the smiler before and after the accident, and the difference in safety measures is very clear.
i always forget that my school year were supposed to have a trip to alton towers that summer, but we couldn't go because of the safety concerns after the accident. i didn't get to have many school trips, and i think this one might have been one i really enjoyed if it ever happened.
It sounds like the ride *design* was perfectly safe, but it was being operated poorly. Not just on that one day, but their overall practices and habits: - Operating when it's too windy - Adding a train and not communicating with other teams about it - The empty train vallied for several minutes and nobody saw (why do a test run if you're not even looking at the results?) - Overriding the block zone controls without actually looking out on the track I hope Alton Towers looked at their operations for other roller coasters as well. Any ride can be made unsafe if you're negligent.
We and my mum. Were discussing this the other day as we went to a theme park, and we said it was weird noone check the tracks because even if all the cars noted, it could of been that something else had happend. Like something had fallen on the tracks or someone climbed on it, or that it had broken. So it's really weird to just go na all are here just go as it might not have been a cart that was activating it anyway. 🤷♀️
That was my thought while watching this. Why in the world would you not do a visual check of the actual section in question before launching a car full of passengers on it? So irresponsible.
The counter argument i can give to this response is that the ride didn't know where the car was, it just new it was on the block section somewhere. This is fine btw and as there are no sensors on that section of the loop, and if a person had climbed it then they would be dead or seriously injured (their fault for climbing in ride area). This means that the ride staff now have to meticulously inspect every inch of the block section if this were to happen again. If ghost trains happen often, this is extremely boring and tedious.
@@jakewynn it's a rollercoaster out in the open. It doesn't take long to at least look at it for any obvious faults. A car on the track would definitely be easy to see. That kind of laziness is absolutely no excuse when it comes to people's lives.
@@LadySinovera I completely agree but when you consider the pressure and time limitations put on by Merlin and the fact that Ghost trains are quite a common occourance especially on other rides, then bad habits start to form unfortunately.
I acutely hate the people who blame the smiler and make it sound so unsafe it’s so safe now that it’s like 1 in 100 million to even get a scratch on it
Thanks for this video I always have been scared of this ride because of this horrible accident poor people on that train it’s sad that people had to get hurt that bad. those are some life changing injuries. I hope they are doing well these days. That must be so scary when you are literally locked in and can’t do anything to stop it. But at least one thing came good out of it. Rides need to be safe. Thank god no one lost there life.
I feel like the fact that noone lost their life is a bad thing. Which would you rather have, excruciating pain for several months with a lost leg, or death? The choice is obvious for me.
Its so annoying how people say it was not safe. It was human error. And if anything it shows how safe it is because it warned them but he still overode it
I was scared of this ride so much after the accident that I did not go on it on my second last visit. But today the very first ride I took with my daughter was the smiler. This ride is freakin awsome.
As a retired electrician, it seems ( from this video ) that several corners were cut by both the operating staff and also the maintenance crew. No doubt the management of Alton towers wanted the ride fixed asap which could have been another contributing factor to the accident. I used to love coasters when I was younger, but now I will not go on them.
Well explained. I love the smiler which is crazy seeing I hated rides just over a year ago. I'm still supprised that the public at the area near the stalled car never actually told anyone inside about is as it wasn't normal. It's sad to see this is all it's going to be remembered for seeing it's such a grate ride
What’s even worse is that some people were recording the stalled train before the crash happened (minutes before) so if those people had gone to The Smiler shop and informed a member of staff, they could have told the operator and stopped them from overriding the emergency stop
@@rowanthompson3910 how were they supposed to know that the staff weren’t already aware of it. Or that someone is looking into it. You’d assume they know how to do their job properly. If I see a ride stopped on the middle of the rail I will assume they’re aware of it.
@@rowanthompson3910 The other train was stuck at the top of the lift hill, so it was safe to assume at the time that the ride had done it's job. Plus how could they have known that the staff were unaware?
As an engineer in studies, it's disappointing to see that redundant safety features were only added reactively rather than proactively. This was a preventable accident that could have been avoided with better planning and scenario evaluation. Engineers should be designing rides with all points of failure taken into account before construction even began. It's unacceptable that some riders had to suffer permanent and life-changing injuries before the park decided to implement these much-needed safety changes. I'm also dumbfounded by how primitive the block section controller must have been for the possibility of a "ghost train" to arise: The control computer should have been designed to be aware of the location of all trains, including those in the auxiliary train depot. Adding train-valley-detection sensors at every track valley would have also been a good idea, as well as a block section time evaluation protocol to catch any train that has remained in the block for an abnormally long period of time. All of these changes wouldn't have cost the park more than a few thousand dollars, and when human lives are on the line, no price is too high.
There's also a procedural aspect to it; they should never have assumed that if 3 trains were visible, that must mean nothing else existed on the track. Instead, the track should have been inspected throughout for _anything_ that doesn't belong there and that might have triggered the sensors. Look for the things you don't expect, not the things you do.
@@crytocc True. But, from an engineering perspective, systems should be designed to be fool-proof. That is, it should be very easy to do things right, and very difficult to do things wrong. Adding valley detectors and timed track occupation limits would have made it absolutely impossible for this problem to happen, not even an idiot would have been able to cause an accident.
The procedures at the time for overriding the block section did include doing a visual inspection of the track in the block, and indeed the actual button / keyswitch the engineers used to do the override was physically positioned such that you had to go to a point you could see it, i.e. the issue was not following the procedures (rather than checking the track they counted the trains on the way to the override switch and assumed they'd accounted for all of them)...
@@alexacb63 This is what redundant safety systems are for: There needs to be more than 1 or 2 primitive systems that prevent risk from turning to catastrophe. If the system has been designed to be fool proof (as I typically design my systems to be) then the risk of such dangers is reduced to the absolute minimum. Sure, requiring a visual check is important, but humans make way more mistakes than machines, so obviously humans cannot be relied upon to be the final safety barrier.
Looking at how businesses operate makes me see how safety is not taken seriously even in places where it is paramount. The consequences of bad design can be accepted in other circumstances but not when it costs human lives. Such obvious features have been missed in the design process. I think it's all due to time and deadline pressures. In a fast-paced environment driven by profit and hitting deadlines, nobody seems to stop and take the time to think whether something is good enough and safe enough. People just get pressured and it all comes down to speed and profits. The company paid compensation in millions and they know that people will come back to the park and incidents like this get forgotten. I think there needs to be a more broad conversation about safety in areas such as avation etc.
guys an amusement park ride is at its most safest after a tragedy unfortunately. maintenance & staff r on high alert and ride engineers go through the ride operations to make sure its flawless. ur safest after an accident. just saying since so many people below are scared.
Love this video keeping it short and sweet by the way 😊 The only bit I don’t understand is if the ride operations team didn’t know the 5th cart was added, why did they send it around empty (as per the process when adding a new cart)? Surely that means they knew the cart was new, so when they counted 4 they knew one must have been missing 🤷🏻♂️
There is no way ride operators added an additional train without engineering in attendance. I’m 99% sure that’s not even possible as adding the car would cause alarms that only engineers can clear. I’ve got a lot of thoughts on this accident as a previous ride engineer for the same group. Heavily involved in the commissioning of another coaster same type prior to Smiler and I think our development may have had some impact in the decisions involved in this accident. Would be interesting to discuss this with you.
Nice Video! Here in Germany, the TÜV which is a governmental agency which has to approve EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING from Chairs to Roller Coster. Anyways, there were know to be so good, that nobody had any doubt over anything wich was approved by them, because they had professionals in all Categories, So after the Crash, the TÜV got in trouble, and liftet his security standards even higher, which most people thought wasn’t possible. The ride is from a German manufacturer, that’s why the TÜV came over, to check it. Great Video! Love you’re content!
In my opinion most of this could have been reduced by a simple pin board of each train having a pin and simply moving that pin from the in depo to on track part
Another thing they apparently did was change the design of the cars, to add stronger crash protection at the front so that - should the cars ever collide again - the resulting collision should be safer and the cars wouldn't crumple onto riders. I don't have a source for that information, but I definitely remember it being reported at the time. This was something that a lot of roller coasters had anyway, but the design of the smillers cars were much more boxy and didn't have this, hence why the people in the front row had such bad legs injuries
Thanks for the clear explanation and I honestly feel so sad for the people on that ride. I only found out about this incident today and after watching a few videos of the actual scene happening, my stomach feels sick and I feel horrible for the people who were on that ride, no one should have to experience that. As for the employees, shame on them for not doing extra safety measures or notifying other people about the additional 5th cart. Honestly, they should have shut the damn thing down after something like that or at least been sued more money for 2 lost legs and serious injuries. On top of that, those people are likely traumatised and will likely never ride a coaster again thanks to the stupid employees.
One question, I missed this, did the trains collide because the front one rolled back? Or did the back one just catch up to it because of the wind and weight?
The problem is Theme Parks are easier jobs to get As they are minimum wage and require no GCSEs This attracts teenagers just leaving school as they are easy to get But no one stays due to minimum wage So teenagers work there and then some older people with no where else to go
It does make me wonder, with how quickly technology is being innovated, how long it will be before roller coasters are fully aware of where every train is, down to the meter? It's honestly not that difficult, combining a number of technologies, like in track sensors, GPS in the cars, strain gauges in the track supports. The computer should know where every car is in real time.
I remember clear as day hearing about the smiler opening and begging my parents to take me to Alton Towers for my birthday so I could ride it. I remember it so well because it was my first experience riding seriously scary rollercoasters with loops and such, I rode it 3 times that day. Around a year later the crash happened and it was terrifying to think that could’ve been me.
I know its just the way you phrased it but that sounds so insensitive. Thats like saying I was in one of the twin towers 1 year before 9/11 that could have been me!
@@b3coasters thankyou! If you're still there 😂 could you explain briefly what you meant by "ghost train" I think I get it but I'd like some guidance if you can please
@@CartoonDinosaur. a ‘ghost train’ is essentially when the sensors which can be found all around the roller coaster think there is a train on that section of track, when in reality there isn’t. A ghost train is usually triggered by wind, rain, or even leaves on the sensors !
im actually heading to alton towers in afew weeks to go on the big rides as i have overcome my small fear of rollercoasters and was actually starting to get scared of the smiler for this very reason. probaly my autism acting up but this has got rid of those fears for me so thanks
I was scared of it for the same reason. It is normal to be scated of something happening like this. If it makes yo7 feel any better these crashes are very rare and your actually 7 times more likely to be injured by a vending machine than for a crash to occur. They have plenty of safety measures in place too.
I heard about this on the news back when it happened, and it was quite concerning. In 2023 I went to Alton Towers for the first time, but although my friends went on The Smiler I wouldn’t dare go on it. It was raining at the time, so it would be safer if it didn’t ride. Not only that, but the ride looked too intense for my level of endurance, and the laughing was getting on my nerves.
Even though this happened i still went on it though was left with extreme dizziness the rest of the day its excessive and the most craziest ride ive ever gone on 🤟🥺
they should add keyed switches around the coaster that you need to physically walk to to be able to clear a block section. If any of them just went out and had a look at the track this wouldve never happened.
The ride I work on has 8 blocks (7 without the matinence area) and any time matinence overrides, the trains either have to be deboarded, or the location of every train has to be confirmed. We also don't cycle with passengers until the test train has returned, ever. A few minutes of waiting is worth the safety it ensures.
I'm not sure if it's true or not, but I was told by a friend who used to work at the park around that time that one of the young girls( I forget which one now leah or vicky) had their leg amputated at the scene by an emergency surgeon before being moved to hospital. I'm not sure how true that is myself although see the damage at the time to the train I believe it's entirely plausible given the situation.
Hello how hard is it to check to see if the track is clear before overriding anything come on common sense people everyone is at fault the ride operators and the maintenance workers .
But rides should have devices to prevent it going wrong in the first place in this case a car rolled back and stuck in the path of the next one to be sent this should of told the computer to stop the next launch in case the new worker is on their phone.
@@humansrants1694 The Smiler does have devices on it to prevent things from going wrong, the ride was stopped but because the worker wasn't told a 5th train was added, they just assumed it was malfunctioning, and that's only one of the many unfortunate events that lead to this happening.
Water dummies don't need to be added to empty trains, they are just for testing. An empty train should have been able to complete the circuit if not for the high winds.
I was wondering about this. Pretty much any day at a theme park will see a roller coaster have some down time and then all the trains sent round empty before allowing passengers on. But never seen any water filled dummies added to them.
Me from Germany was visiting a northern American amusement park for the first time two years ago and I was shocked about the standards and the staff. I left the park after two rides again
I don’t think you realise how much training we have to do and how much pressure we’re under from management. What happened here is rare, EXTREMELY so. We’re not just dumb irresponsible teenagers we have to do three hours reading per coaster a theory test, 8 hours practical, an assessment then a final test. We’re also incredibly over worked 10-12 hour shifts and mostly on minimum wage but we do this because we have an enjoyment for it what happened here is incredibly unfortunate and yes the ride staff were clearly in the wrong but don’t be scared off by coasters just because the attendees look young
Accidents on rides feel far too common across the world that I just don't enjoy them anymore. I was on a ride once with my brother at Skegness, I can't for the life of me remember the name but it's one of the ones where it's two or three people per seating row with only a single bar across your laps, all facing forward. The ride moves round in a circle and the seats bounce up and down. Well my brother had been worried about the basic material seatbelts coming undone (there was no buckle, you just had to tie it up) and the bar felt rickety at best. I assured him it wouldn't come undone and he'd be fine. Well the ride starts and after the first couple of goes round and the ride gets faster, it was my belt that came undone so all I had was my grip on the thin bar and my younger brother holding me. Every time I raised up out of that chair I felt like I would get thrown out. Told them afterwards that the belt came undone and that there's nothing to actually secure someone in place properly (a child would have easily got thrown out over the bar). They didn't seem to care. Never went on a ride like it since.
I would imagine the ride operators are on low pay, fast-paced work for long hours with little to no support like working in a call center - nobody really cares. Even if the person on shift cares, I doubt its up to them to resolve the issue. They could probably report it but if there is no system in place and somebody to actually listen and do something about it then it goes to show safety means nothing
The things you gotta know about accidents is that they're never caused by one single event, more because of a series of events happening. This accident wouldn't have happened if: -Alton Towers took down the ride due to the winds being too high, -The empty car being weighted with water dummies when it was being cycled through -If maintenance was notified about the 5th train being added -If maintenance didn't overide the block break. Legit if one of these things had happened, the crash would have been prevented.
Can you imagine how those people on the fifth carriage were feeling as they saw the remaining coaster do a loop over them knowing full well it would hit them very soon
cant be scared of the ride when it was human error. despite this though its good that instead of just blaming human error and moving on with it they still implemented further safe guards to protect against such situations.
Dividing blame is ridiculous. The Swiss Cheese model points out that disaster is often cumulative: any one layer missing can cause the crisis, several just double up the OMG.
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