Two Carriages Crash On Alton Towers 'Smiler' Ride

Breaking news story , 4 people have been seriously injured in an accident on the Alton Towers Smiler Ride carrying 16 people.

In a statement, Alton Towers said: "There has been an incident on the Smiler this afternoon involving two carriages coming together on a low section of the track. One of the carriages was empty and the other had 16 guests in.

The resort’s fully qualified first responders were on the scene immediately to assist with the evacuation which is ongoing, and the area has been closed to allow for access to emergency services vehicles.
news.sky.com...

Eyewitness Ben Richardson said: "When the second carriage crashed people were screaming and shouting - even after it stopped. Everyone around the park ran over.
"The people looked significantly distressed. It was almost like a car crash, very full on."
www.bbc.co.uk...

Fingers crossed for those injured in the accident , more news as it comes.

Amusement parks do have a pretty good safety records and as far as I can remember there hasn't been any serious incidents at Alton Towers. Rollercoasters have all kinds of safeguards built in so I wonder if there is some human/servicing error.

a reply to: hotel1

The report says it's on a low section of the ride , having looked at videos from the ride the only section I can think the collision could have happened is at the end of the ride , I suspect some kind of braking failure.

I agree it is very unusual to hear of problems at Alton Towers but a look around youtube shows this ride had a problem in 2013.

Now that looks scary.

a reply to: gortex

Any injuries in 2013?

I was on it not that long ago and I can confirm it is indeed scary. My mate point blank refused to get on it despite being happy to ride everything else in the park - it's a pretty intimidating looking piece of engineering.

It has multiple cars running on track at once so you experience lots of near misses as the track twists around itself. I guess brake failure (or the opposite causing a car to stop mid-ride) could be responsible?

a reply to: hotel1

Not that I'm aware of.

The BBC has updated the story and have a witness statement that sheds a bit more light on what happened.

"It wasn't very high but it was obviously high enough for them to cause some quite serious injuries to the people that were on the rollercoaster.
"They literally had come back off and round the back of a loop, and straight into another empty coach that had been stuck.
"There was a big crash, and I think there were quite a few people that were angry cos they said that they had told the staff that the coach before had stopped but they hadn't actually called through."
www.bbc.co.uk...

So it sounds like another ride malfunction , it's had a few since it opened.

A group of 16 journalists were left dangling on it at a steep angle as they tried out the rollercoaster before it opened to the public.

The ride shut for four days in July 2013 after a piece fell off the track, and 48 people had to be rescued.

It closed again in August 2013 for five days due to a "technical issue".

In November 2013 it closed for five days after wheels fell off and hit four people in the front carriage.
The injured people were looked after by park staff and did not need treatment by the ambulance service, a spokeswoman said at the time.
Riders were also left stranded in the air when the ride ground to a halt at the top of a near vertical section 14 months ago.

I feel this latest incident will be its last.

I heard that amusement parks have more insurance on the carousel than on their coasters. And I so love those roller coasters.
It happens. Lucky this time no one was killed.
We can't worry about it. No one would ever board a ride if they thought too long and hard about it.

According to latest reports the injured people are still trapped on the ride , the 4 seriously injured people are teenagers with what paramedics describe as serious leg injuries.

a reply to: gortex

A guy on here from Scotland and another who is a national welding guru I know really opened my eyes to some of the quality issues at these parks... Particularly the welds. The design is flawless but those manufacturing cut corners. (Obv this error isn't weld related).

a reply to: gortex

I remember the first time I went to Alton Towers going on one of their wooden roller coasters. It scared the # out of me... I can still hear the wood creaking to this day. Needless to say, I went on it once and only once.