At 1:51pm on the 2nd of June 2015 at the Alton Towers theme park in the UK a
combination of factors lead to a fully-loaded car on the Smiler rollercoaster
crashing into an empty stationary car at speed. This incident was the worst roller
coaster crash in the history of the park and resulted in serious, life-changing
injuries for several of the passengers on board. It is down only to good fortune
that nobody was killed. The Smiler is a steel roller coaster manufactured by
Gerstlauer which opened in the X-Sector zone of Alton Towers in May 2013. The
track included a world-record-beating 14 inversions and was themed with several
special effects. These included hypnotic spinning discs, sprays of mist, and
flashing video screens - all things that according to the story behind the ride
were designed to manipulate guests into smiling. The ride was initially popular
despite a number of setbacks. During a press preview the ride stalled on a
vertical lift hill requiring celebrities and journalists to be rescued from the
train - a process that took several hours. This incident resulted in the opening
day of the ride being pushed back twice to the very end of the month,
frustrating many guests who had booked hotel stays specifically to ride the new
roller coaster. Once the ride had opened the issues continued. In 2013,
along with several incidents of cars stalling on the batwing element of the
track, nearly 50 guests were evacuated from the ride after a bolt fell from one
of the joints in the track causing a very small gap to appear between two
track sections. In a separate incident months later several plastic guide
wheels fell from one of the trains causing minor injuries to four riders.
These were, however, minor incidents compared to the one that would take
place on a sunny day in June 2015. The roller coaster had been operating
normally all morning despite blustery winds of 46 miles per hour. Guidelines
for the operation of the ride stipulated that it should not be
operated in winds of more than 34 miles per hour. Indeed, the high winds had
resulted in the closure of at least one other ride in the park. Shortly after
1:00pm a ride operator noticed a warning light indicating a fault with
the ride. Riders were removed at the station, the ride was temporarily closed,
and engineers were called to the scene. Until this point there had been four
cars in operation on the ride. Staff had been just about to add a fifth car to
the track to help increase rider throughput - a normal thing to do on such
a busy day. While engineers worked to resolve the fault staff added this extra
car. After dealing with the original fault, and then another that cropped up
right after, engineers were ready to restart the ride. They sent around an
empty test car which failed to complete a loop and stalled on the Cobra roll
section of the ride. This was not known to staff and, due to some confusion about
how many cars were on the track, engineers believed that the test car had
completed its circuit and the track was clear. The ride was reopened and a car
fully loaded with passengers was dispatched. Automatic safety systems
halted this train just before the cobra roll section of the ride. The computer
system indicated to operators that the track ahead was occupied. One engineer,
still under the impression that four cars in total were in use, concluded that
the stalled car which the ride had detected, was down to a glitch. He and his
colleague overrode the safety warning and set the fully-loaded car moving
again. It plummeted down through the loop above which it was held, entered the
cobra roll and smashed at speed into the stalled test car.
Passengers on board were left with devastating injuries, the severity of
which would be worsened by the length of time it would take to remove them from
the ride. It took around 20 minutes for the first call to emergency services to
be placed, and around 4 to 5 hours for rescuers to construct a temporary
scaffold tower beneath the ride in order to reach the injured parties. During this
time several of them suffered significant blood loss. All 16 victims
survived the crash and were transported to hospital. Two young women were forced
to undergo leg amputations due to the injuries sustained. To their credit
Merlin Attractions Operation LTD (who owned Alton Towers) cooperated fully with
the investigation that ensued. From the beginning they offered their full
support to the victims and took responsibility for the accident. A long
investigation concluded that it was down primarily to human error, but that
adjustments to the ride system would also have prevented the crash.
Merlin Attractions Operation was given a hefty fine by the Health and Safety
Executive. Multiple adjustments were made to the ride system and staff were fully
retrained. With these changes complete the Smiler roller coaster reopened less
than a year after the crash, in a move that garnered some severe negative press
for the park. It has, however, gone on to have a clean safety record since and is
now a popular ride within Alton Towers. If you visit the park you can even ride
it yourself. The Smiler will run for many more years. The park itself will continue
to welcome guests... but for the victims of the Smiler roller coaster accident life
will never again be the same.