The Smiler Incident Cause and Ride Re-Opening

It has been released today that the incident on The Smiler ride at the Alton Towers Resort was caused by human error. The ride with the Guiness world record for the most inversions in a ride crashed on the 2nd of June when an empty cart and a cart with 16 riders collided on the batwing element of the ride.

In a statement released by the Alton Towers Resort, it was said that the incident was the result of human error and the ride's safety system was overriden. When the ride reopens in 2016, the ride will have a whole new set of safety measures which will include things like more CCTV cameras, manual reset buttons and wind speed monitors (see image below) to monitor the wind speed around the ride area.

Here is the full statement from the Alton Towers Resort:

" The investigation concluded that the incident was the result of human error culminating in the manual override of the safety control system without the appropriate protocols being followed. The investigation also identified areas where protocols and the training of employees shoukd be improved. There were found to be no technical or mechanical problems with the ride itself.

Immediatley following the incident, the theme park implemented a number of improved safety measures across all multi-car rollercoasters to ensure that an incident of this nature can never happen again. On re-opening, The Smiler ride will also incorporate an extensive set of new safety measures, including technical improvments and enhanced training.An additional level of authorisation will also be added to the existing supervisory protocols to ensure that no manual override process may be completed without a senior member of staff authorising and being in attendence. The technical improvements include multiple additional CCTV cameras and additional manual reset buttons around the track which require staff to inspect each individual section to verify it is clear before authorisation can be given to restart the ride.

Alton Towers continues to provide help and support to all those who were on the ride when the incident happened. It has taken full responsibility for the incident and continues to co-operate with the on-going Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation. We are cinfident that lessons have been learned and that appropriate action has been taken to address all the issues raised by our investigation and we believe our core conclusions will be in line with the HSE findings.

Having completed all of the necessary steps, the ride, which has been closed to the public since June, will re-open in 2016"

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