People fear for their lives whilst something that happens all the time happens.
I'm addicted to Rollercoasters. I love the anticipation of the queue, the speed, the noise, the g-forces. To me there's few things more fun than being thrown around at intense speeds, around tight inversions, going faster and higher than I've ever gone before. My addiction goes beyond just riding them. I'm also in a Facebook Group dedicated to talking about Rollercoaster games, or Theme Park Simulation Games as they are more rightfully known. Today one of the group members wrote a post about this article.
Thrillseekers left hanging from Alton Towers' Smiler ride as it halted for 45 minutes 'feared for their lives' as one passed out
Just in case you are unaware, Alton Towers is one of four parks in the UK owned by Merlin Entertainments, a British based company who operate 127 attractions, 19 hotels and 7 holiday villages in 24 countries.[1] It came under some scrutiny two years ago after an incident on "The Smiler" caused two young ladies to have to need partial leg amputations. To cut (sorry) a long story short an incentive driven ride operator caused a crash by trying to minimize ride downtime following a routine test. I'm not going to talk about this much more, I only really mention it to ensure you know the actual and not sensationalised cause of this tragedy - Human Error.
The ride isn't perfect. In its first season open in 2013 there were five incidents, only two of which occurred whilst people were on board. The ride then managed to operate properly until the accident in 2015. The people who got on the ride yesterday probably knew about the 2015 incident. It filled the UK newspapers for at least a week so it would've been hard to miss it. But isn't knowing something's dangerous part of the fun? It's part of the excitement. I mean, you don't expect it to happen to you, do you? And normally it doesn't.
This is Coloussus at Thorpe Park, the previous holder of the record for most inversions.
Normally your day goes off perfectly. Last year approximately 1.98 million people visited Alton Towers. Only one incident at the park did the media find newsworthy to report and you guessed it, it was on The Smiler. It broke down on the lift hill, was stuck for half an hour. There were no injuries but people were terrified. Comparing last year's article with this years it's almost like the paper just recycled the content.
The funny thing is, everytime I've gone to a park a ride has closed due to some error or other. I went to Chessington five years ago with my Mum for a long weekend. It was the first time my Mum was going to ride a suspended, floorless coaster - the re-vamped Vampire ride. We were only in the queue for half an hour and as we sat there waiting to go, the floor having dropped from beneath us we heard a message over a tannoy "We are very sorry, The Vampire ride has suffered a technical glitch and needs to be closed". The floor came back up and we were disembarked by the very friendly professional staff members who, noticing my 60 year old Mum was looking a little nervous paid extra attention to make sure she was reassured. We came back to the ride an hour or so later, were ushered down the priority path and straight onto the ride. Next year she's going on Nemesis Inferno (suspended floorless with inversion). She'll be Sixty Six.
Error's like this have the potential to happen on a daily basis. Computers overheat and switch off without warning but like in most things we interact with there are fail safes in place which bring Windows back to life. We get an error message "Whoops, something went wrong" but your computer still works, your hard disk is still intact. When the switch on the Vampire ride blew and refused to let us move, I wasn't scared, I was reassured. I knew it meant that the safety measures in place were working. I realised that the systems built into the ride would probably prevent it from going again until a test run or two had been performed.
Which brings me to the crux of the matter. Articles like this one the Daily Mail has published aren't informative. They are written for shock value. They are written to scare you, to remind you the world is a scary place. It is articles like these that have caused people to "fear for their lives" and "pass out" in terror because of a minor technical fault. Maybe these people weren't in fear for their lives at all. Maybe they were pretending to get their park ticket refunded. According to 2008 data from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) you have a higher chance of suffering serious injury from a bee sting, snake bite, fireworks, tornadoes, electrocution or dogs than you have at an amusement park[2]. With so little chance of accident, why are so many people scared?
After any incident happens in a park, safety measures are reviewed and updated if need be. When a ride has been reopened after a major incident is most likely the best time to ride it. They can't reopen it without having had three pre-use inspections carried out by an independent inspector who has the appropriate Health and Safety Executive (the UK government's H&S department) certifications[3]. Your safety IS very important to them because without your patronage the companies that operate the rides can't operate.
[1] Information in this post is from the Merlin Entertainment Wikipedia Page and it's Children unless otherwise stated.
[2] Paraphrased from this article https://www.livescience.com/32759-killer-thrills-how-safe-are-amusement-parks-.html
[3] Here's a link to the HSE's guidance on the safe operation of Fairgrounds and Amusement Parks. If you've ever wondered about the H&S rules that apply to these companies, this is a great place to start. http://www.hse.gov.uk/pUbns/priced/hsg175.pdf
Yeh some of the media articles can be a little sensational.
I find it funny, the few parks i've been to the staff always tend to look miserable for a place that promises fun.
The younger me never would have done any of these rides but now you can't stop me. Go the priority pass!
It honestly drives me mad! I'm so glad it hasn't scared my Mum off of riding them :)