Ryan the Ride Mechanics thoughts on the Smiler crash at Alton Towers
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ค. 2024
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This week im going over the maintenance side of the Smiler crash at Alton Towers and my views on the subject. - บันเทิง
This makes me think of the accident on Texas Cyclone in 1983. This is my understanding of what happened: They were running one train. It was the end of the evening right after an in park concert so crowds started lining up for one last ride before the park closed. The ride ops crew decided to add the other train. No maintenance crew was required for this back then. The station and side track/storage shed (dead end) sit about 30 feet off the ground. The side track switch is right outside the station before the lift. They switched the track and manually pushed the train back into the station from the shed. Then they forgot to switch the track back. My understanding is that it required a person to step on a foot switch to hold it open and they used a board instead of a person. Procedure was to send a test run with employees. They sent the train out of station with employees and it went back out into the shed with the first two cars going off the end of the track and flipping over. It's open at the end because that's where they reload the trains as they would vally often. This killed one employee and injured others. This also was directly next to the main queue house so everyone witnessed it. Afterwards they rebuilt the side track into a loop, put in electronic controls and made maintenance handle trains.
So sad. The evolution or ride safety has been a long road.
I was on a behind-the-scenes tour at another Merlin park a few months after this incident and they were talking about how they'd had a huge upgrade of CCTV for all their coasters since the incident, so that the operators could see every inch of the track, as well as reviewing the procedures for all coasters that run with multiple trains out on the track at once.
A lot of people were saying to me "aren't you worried about going on rides after this?" and I told them, actually no, if anything it's probably safer now than it was then, as there would be a laser focus on making sure that type of thing doesn't happen again! I've ridden The Smiler dozens of times since then, and it's still as popular as ever.
Good answer
I believe the order was slightly different to what you mentioned. There was an issue with the coaster (due to the wind) which the engineers were already working on, the ride ops took that oppourtunity to add a 5th car, while the ride was out of action anyway. This wasn't communicated to the engineers who after fixing the issue put the first passengers on and then overrode the blocks because they could see "all 3" other cars and like others said, the valleyed car was obstructed by a support column. Great video though!
This was such a great breakdown on the Smiler incident. I also really enjoyed the anecdote about reseting blocks at midnight. Keep up the great work Ryan! 👍🏽
The smiler does have the alternate panel mentioned at 3:41, for the block where the crash happened the panel was located at the base of lift 2, once I heard the details of what happened I did a line of sight test and the stalled train was obscured by a support column, during the investigation process a box was added to the ride fence right in front of the crash site, I’m guessing it’s another alternate panel
I know plenty of rides with the right keys and sequence you can override those panel’s remotely. Not from that manufacture but I’m not sure what their program is either.
I agree, we should be the only ones to add/remove a train.
At the park I worked at there was a ride that could do a block-clear with just a login to the computer in the operatorbooth (should only be known by maintanance but quite a few operators knew it as well). Needles to say after the Smiler incident it got changed within the week to need the extra button press. Makes you wonder how many rides out there still have flaws like these.
12:50 this whole RMC bit is great, glad to hear you worked on that or at least helped it become real a little bit because just a minute or two before saying that you said most coaster protocols wont let switches happen with loaded trains whereas ive seen SteVe at CP switch with a loaded train in the brake run, having that 4h lockout is clever and that kinda thinking will make newer coasters just that bit safer, which is first on the list, before fun… of course
1.4 k views that’s awesome man you deserve it love the videos
Thank you
That video was awesome! Thanks Ryan!
Your welcome
The thing that got me about the Smiler accident was those responsible for getting it running just passed if off to management saying they were under pressure to get it open fast, that is surely No excuse to not be 100% sure on how many trains were on track and where each of them was. Not sure then go find out, not just rush it because 'were under pressure' when there are people on the ride and its there lives your putting at risk. And this is that very reason to be sure, so your boss gets angry with you over taking your time, much better that then cause life changing injury's
Or life ending.
Exactly. Don't get me wrong I have massive love and respect for those that operate and maintain the coasters I love, surely tho It's better to be overly cautious@@ryantheridemechanic
@@harrykim8060 yea. Too many people make the wrong decisions because it’s what the “boss wants” and that’s not right. It’s hard when people feel their job is threatened especially if they haven’t had an accident before. They have a false sense of security that’s it’s the right decision.
Yeah I see what your saying, it cant be easy knowing what the right thing to do always is (especially if they have never had anything like those circumstances happen before) and then to be under pressure to get it done in x amount of time. I can only speak for myself but as a coaster enthusiast I thank you and every ride mechanic for doing what you do. love the vids and hearing your thoughts and knowledge on coasters @@ryantheridemechanic
From what i remember, managers at the park were putting pressure on the ride crew and maintenance staff to get the ride up and running fast. It was building up a queue because its capacity is not good enough for the big park it's in. They really should have spent a little bit extra on an offload station
Management can our a ton of pressure on the maintenance department to get stuff back up and running but sometimes that pressure is interpreted wrong and people cut corners and skip steps in order to do things faster.
@@ryantheridemechanicI think they were going to get a decent bonus if down time was low.
We did block checks at SFMM
I would like to get over to Alton someday and add Smiler to my coaster riding resume.😊
This coaster regularly stalled at that same point. Multiple times I went to the park to try ride it and it was stalled there. Huge design flaw
Some parks require weight to be loaded on an empty train early in the morning.
Hi Ryan, I visit this park every weekend. I love your content.
Thank you! You must leave or bring food to go every weekend.
Your intro is ingrained in my brain from childhood 🤣🤣🤣
Same for me, I always loved that recording.
I work in process control automation and we'd refer to this as an interlock bypass. Normally only maintenance and supervisors have the credentials to bypass interlocks, but I've been at several plants where the operators figured out passwords and quietly bypassed interlocks for months. Thankfully I've seen no accidents like this one, but it's quite scary what an operator could do if they get access to the right password or key.
Most things are also guarded by physical key cylinders but that are not to hard to defeat either. It all comes down to procedures and enforcement at the park level.
Not sure what to think of that function that locks down the ride for four hours.
Yes, it would certainly help prevent accidents like on the Smiler to happen again. But what if the sensor detecting the train approaching the final brakes fails? The ride is in a safe state, and let's assume people disembark, the sensor is quickly changed out, and an hour later it would be totally safe to resume operations... but you gotta wait three more hours because of this. Hmmm...
It will reset with partial info so as long as it’s not gone your fine. All let’s say 8 sensors have to agree that nothing showed up after several minutes.
Texas Cyclone had a safety switch by passed that allowed the train w/ park employees fall 15 ft. killing 1. they were adding 2nd train to ride. train 2 instead went into storage shed and off track 15 ft. below. Walt Disney world had that monorail collision that killed driver.always watch your track + # of trains.
this incident is one of my worst nightmares. it was a huge series of screwups, will we ever knew the true cause, i doubt it, but anything that can be done to prevent it from happening again is a good thing, especially if it means having to evacuate the ride prior to any trains being added or removed. as a ride operator (previously not currently) if a train needs to be added or removed for whatever reason, i would rather shut the ride down and have maintenance do it to ensure this does not happen ever again. one thing that would be nice for ride ops to do is have the operators shadow the maintenance team and have the maintenance guys teach the operators what every single button does and when they get used, this way the operators can become more comfortable calling for maintenance when something happens or there is a question of safety with a particular operation, like removing or adding a train.
It sounds like their procedures were just too relaxed and didn’t have enough eyes on the track during an issue. Quite sad but it was a wake up call in the industry for sure.
@@ryantheridemechanic no argument here, when i worked at one of the legoland parks, they told us about the incident, and yeah that is something i never want to see ever, but it may happen at some point if we are not vigilant.
Maybe I'm a little paranoid but I would want a visual with eyes not monitors. on all my trains before doing a rest anyway. It's kind of amazing they didn't notice the train didn't come back. I guess it proves why Coasters like Millennium Force with out a mid course brake are safer. A train can't launch until the three are stacked behind each other. Accidents happen but how do you miss a multi ton train not returning.
Well on this case they didn’t know it was there. Maintenance put 3 trains on the track. When they showed up they saw all 3 trains. Ops didn’t tell them they added a 4th train. And that ride area has to be hard to see because it’s all twisted and covered. Not trying to justify, just stating what happened.
Millennium Force doesn't necessarily have to stack all 3 trains. They can dispatch a train with another out on the track. The dispatched train will stop on the lift if it nears the top and the other train hasn't entered the holding brake. In reality, trains can't really dispatch that quickly anyway anymore since the lift has been slowed down a bit, and it's pretty normal for all 3 trains to stack.
@@BamaRailfan I am starting to think it's park policy to stack and only go one train at a time on course. With the exception of Maverick. I seem to get stuck out waiting a lot. Also, the bad press they are getting around here if a train has to stop on the lift hill is ridiculous. At least once a week we hear one had to stop on the lift hill. It's usually because a cell phone was spotted. Only 1 was a ride evac.
@@ryantheridemechanic That ride must have bad capacity issues to need 4 trains at once or people across the pond don't like to wait 2 hours in line. Not looking forward to 4 hour wait for the newish CP attraction.
@@LTCoasters idk..Magnum and Steel Vengeance always try to dispatch before the train on the track stacks. Even Gemini does this sometimes even with only 2 trains on each track when the crew is on their A game. I've had that a few times this year on Gemini where we just coasted right into the station.
Smiler is a Gerstlauer infinity coaster. The block zone reset is a 2 person system. Needless to say, at some point during the reset, the HMI has "Block zone reset, have you verified the block is clear" if the block is clear, you press the 2 dispatch buttons to confirm. A second message is displayed, "Are you sure the block is clear" If the block is confirmed as clear, you press the 2 dispatch buttons again. Each time the dispatch buttons are pressed at the main ops panel, the guy at the block zone panel also has to press reset to confirm, when the lights are flashing. On each block zone panel, on every Gerstlauer coaster is a message "Ensure the block is completely clear before pressing reset".
The full court summing up on the incident is available in the link below, and trust me, it is way worse from an operating perspective than you can imagine. In engineers chat, it was a cluster f***
This is not common knowledge of the incident as the media were concentrating on the 5th added train, as this was the excuse given by the maintenance team, but a first train stalled in a different block, due to the wind and they had to manual recover it and reset the block. The same thing happened on the second train where the vehicle stalled in the valley, again due to the wind. For some unknown reason, the second reset of the ride was done without checking the block zone was clear as the team assumed it was a ghost train from the prior stall. Even though there was a train stuck on the previous incident, and that the wind was blowing very hard, they did not assume the same thing could happen again in a different place. The guys then sent the train over the top, with guests onboard. Train counting is important but even more important is checking the track is clear and you check every block is clear, especially valley points, and not just the block with the issue.
www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/r-hse-v-merlin-attractions-operations-ltd-sentencing-remarks.pdf
The ride worked correctly and did what it was supposed to do. It was a bit of a catastrophic situation from a human perspective but the HSE blamed merlin groups management, training and supervision of staff.
I was at a park 50 miles from Alton towers that day and the wind was a constant 50mph, with gusts over 70mph. I also had a train stall in a valley without guests during morning checks, and I told my guys to leave it until it was safe to go and recover the vehicle. There were bits of rubbish and twigs blowing all over the place.
In about an hour I must have had 10 phone calls, "When can we open" and the response was always the same, when the wind dies down, and it is safe to recover the vehicle. We all sat down for lunch and the news came through about smiler. Our Managing Director came across and said, "Thanks for being a stubborn bastard, those poor people at Alton towers, it sounds like it's a bad one " I said, "You're welcome, Next time don't call me every 5 f***ing minutes asking for your ride to be open in a hurricane, especially when there are hardly any guests due to the weather warning". There is always pressure to open a ride and I have to be honest; I have nearly bent to pressure a few times, but I always have the "What if we kill someone", moment, and I always double check to make sure.
Smiler should not have been allowed to run in the conditions of the day and I can fully understand the pressures of keeping uptime, but the 2nd June 2015, was one of those "nope" days, when the safety of the staff and public should have been priority. It was a bad day all round for the UK ride industry, but it was a timely reminder to the theme park industry of what is at stake when you get things wrong.
Did you know that first gen SLC and Boomerang coasters used to have the same control box/PCB? We found out when we got a block section lock-out on the boomerang 😅 like hell where could that second train have come from? 😮
(Ofcourse it was caused by a faulty proximity sensor....)
And yes, we did get a new controller PCB after a few times... Gotta love prototypes 😊
Ow and no, there was no option to reset the blocks on the boomerang. We had to uncouple the ride from mains power, fix the fault and then hook it up again and hope it would work😅
@@HaroldKuilman yuck
Everytime I got to alton towers, I hear someone instantly talking about the crash in the car park as soon as I get there. Though clearly hasn't put many off riding it as can still get 120 min queues on busy days
Yea it’s hard to outlive bad accidents. Even when that ride era removed in the future who knows how many years, people will still talk about it. They could tear down the park and build a different one 1000km away and People will still remember that accident. It sucks
Putting a ride to bed, I've often wondered about that procedure. Maybe a good future video idea.
And waking the ride up in the morning!
I would never use a screwdriver to jam down a button, I only use zipties😅
You care for the aluminum guard mor than I do haha!
Just started the video, but slight suggestion to get a “lav mic” that pins to your shirt collar. It will make the audio quality much higher! But it does take a bit more processing in post
Yea I’m still having inconsistent mic issues. Most of the time I’m too far away granted. Then sometimes I test prior to recording. Sounds great then I record again and it sounds off. I’m slowly getting ahold of it though. I really don’t want to record an unscripted video twice. It looses thing in my mind. I keep trying though.
@@ryantheridemechanic Most people I’ve seen either have a really nice mic that’s external, or use a much more affordable lav mic to make the audio pop much more. You could always get the lav mic and use the onboard mic if it proves too bothersome or hard to edit. Not trying to knock your content- I love it! I listen sometimes while driving though and I have to crank it up or really try to decipher what I hear. The problem isn’t as bad with headphones on.
@@mrlindsay123456 I find as I use my hands more I get further from the mic it’s just sitting on the desk. So I now max out the sensitivity so it picks up more and it seems my last video (six flags recap) worked well I think.
Can we get a video on how you get a train that’s valleyed back in service
Thanks
Yes. Not much to show but I can talk about the process.
Great Video as always. Hearing that a coaster at my home park's B train has been running nearly 5 mph slower than the other train for most of the season. Any idea what could cause this? Also, second question, Joker at discovery kingdom valleyed on the pre-lift section. Would the control system lockout be setup for that pre-lift/lift block zone?
So maybe the train came out of rehab that slow? If that’s the case maybe the wheel compound was a changed to a softer Wheel. Less speed wheels used? Grease should have broken in my now but it’s possible.
2- the block lock out was installed on the run track only. All other areas on the ride had high visibility and the need to block those areas was really low. But if you loose a train in the maze of run track that’s where this problem could lye.
@@ryantheridemechanic Alright, that's what I figured for joker. Thanks for responding!
I was just wondering once a train valleys. How do you retrieve it from the valley and return it to the station? Thanks love your channel.
Oh and can you make a video about it.
@@jmac7640 there’s no video or pictures of the process because it’s something you want to forget for sure. I do explain briefly the subject on my “weather” video but I’ve been thinking about making on in that instance as well. So: yes! I can make it just not sure what the end product will be.
Depends on where you are. Some time you can pull the train to the next highest spot and let it continue. I’ve had to take them apart normally.
I always here you talk about "work culture" problems on your channel. Would this be considered a work saftly "culture problem" in your opinion at Alton Towers? Thank you.
It’s a problem that if encouraged, could have been prevented. But like most, it was a perfect storm of events. In the end, it was preventable. I think they should have had something in place to where regardless of ops, maintenance should have known how many trains were on and accounted for them.
Or like you mentioned (I think) where the PLC automatically kills a ride for 4 hours after an event like this. It just seems (and I'm not a professional in this field) that on top of all of this it was to windy to even have been running the ride in the first place. That responsibility should fall on the operations manager if I'm not mistaken. Thank you for the response btw, totally dig your channel man.
@@KevinField-yv6tb thank you! I really enjoy making content any talking about how rides work!
The 2015 one?
Yes
just a few years late
People kept asking me for it so I’m happy to make their request.
I was in a coma for eight years so this is very topical for me
Do you by chance know why trains bump? Steel Vengeance, Orion, and Valravn, specifically. I believe SV was due to the brakes not being strong enough, but what about the other two. Apparently they were programmed by a different company than Cedar Fair's previous B&Ms. Is it always a braking thing or is it a programming screw up?
In this case it was because the mechanic erased the block with a train in it.
It can happen due to block resets being performed incorrectly, but as touched on in the video too, it can also happen at lower speeds when moving vehicles in manual mode on some rides with non-complete block systems or less strict safety systems. For example, some attractions (e.g: a shoot the chutes ride) might have blocks for high-risk/speed sections of the ride such as lift hills or drop sections, but no proper 'strict' blocks in low speed areas such as stations where position sensors are used in conjuction with the drive tyres/brakes to stop bumping without using a full block system. In this case, simply jogging a drive tyre (or similar) in manual mode could, on some models, cause a bump without a block being reset. However, this wouldn't be the case on a typical modern coaster where the ride would have a complete block section. Overparking the stopping position in the brakes can (very) rarely happen, for example if it's very wet, but there is a decent gap between each stopping position to account for this, and sensors that will detect an overpark in the brakes. I honestly couldn't see how a bump could happen on a modern coaster without some kind of human error.
@@InsaneCoaster you got it. Most new ride try to eliminate human error but it can still play a factor. I know I could bump 2 train on a mid 90s SLC in manual mode. Even with the block ahead occupied I can manually release the brakes from the panel. One of the reason they don’t want maintenance in any other mode but automatic with guests on the ride.
The Steve one I'm sure because of sufficient lack of braking force on surprisingly heavier train. Remember this bump happen on opening days.
Also the same reason for ALL of the problem from Steve, ironically mirroring the problem from Son of Beast. Skyline just build their train way too heavy from specification
I think that when the Yankee Cannonball at Canobie had a collision in 2001, they were running two trains with completely manual operation, nothing like an automatic block system. The operators just screwed up. After that they went to one-train operation only (and the lines have been long ever since).
Is that batman at Astroworld on the wall?
Behind me? It’s actually big thunder and Matterhorn from Disneyland.
Always bugs me when Alton Towers fanboys blame 'human error' for the accident. The systems shouldn't have allowed humans to make such dangerous errors. In addition to changing process and adding cameras they also added an additional panel near the location of the accident. Humans will always make mistakes and more can always be done to keep guests safe.
It’s kind of like Jurassic park. “Life will find a way” well in amusement parks, people will find a a way.
Typically you just have to worry about people jumping a fence to get their phone they were told not to bring on the ride.
That’s why this crash was so earth shattering because it was a laps in procedure and judgement. Should of, would of, could of, is always so loud after a legitimate accident. Ride engineers have spent almost literally their entire life trying to prevent these accidents.
is Smiler made by Mack? you're over 2k now
So cool right. It’s not it’s actually a Gerstlauer. But very hard to tell apart in my opinion. I know at new parks I find myself either on google or roller coaster database looking at info.