ALTON TOWERS SMILER RIDE
CRASH DUE TO ‘HUMAN ERROR’
Human error caused the Alton Towers
rollercoaster crash in June that
seriously injured five people, the
Staffordshire theme park has said.
T
wo women – Victoria Balch and Leah Washington
– had legs amputated after the Smiler ride hit an
empty carriage on 2 June. Staff misunderstood
a shutdown message and wrongly restarted the ride,
an investigation by the park confirmed. No technical
or mechanical issues were found with the ride itself.
The ride, which has been closed since the crash, will
reopen next year with improved safety measures.
“A ride shutdown message was misunderstood by staff
at the ride,” an Alton Towers spokeswoman said. “This led
to a decision to manually restart the ride, overriding the
control system without appropriate safety protocols being
followed correctly.”
A total of 16 people were injured when the carriage they
were in collided with an empty one that had come to a halt
ahead of them.
Merlin Entertainment, which owns Alton Towers,
previously said all 16 would receive compensation.
Crash errors
Four people sitting in the front row were among those
most seriously hurt. The Health and Safety Executive said
its own investigation was “still ongoing”.
Alton Towers said it had followed “standard HR
procedures and taken the appropriate action” when
dealing with the staff whose errors caused the crash. A
spokeswoman said: “The outcome of this however remains
a private matter between us and any individual concerned.”
Merlin Entertainments said significantly lower numbers
of visitors to Alton Towers over the summer had prompted
a restructuring of the business which could see 190 job
losses following an 11.4% fall in revenues.
When the Smiler reopens next year, it will feature an
additional level of authorisation so no manual override can
happen without a senior member of staff, the theme park
said.
“We are confident that lessons have been learned and
that appropriate action has been taken to address all the
issues raised by our investigation.”
Source: http://www.hseinternational.co.uk/alton-towers-smiler-ride-crash-
due-to-human-error/
HSE INTERNATIONAL
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