http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-smiler-probe-investigate-5878299

From that:

 

An ex-employee at Alton Towers said: “They need to investigate if the accident was down to human error rather than mechanical failure. There was the ­operator and five technical service guys in that control cabin.

 

“Apparently ­another member of staff called the cabin to warn of the stranded carriage. They have phones, known as A-phones, all around the ride with a button direct to the ­operator’s cabin.

 

“I believe someone saw that carriage and rang the operator but, for whatever reason, they appear to have dismissed the information.”

 

Disclaimer: The following is purely speculation, based on the above quote.

 

According to this, there were 5 "technical service" people in the control booth. Now, I don't know what kind of lingo Alton Towers uses among its employees, but "technical service" sounds like what we would call "maintenance". If there were that many maintenance people in the control booth, then that brings a few thoughts to mind.

 

One, that as discussed earlier, the ride may very well have been in maintenance mode, which in turn may have been the cause of the block system not working properly.

 

Two, that I think the blame for this accident is more likely to fall on the shoulders of someone (or two) in "technical services", rather than on the normal ride operator.

 

Three, that they obviously knew something was wrong with the coaster, yet apparently sent a loaded train anyway with safety systems quite possibly still disabled (see point #1), and thus I would not be surprised to see criminal charges against the person(s) responsible.

Tragically, a second victim has lost a leg.

 

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/alton-towers-crash-vicky-balch-has-right-leg-amputated-weeks-after-smiler-disaster-that-badly-injured-five-10349697.html

That is very sad to hear!  Praying for healing and peace for those effected.

I'm sorry to hear that.

On POVs of the Smiler ride, I've noticed the bumper on the back of the carriage is a relatively small round disc.

This perhaps is what V buckled the front of the loaded carriage and cost these poor girls their limbs.

Leah Washington lost her left leg, Vicky Balch her right. Look where they were sitting.

The carts' bumpers didn't seem meant for crash potential, just the polite bump action that occurred with Les Taxis.

Alton Towers rollercoaster crash causes Merlin profit warning

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33672357

 

another story

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/27/alton-towers-roller-coaster-crash-set-to-cost-merlin-entertainments-up-to-47m.html

Who could've guessed that one?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3207431/Two-workers-quizzed-human-error-Alton-Towers-horror-Engineer-turned-automatic-safety-lock-operator-let-truck-slam-stalled-carriage.html

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Pretty much seems to echo what everyone was saying before about the cause. 

And the saga continues..... 

A coaster should NEVER EVER run with people on it while in manual mode. NEVER. NEVER EVER. If it has to be run in manual mode, SOMETHING IS WRONG. 

Theme Park A Ghost Town, Two Hour Usual Lines 5 Minutes, Fast Track Booths Closed:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-theme-park-ghost-6175760

Uh oh.

I assume that even Geauga Lake was more packed than that on any given day in 2007...

 

Has this happened before? A park goes from being packed all the time to having barely any customers in just one summer?

Didn't even hear of this when a certain lone Six Flags star park had an incident with a coaster.. 
Or with another certain Six Flags midwest park with a Drop Tower ride..

This is a little strange only because of how drastic of a change in attendance this is.

Does anyone know the theme of The Smiler?  From pictures, it seems like they themed it to a machine-like construction.

Psychosis?

Whenever I see the logo I think of, oddly enough, the Cheshire Cat.

Theme Park A Ghost Town, Two Hour Usual Lines 5 Minutes, Fast Track Booths Closed:http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-theme-park-ghost-6175760

Terp Read the comment section of this article. The people commenting have mentioned that the park is as packed as usual. If you notice the photos almost everything (trees, Buildings, etc) has long shadows in them which to me means they were taken in the early morning. I can take some photos at Cedar Point during the ERT session that would make it look like a ghost town in the middle of summer if that was my intention. Now do I think attendance has dropped off a little bit yes. But this seems to be a story that is highly sensationalized for clicks and comments.

Edit: it appears the comment section was removed from the article (at least on the mobile version). I was linked to this article when it first came out at the beginning of the month by a friend. The comments were saying that there wasn't a noticeable difference in attendance or wait times and that this was a slander piece. That might be why the comment section is not available anymore.

^ There doesn't appear to be a comment section on the desktop version of the story either.

I guess it was a copy and paste article with the same photos from another website. Here is the link to it and check the comment section under 'best rated' and there are plenty of people talking about how the park was packed and high ticket prices haha.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3180987/Heading-Oblivion-Alton-Towers-quiet-thrillseekers-barely-queue-popular-rollercoasters-park-shuts-early-hardly-s-there.html#article-3180987

I knew I wasn't going crazy about seeing a comment section on this article.

Article writers hate it when you correct them. I remember a few years ago I went to an Indians game and the attendance was low. The next day Yahoo had an article up saying that not even John Adams (the dude who beats the drum out in the bleachers) showed up. I posted a comment saying that he was in fact there, and the next day the comments section was gone, and the article still said he wasn't there.

Does anyone know the theme of The Smiler? From pictures, it seems like they themed it to a machine-like construction.

From reading and looking at videos, it was a "Marmalizer"; a 'machine' that was invented to disorient and confuse it's victims that they were happy and not complaining and would accept things as they were. I suspect the designer wanted it to be like a government plot.

The roller coaster was built around something that looked like a spider, that had effects on each arm to make it more frightening, barrels of toxic 'smile' gas, and signs. Then there was a creepy laughing Willy Wonka-sequel theme song.

I got this from the net- there's and actual architectural out there about what spider arm went where and what it did.

To be blunt: I wouldn't enjoy being the ride operator.

As to the article about the empty park and the suspicious photos, I've been noticing that many modern reporters write what they wish to have happen, not the facts as they happen. I conspiratorially think they are part of the Marmelization process.

Edit: after posting this, I realized my avatar doesn't seem immune to the process.

^I must say that, somehow your avatar really looks happy and content with the status quo!

Owner says attendance down due mainly to the accident.

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/merlin-q3-theme-park-revenue-tanks-03-2015-9

Sounds like some previous posters who poo-poohed an article about lower attendance jumped to their own conclusions....

Never said that attendance wasn't down or going to be lower due to the accident. I just said it wasn't as dramatic as the article mentioned. It wasn't a "ghost town" as the article tried to present it as. The news article and their author used hyperbole to try and sensationalize a tragedy and generate clicks. A reasonable person would assume that attendance would drop after an accident of this magnitude. But one would also suspect that the park being closed for close to a week during peak visiting season while shutting down its marquee ride for the time being would also affect the bottom line. If KI closed Banshee or Diamondback for the year for mechanical issues would attendance drop? Or if KI or CP was shut down for just one weekend (Alton Towers was shut down for 5 days after the accident) during the summer would profit numbers for the park take a hit? I would assume yes for both of those questions.

I'm sure the Halloween events will bring in the people like they usually do, especially if they have a fireworks show. Their shows are always great.

As attendance plummets, 190 jobs axed:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3310643/Alton-Towers-axe-190-jobs-visitor-numbers-plummet-difficult-year-Smiler-crash-seriously-injured-five-people.html

I wonder if this is the beginning of the end for Alton Towers.

I hope they can fix this, personally.