DavPaz wrote:
Bloody hell, I was on the front seat of The Smiler on Saturday!
Jem and I went to Alton Towers a month or two ago, and I refused to go on the Smiler for two reasons:
1) I was feeling a little off after a dodgy breakfast at the restaurant near the main entrance
2) The ride's troubled history, with an unusually large number of incidents during its operational lifespan - including one where a wheel fell off and hit some people in the face.
Jem laughed at me.
I feel vindicated.
Today's incident raises some serious questions about that ride, and indeed rollercoasters in general. I always thought that the computers controlling these rides were failsafed up the wazoo and that it was impossible, barring failure of multiple redundant systems, for two carriages to collide - let alone at speed.