Four seriously injured after 2 carriages collide on Alton Towers ride

[SlaeUrAnus 16,111]

BREAKING NEWS: Four people seriously injured as two carriages on Alton Towers' £18 million Smiler roller-coaster collide with 16 people on board.
 

Sixteen people have been involved in a collision between two carriages at Alton Towers amusement park's Smiler attraction. Paramedics say four of those involved in the crash at the Staffordshire theme park were seriously injured. The accident involved two carriages - one containing 16 visitors and the other empty - which came together on a low section of the track.

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3107569/Two-carriages-Alton-Towers-Smiler-rollercoaster-collide-16-people-board.html

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Hope everyone is alright   

[Dawson 9,517]

my favourite rollercoaster, hope everyone is okay.

[A Beaverhausen 280]

OMG how scary, Pray everybody is ok!!! terrible news :(

[Dangerous Man 9,245]

It would not happen if they always maintained the ride. #blingNotThesafety I guess.

Anyway, glad no one died from the accident.

[Diamond Heart 4,400]

This is horrible :( I hope the people who were injured recover
I wonder how the carriages hit each other, like was it an error by the people controlling the roller-coaster or was it just a freak accident? 

[BlondeKingOfGGD 2,054]

Omg :O i LOVE this ride :/

I go to Alton Towers ALOT, so many memories.

I hope everyone is okay <3

[Minaj 607]

Wow, didn't expect this here in the UK. Something must have gone wrong with it. Hoping everyone is OK 

[eifulien 3,044]

OMG :X Giving me Final Destination 3 teas.... I hope everyone gets well soon. 

[Didymus 34,380]

"People unconscious, knocked out. Blood everywhere. It really was shocking."

Still don't understand how this happened though.

[monsterdreams 1,529]

I went on this last week! Hope all injured recover soon, tragic incident 

[Kabexuela 1,184]

Remember the mother who fell from the cart with her son who witnessed it?  That's just dreadful.  Wish my boss was ha tbqh 

[Quasi 11,035]

This is absolutely tragic. I love rollercoasters and it really frightens me that these accidents are becoming more common. Especially with The Smiler. Pieces of debris have fallen from it and trains have stalled......they really need to keep maintenance checks to a maximum especially with the complexity of this coaster. I hope everyone is alright and that something like this never happens again.  

[HighwayGuy 1,498]

I hope the victims get LOADS of compensation 

[Elizabeth 751]

I hope those injured are able to make a fully recovery and get some kind of compensation from this. It must've been so terrifying, I can't even imagine, you just expect to go on a roller coaster and have a good time, not end up in hospital. 

I do think however that some of the news articles have been exaggeratory about the safety of roller coasters. This wouldn't it stop me from going on The Smiler or any other ride. 

"People unconscious, knocked out. Blood everywhere. It really was shocking."

Still don't understand how this happened though.

​From what I read, there was a technical problem so they closed the ride temporarily and sent round an empty car, but then sent a car full of people round before the empty one finished it's cycle, the empty car stopped and the one with people in crashed into it. I'm think it's a mixture of technical fault and human error. 

[Giorno Giovanna 3,178]

omg, so instead of waiting that the test car came back safely they already send a car with people in it...isn't this pretty dumb and makes the sense of sending a test car kind of useless?