hi all,
i haven't posted for around a year or so, I've still been reading, just i haven't contributed much.
having read a post from this site,
https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/i ... 97/page-39specifically where a fellow ex-employee who has worked on the smiler has explained his view. i had the thoughts of what had happened and i think i have cracked it. this is just a theory so please don't send hate for what i have written.
this is what i wrote down earlier today to try and get my head around it.
What looks like has happened from an operators point of view
the smiler is quite similar in operation to TH13TEEN. although built by different operators, they are operationally and conditionally similar to each other.
i have today seen an account of a fellow ride operator on the towers times website. he explains about how the incident came about and what has happened.
i have therefore concluded that it is a chain of events that has led to the incident we have heard about.
i shall now list a hypothesis of what would have happened.
earlier during the day there was a technical issue which has been disclosed, but has not been explained. (technical issues happen all the time and can be from the trivial proximity error to something more serious)
this had led to the operator performing a reset where they had sent empty trains around the circuit. (to send empty trains on a ride like the smiler you would need to turn the trim brakes off as leaving them on would lead to a train to valley on the track. this has previously happened on the smiler in the same section as the incident)
i dont know if the trains involved returned to the station with no issue but i do know that after a reset you would realise your trains (check the locations of the trains on the panel/computer/cctv)
you would then reload your trains and continue operations, with the trim brakes on as leaving them off would be harmful to the guests who would go through inversions and banked turns too quickly.
the empty train(train 1) in question on the day of operation had left the station, the train(train 2) behind was loaded with guests.
train 2 had stopped on the first lift due to the system performing a ride stop. this looks to have been caused by train 1 not arriving at a block brake. you cannot see the area of track where the incident occurred/where train 1 had stopped
it seems that the engineer present had over ridden the ride stop. train 2 then continued off the lift into the block where train 1 had stopped. resulting in the incident that occurred on the 2nd june.
i hypothesise that train 1 had stopped in the block section due to the trim brakes being switched on in preparation of guest use. this had caused train 1 to valley. this would be one of the causes of the incident. (but i stress that this would still be prevented by the ride stop that the system had actioned)
the second cause and what seems to be the primary cause of the incident is that two members of staff (engineer and operator) had over ridden the ride stop causing the trains to collide in the block section.
the operator is therefore at fault for three things. firstly switching trim brakes on whilst empty trains were on the circuit. not realising their trains when the ride stop had occurred and finally cancelling the ride stop without first finding the cause of the stop
i hope this is directed sensitively as i can.
thankyou, if you feel I've missed anything or have any concerns that i have misunderstood anything please tell me