rollercoaster crash at alton towers

[SoljaBonita]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32980354?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_breaking&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=icf

They had to build a platform first, to rescue them from, they would have treated those with serious injuries first.

It's upsetting. I love alton towers.

The staff had to try & stop people taking all these ghoulish photos.

Bump: They said on the BBC news a short while ago that the most seriously injured, 2 male 2 female, were only just rescued and had been there for over 4 hours 'in considerable distress'.

Injuries described as 'very serious'.

it sounds extremely grim.

The Sky news helicopter was somewhat unnecessary too. Possibly distracting for the rescuers to have it buzzing overhead and no doubt distressing for the victim's families to have live broadcast of their loved ones injured and trapped. If the victims were aware enough to know the news helicopter was there it might have added to their upset and helplessness.

My understanding from all the news reports was that the most seriously injured were the last to leave the ride although they were treated in so far as they could be in situ.

Yep catty I find Sky News to be one of the worst for their ghoulish reporting.

I can't believe some of the comments I've read about it anything from think of the compo to nobody died, no biggie. Ignorance is astounding.

This ride has been having problems since it opened. It breaks down or has a "technical problems" several times a day, and that's when they send the empty cars around to ensure that the ride is safe and can run properly before sending cars full of people around. They do this on all of the rides at AT and they don't usually send a car with people in on its way in it until the empty car has completed the track and is back in the station. This is what they did with the Smiler last summer when I rode on it, in fact the empty cars went past several times as I queaued for it.

From my understanding the empty cars failed to complete one of the inversions and rolled backwards slowly, and then the full cars smashed straight into the back of it.

I know it's early days but this sounds like a combination of human error and a fault with the ride. That one of the cars failed to complete an inversion is also very worrying, what if that had happened with people in it? Could have been even worse.

Goes to show how quick even 'reliable' media sources are to misreport

How do you mean, OP?
What has been misreported?

I assume OP is referring to Sky News mentioning the possibility of a fatality at the scene which the ambulance service refused to comment on and has since turned out, thankfully, to be unfounded speculation as all riders are alive, albeit some seriously injured.

Ah, I see! I was confused by the possibility that Sky could be considered 'reliable'.

Having been pressed by SKY for a statement when a major incident was unfolding next to where I work. they rang us up and were more or less urging us to make up dramatic bollocks about what we could see. Which was nothing.

It's completely horrific, i really hope those people make a full recovery and the suggestions circulating of amputation turn out to be untrue.

I just can't stop thinking about them

"Life changing injuries"

BBC has said that some of the injured have life changing injuries.

Dreadful.

My thoughts are with everybody affected.

sorry, app made me post too soon
I mean the bbc reporting injured as teens when they are now confirmed to be mid twenties

Unfortunately though, they were correct that a teenager had just died in that A&E. But he died as a result of a car crash earlier in the day, not this collision.

Local news are saying 3 teens one age 27.

Oh my god :(

Just terrible

I'm quite local, and used to work there, but not on rides. This has really upset me, knowing the park are so safety conscious normally, and yet this has still happened :(

I have been on the ride about 3 times and love it, but I'll be wary of getting back on now, especially in the front row. There's not a lot of structure to the front of the trains, as seen here (this is a promotional image of the ride cars, not from a news story about today, just in case anyone's wary of clicking the link)

I hope all those who were injured can make a full recovery, and hope the staff involved also receive some support from their employer.

We were at Alton towers today but as our kids are young we stuck to young rides and Dh couldn't be bothered to wait in the queue for the smiler as his dad didn't want to go on it either. fIL was in the towers at the time and was escorted out of the closed zone. Air ambulances landed Mtres from us on the lawn. We didn't actually know anything had happened until DHs boss rang him to see if we were ok.

I think a thought should be spared for all staffs emergency services workers today.
A young man died in a car crash not far from towers in the early hours of this morning, followed in quick succession by a devastating lorry crash which killed a 30 year old driver and closed a major road for the day. Not long after that event had ended another occurred on the M6 locally killing a woman and of course the smiler.

Staffs emergency services have had everything thrown at them today. My thoughts and thanks are with those workers as well tonight who I'm sure must have thought 'what's next!?' at some point today.

I didn't know the m6 was also a fatality (dh had to find another route home) thinking about it an ambulance went screaming past me up the d road heading towards the m6 at about that time.

The local news was one thing after another today.

Maybe the empty car didnt complete the inversion because it didnt have the weight of passengers.

Either way they shouldnt have been testing anything while people were on the ride - awful!

Another local friend has told me that her friend at the hospital said the front four had to have their legs amputated whilst still on the ride.

Awful if it's true.

Jesus Christ. I very much hope that is untrue. It's beyond the script of a horror film.