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

The bloke (27yo) who is in Coventry apparently has a punctured lung and fractured leg and has been named .... the 19 yo young lady is apparently from Lancashire and there is no further info as far as she is concerned

I can totally understand a standard emergency protocol for usual and run of the mill accident situations but a roller coaster crash is one of those things where you sort of know ambulances will be needed. You imagine there to be a red telephone in the operational ride booth that dials straight to 999 in such rare and horrendous occurrences. Surely a member of staff somewhere could see unconscious riders and blood covered people before 11 minutes had elapsed? I don't know. It all just adds to the horror of the situation really.

Good news that the 27 year old has not lost any limbs then, that is excellent news. I imagine he is in pain and will take a long time to fully recover but thank God his bad injuries were not even worse.

Not necessarily catty, responders could have been called to a 'ride breakdown'. First responders have been called to the Log Flume being stuck on the lift in the past.

As I say, the ride operators are most likely kids. You can assist from 16 and operate a ride in full at 18. To expect them to have reasoned thought at that age and in those circumstances is a stretch. The park is filled with young, seasonal workers. Whilst you or I would look at it and think 'bloody hell dial 999' they might well think 'follow protocol'.

Thanks for the update

Also worth mentioning workers are not supposed to have mobile phones on them in the park and I suspect communications in the ride station are limited to internal management, responders etc

I do feel very sorry for all the members of staff. It must have been very traumatic and it will stay with them forever. It can't be easy at all having to return to work after such a horrible accident.

I guess a 'fractured leg' can be in a pretty bad way but fingers crossed it can mend....

It is sounding better than it was. Its now saying that crash was at 20 not 50.

Hopefully they all make a full recovery, but it does sound like one has been very bady affected.

I've been thinking about this so much, and I don't know why, I don't know them, or anyone who does. But it's just so horrific, the ages of the casualties and the speculation around what their injuries are, with talk of limb and hand loss. Ridiculously the media reporting that one of them is a dancer makes it seem even worse (don't know why, I know that's illogical) and another just passed her driving test this week.

Really hope the reports of amputations are just wild media speculation. Just looking at the pictures of the carriage I would guess the two girls in the middle took the full force, with the guys either side having more of a one sided impact each. Awful. I just hope they all make as good a recovery as it is possible to do.

To the poster up thread who said a friend at the hospital said all 4 had limbs amputated at the scene - I agree with whoever said that whoever says those things needs to be sacked. Yes we all need to offload about work, but in these scenarios the people to offload to are colleagues, not acquaintances. In my experience, people who really do know, don't tell.

From what I've read, one of the boys has two broken legs, the other has a broken leg and punctured lung and one of the girls has had both of her legs saved.

But the other girl? Really hope they heal well

The other girl is described as 'critical' in the guardian

Critical, oh god that sounds awful. I thought the one badly affected would be double amputee and fractures but this sounds very serious indeed. Sending her good vibes

From what I read the critical one is the girl who's had both of her legs saved.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alton-towers-accident-critically-ill-5829569#ICID=sharebar_twitter

I find that Mirror article to be in pretty poor taste, especially one of the photos of her in it . I sometimes wish the media didn't report things like this.

I'm also surprised that roller-coasters don't have a 'buffer' of some sort on the front and rear of the trains. Okay they're designed never to have the separate trains meet, but as a 'belt and braces' measure.

My friend and I went to Alton Towers about a month ago and this was our favourite ride, though we had a whole conversation at the time about how utterly terrifying it would be to experience an emergency whilst in the queue - its designed to look and feel like a horror movie asylum - the whole queue is in these close, black cages - we couldn't imagine how scary it would be being in those cages whilst people were panicking.
My thoughts go out to those injured, of course, but also to those in the queue - apparantly there was blood everywhere and it would have been horrendous being in that caged maze when it happened

I just read that Vicky, the dancer, has had her legs saved, according to her Gran. Her lawyers say she is critical still though. No idea about Leah the younger girl. Hoping they are all slowly recovering.

asylum?! As someone with a history of mental health I find that insulting.

Still well done for at for closing for so long. Its 500k a day they loose but it shows respect.

They aren't closed out of respect, they will have a shitload of investigations going on and won't be allowed to open.

There was a statement released earlier say thing that they had been cleared to open but were choosing not to.

They are closed because the rides are not safe nothing to do with respect. I saw on the news that a member of the public pointed out to a worker that there was an empty train on the track and he was told it was nothing to do with him and to mind his own business. I hope the place stays shut for good.

It totally is out of respect. Its a huge place. They could easily put a fence round and reopen the rest of the park. Some good pr

Not if the rest of the park needs checking too. And it might.