Untold story | The Smiler accident

When I first started uploading theme park content, a bit of a pattern emerged where people would comment negatively about my smiler videos to the point I actually started to delete some of them!
This made me want to read up about the accident as a lot of what people were trying to tell me in my opinion, wasn't the truth but what was put forward in the media.
The HSE court case reports were incredibly interesting and actually contained a few points which I didn't realise had occurred. I hope this video gives better (and factual) information compared to other videos on the internet.
Report:
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u...
If you enjoyed this video, please consider subscribing and supporting my channel!
Timestamps
0:00 - Intro
2:29 - The Smiler rollercoaster
5:15 - The day of the accident
10:41 - The court verdict
15:15 - My thoughts

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

I created this video specifically related to all the hate I’ve received on shorts videos since I started my you tube channel. I didn’t realise just how many people still had so much hate for the ride based upon inaccurate media attention. Hopefully this video, based on factual statements from the court case reports give a more rational understanding of what actually happened. Also, I’m a business owner. I know first hand that any reputable business would never knowingly put its customers in danger due to greed.

[@PhillipParr]

As a species we're quite gullible and that means we tend to want to follow others, but also go along with conspiracy theories even when they're completely crazy. Most corporate related conspiracy centres around greed and how a business wants to do anything to extract money from us, and so are painted as a faceless entity that's very happy to poison the water for profit. But it completely ignores the fact that all businesses are run and staffed by humans, and on an individual basis we're usually quite agreeable. There is no profit in a bad reputation or from killing off your customers.

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

@@PhillipParr gosh I’m so pleased to read a comment like this. This is exactly my point. I do believe theme parks can be greedy but in terms of the smiler, they really weren’t skipping corners for the sake of saving money. It was a tragic accident - nothing more, nothing less.

[@PhillipParr]

@@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills I remember watching this at the time, and the grilling that poor Nick was given, even though he came across as extremely reasonable.

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

@@PhillipParr I can’t believe people are still very emotive over it all.

[@dobieshep]

The Smiler is indeed a safe, well-engineered roller coaster made by a reputable manufacturer. There is absolutely no one else to blame for this other than the staff, the engineers, and the management. Had there just been any moment where someone took an extra precaution and physically looked at the entire track, it would have been noticed. These poor victims who likely saw the stalled train and knew they were entirely helpless as the ride ops sent them into this accident. Computers worked like they were supposed to. Any fault needs to be manually investigated and cleared.

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Couldn’t agree more with you. In the reports there was a lot of employee statements blaming management/staff/lack of training etc but there does come a point where we also have to take responsibility for ourselves and make sure as employees, we aren’t doing anything that we are uncomfortable doing from a training perspective.

[@jonny-b4954]

@@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills Yeah, doesn't take in depth training to know you should probably check the track when trains have been dispatched and operating and you have a fault or block brake stop. They should have known just from being modern 21st century people, that the computer almost certainly wasn't wrong.

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

@@jonny-b4954 I totally agree.

[@witchy90210]

The ride seems to have been working absolutely fine. It did what it did to do, ad stopped things when and where it was supposed to. This was pure human error and miscommunication.

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Agreed. There probably was a lack of training in place. It seems to be a common problem in businesses (I experienced it myself) - but that’s when we as employees need to stand up to those in management whenever we are uncomfortable. In the reports there was a lot of comments like ‘feeling pressured’ and things like that. That type of anxiety is generally a recipe for disaster.

[@aquinna]

Well said. It's very refreshing to hear a fair account these days. I'm sorry about what happened to you involving your surgery.

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Thank you! I wanted to just create a factual video because there’s a lot of inaccuracy on KZbin (probably because people get their information from the media which are more often than not inaccurate). Thank you for the care - the surgery situation wasn’t good at all. Apparently I was a ‘victim of the times’. Not great but you just have to live life don’t you.

[@bevking5787]

I believe Smiler is safe. I have been on it several times over the past few years. It is my 17 year olds favourite x

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Me too! It’s totally fine. I got a shock when I started posted on social media that so many people think it should be shut down. The amount of written abuse I’ve received from people was a bit of a shocker. That’s why I took interest in the case as I wanted to fully understand what actually happened. I didn’t realise that the block stop had a second protection over ride button. That was news to me and wasn’t really reported in any of the news/media.

[@iNinBreak]

when i heard at the start that people where mad and that it should be closed i was wondering what happened that people responded like that but being 10:56 into the video i still dont see a reason to close it down i only see reasons to increase safety protocol

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

I feel exactly the same. I wish I had saved the actual comments as they happened both on Facebook and you tube, but when you ‘block’ people, those comments disappear. One Smiler short I created on you tube got that much hate that I actually deleted it. I think it was the media. As I said in my conclusion, the media just fed off the situation to scare the general public as that’s essentially what generates money (drama tends to get more views).

[@Snexzyy]

Thank you for giving a fair account of the story and giving so much information!

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

You’re very welcome! ☺️

[@Matty-B-on-an-MTB]

After riding the Smiler for only the first time last year, '23, i have since ridden it many times , often multiple times in one day and I absolutely love it. Curiosity of what happened in 2015 has lead me to investigate the incident (word incident chosen very carefully!) and how it happened, although i have never felt unsafe on this ride. I must say, of all the videos i have seen i feel your's is the most encompassing and i couldn't agree more that there is no issue with the ride. My opinion does not differ from yours, but one thing you said that really struck home for me, was your comparison to cars and road incidents which can be life changing (not ignoring your comment about how surgery has left you with your own issues). This, i absolutely couldn't agree with more. I have had first hand experience of Road Traffic Incidents, but i have never called for cars to be banned. I feel, given the findings of the inquiry, the same train of thought should be applied here - it was a horrible accident but the ride itself, troublesome as it may sometimes be, did everything it was supposed to do. It really was the human interactions, or lack of, which caused the incident. I absolutely feel for the victims of this incident, i can't imagine how this must have impacted them, mentally as well as physically, but this incident has made theme parks and coasters a much safer environment for all. I simply hope that complacency doesn't creep back in as this incident falls deeper into the history books, or gets swept further under the mat. Thanks for taking time to make a great video! Matt

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Hi Matt! Thank you so much for the compliments. I really tried to create as factual account as possible as I feel a lot of people base theirs on media reports which are often inaccurate or missing vital information. I also felt so incredibly sorry for the victims and this video was definitely not to make any excuses. As I said - no amount of compensation will ever be enough to replace the loss of a limb. Thank you so much once again for the compliments and for also sharing your own thoughts :-)

[@Matty-B-on-an-MTB]

@@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills Never trust the mainstream media! But that's a can of worms to open another time! My pleasure by the way, have subscribed, so you're now one closer to (another?) plastic trophy!!!

[@iLoveCamdy]

Did the smiler soundtrack get stuck in your head in the 2024 season

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Yes lol

[@iLoveCamdy]

@@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills it’s in everyone’s mind 😅

[@bonytv]

Yes!!!

[@iLoveCamdy]

@@bonytv oh hey

[@NonExistence2507]

@@iLoveCamdy I was born to smile

[@lloyd2312]

Great video. What I always didn’t understand training/communication aside was that even if a 5th train was added why on the operator’s track map it wasn’t showing irrespective of what mode the ride may have been operating. Normally you can see exactly where each train is on the layout.

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

In the report you could see that there was a lot of…how do I describe it. Lots of excuses. Chances are this ‘track map’ wasn’t paid attention to, just like the CCTV cameras weren’t. I didn’t actually see any reference to this in the reports. But Sometimes when your brain is convinced that something isn’t there, you simply don’t see it. They had most definitely convinced themselves that all trains were in the station and everything was fine. It’s a psychological phenomenon .

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Thank you for the nice comment! ☺️. I was a bit apprehensive about posting but I really wanted to make a more neutral dent on you tube, as there’s so many scare mongering type videos. One of them really got my back up 🫣.

[@RANDOMNESSofJP]

I appreciate this video. It's something i personally find interesting. However not one to try and find facts and read lots of information. So thankyou.

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

You’re very welcome! Tbh I love this sort of stuff and really enjoyed (and was shocked) when I read the reports.

[@BLHorsemanship1]

Very informative video Rach x

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Thank you so much Hayley! Xxx

[@iLoveCamdy]

I believe the smiler is safe Rachel 🙏

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Me too Olivia!

[@iLoveCamdy]

@@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills Rachel why do this video Just asking

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

@@iLoveCamdy a lot of people find it an interesting topic and most videos on you tube don’t give the full/accurate story.

[@iLoveCamdy]

@@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills oh ok thank you for telling me

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

@@iLoveCamdy in addition, whenever I post any smiler content I get a lot of hate!

[@chrisjohnsonadventures]

Great video I feel sorry for people lost there legs 😢

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Thanks for the compliment! Me too. No amount of compensation will ever replace the loss of a limb.

[@atomicsquirrel6457]

I am confused as to what dependency on automation has to do with this decision train. If they just followed the automated prompts, then the accident doesn't happen. The automation stopped the train, the automation told them where the fault was, the automation required a manual reset, the CCTV cameras showed what they were supposed to. People looked at one fact - they could see all the trains they "knew" were on the track. And yeah, that's powerful evidence. But the fact was that the computer was saying there was a fifth train. There was a fifth train that could be on the track, so they should have looked at the track to verify that the automatic systems were, in fact, in error. Is there some reason why they assumed it was a false reading other than the assumption that there were no more trains? And if the system gave them enough false readings that it was a thing, then why weren't they fixing that? In my humble opinion, this is under-reliance on the automation - we need to ask "why is this alarm going off," not conclude "oh, a false alarm."

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

They believed that the system was giving them dud information (like a lot of us do tbh - the classic ‘turn it off and on again’ springs to mind. Not once did anyone think to do a manual check with their own eyes. Spent too much time with their heads in the station and computer screens etc. That’s what I mean by a reliance on automation. I agree, I’ve not explained it well enough.

[@atomicsquirrel6457]

@@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills Fair. I'd probably just say it differently.

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

@@atomicsquirrel6457 point noted. Thank you for watching and spending the time to comment! ☺️

[@phillips2683]

The only coaster I’ve been on has been Disney World’s “Space Mountain”.

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

I’ve not actually been ok that one!

[@MichealCheesbrough]

the smiler accident i was there on the day in the que and loads of people saw the empty train leave the station and we saw it stall and we shouted out to alert the staff and many people are sad for the victim's of the crash . now I've rode the smiler over 500 times and al ways do it 4 times in a row every time i go there it's one of greatest coaster's in the uk apart from nemesis the smiler is very safe and if anyone puts it down because of what happened is sad and wont know what there missing i have managed to get 4 of my friend's on since then and now they love it and my cousins from USA love it to and say anybody who is scared of it should not be but i don't think there many people afraid of it anymore the que times for the smiler is mostly always 90 mins what does that tell you

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

It’s so sad to hear that many people in the queue line saw it but the employees did nothing about it. Makes it even worse that someone had to go out to push a button in the middle of the ride and they still weren’t alerted. It’s a classic case of tunnel vision. It’s crazy the amount of emotion that still surrounds the coaster. I just couldn’t believe it. I feel incredibly sorry for the victims as well. I totally appreciate those thoughts.

[@Trootsbloxplayzthemetalfan]

The Blackpool tower fire false alarm is just ironic or unironic

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

It’s definitely a good example of how the media blow things up to get attention.

[@Ryanlane05vods]

The thing that makes me feel sick is the fact it took 40 minutes for 🎉first 999 (911) call to be made

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Goodness me I know. That was absolutely disgusting. When I was reading the reports I got really tearful over it. That definitely should never have happened. The report does give some insights about why it took so long 😔.

[@h0td0gwater]

I wonder if it was perhaps upper management not wanting to make a fuss? Having worked in an unsafe environment before, I've seen how management can shirk responsibilities and pretend the issue is not a big deal. Speaking of, I was repeately admonished before for being "difficult" about not doing something I wasn't adequately trained for. The result was peer preassure and personal injury to myelf. They also refused to log my injury in their log health and safety log book thing, so all around bad practice. I think this is part of my bias against self-important managers with bloated egos😂 So take my wondering with a gtain of salt haha

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

@@h0td0gwater yep! When I read the report, that’s the sense I got. I know exactly what you mean as I’ve been at the hands of those types of managers - I’ll never do anything I’m uncomfortable with though - particularly if it involves the safety of other people. So that I never understood in this accident.

[@gogovideo10]

I can understand the public being upset that the ride is still operational to this day, I can understand the victims being upset about it too, but rationally, there is no real reason to get rid of The Smiler. The accident was not caused by any mechanical failure, it was human error. The ride behaved exactly as it should have and activated all safety procedures, which were overrode by the ride operator. I think that Alton Towers and the Merlin Group as a whole bares complete responsibility for the accident, they shouldn't be allowed to forget it, and it can never happen again. But at the end of the day, removing The Smiler won't prevent that, only quality staff and procedures can prevent that.

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Exactly. I still don’t believe Merlin should have been fully accountable. As I was reading the report I just couldn’t believe some of the things I was reading. Human error played a massive role BUT, the Swiss cheese model of accident causation does tend to get used and when this is used to explain an accident it almost always goes to higher level management (I.e the very big boys). Yes I can understand why people were upset it was still open but it’s not a rational thought process when there are tragic accidents on the road every single minute of every day. Its just because the smiler got a significant amount of media attention, which is why the general public feels the way they do.

[@iLoveCamdy]

❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@carmenparker1880]

Cool ❤

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

💜💜💜

[@CoasterExplorer12]

It’s been like 9 years why are people still talking about this nothings happend since

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Exactly what I’ve said in the video. Amount of hate I get for posting videos of the Smiler shocked me a bit. Like you, I thought everyone had moved on but nope - people still think it should be shut down and people shouldn’t be sharing videos of it. In addition there was also a video posted by a girl which received 2million videos in September last year which I disagreed with passionately in so many of her explanations. My video was meant to come out in December which went against what she said, but personal circumstances just halted that and the reason why I posted it later. I just hope it will give people a more rational/accurate understanding, rather than people on you tube boasting about how Merlin are greedy. The ride is dangerous. It should have been torn down and all that pointless jargon. I’ve had to delete quite a few shorts because I got sick of constant hate being bombarded my way. I just like posting videos of the smiler and people should be able to without dealing with mass scale negativity related to an accident that like you said, happened 9 years ago.

[@justachipofftheiceberg6313]

imagine being the person who pressed the big red button

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Yes I know. If that had been me, it would have stayed with me forever and probably would have needed counselling.

[@h0td0gwater]

So sorry for all the hate you've recieved as a result of speaking about the smiler, it's really not okay. I'm shocked every day by internet users' lack of media litracy and fact checking skills.

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Honestly I got such a shock. All I was doing was posting some shorts of the smiler. I was going to copy the comments and share on this video but they disappeared when I blocked the users. It happened on Facebook as well it was quite overwhelming.

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Thank you also very much for the kindness ☺️

[@iLoveCamdy]

I cannot believe that they are haters

[@iLoveCamdy]

19:42 your disabled Rachel? How come I can see you walking and talking? Lol

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

I’m not disabled physically with arms and legs. I have a medical condition that affects my life and it was mainly caused by botched surgery.

[@ballbag]

The accident wasn't directly the rides fault, but the ride is flawed either way. It stalled in that location so so many times leading up to the accident. The ride was very misaligned when built and they had to modify lots of it to fit together. Shortly after opening it was snapping bolts holding the track together and these were falling down on people. Now it's just a rough, filthy ride.

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

In the report, every inch of the track was checked meticulously and honestly, nothing at all was found. I do believe the report and I don’t think it would have been ‘rigged’ to protect Alton Towers. I mean, look at Fury 325 where a part of a support actually cracked. Things do happen, just like any machine (car, aeroplane etc).

[@ballbag]

@@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills The ride's design is flawed when it keeps stalling in the same location. Shouldn't happen on such a modern ride!

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

@@ballbag I see many rides stalling, even iron gwazi stalled last year. The ride goes a decent pace but yeah, the wind is an issue.

[@ballbag]

@@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills Rides don't usually stall 10 times in a year though like The Smiler was back then.

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

@@ballbag ok

[@eliastirkkonen285]

Bo'o ov vo'o init mate

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

Got no idea what this means.

[@iLoveCamdy]

?

[@Deh9o11en8or]

The KZbin app is offering to translate this into English for me

[@CoastersThrillsAndAirtimeHills]

@@Deh9o11en8or feel free to tell me what it means lol