User:HiddenHerobrine/sandbox

2015 Incident

On June 2 2015 at approximately 14:09GMT, one of the Smiler trains collided with an empty, stationary train that had stalled at the bottom of the Batwing inversion. The collision had left all 16 passengers stranded in the crashed train and 5 of the victims sustained serious injuries. Two young women were sat on the front row and had severe leg injuries and they later each had to have partial amputations of one of their legs. The other 2 passengers on the front row sustained serious injuries as well, one suffered shattered knees whilst the other had a collapsed lung. The fifth seriously injured passenger on the second row suffered internal injuries. When paramedics arrived, they had to use battle-field techniques to reach and rescue the victims. The incident caused the entire Alton Towers resort to shut (which lasted just a few days) and the Smiler was closed indefinitely.

The resort eventually reopened but the smiler remained closed whilst Alton Towers and the Health & Safety executive began an investigation into the incident. The victims received initial compensation from Merlin Entertainments. Since the incident, both Alton Towers and Merlin have lost profits as visitor numbers have dropped and a few other similar roller coasters to the smiler were closed at Thorpe park and Chessington (these have since reopened). The aftermath of the incident has resulted in up to 190 job redundancies due to fallen profits for both Alton Towers and it's parent company, Merlin. Merlin entertainments eventually concluded their internal investigation and the incident was ruled as 'human error' and that the ride will reopen by 2016, however the HSE have not completely concluded their investigation and they must first lift the prohibition notice.