The Troubled History of The Smiler - Secret Weapon 7 | Expedition Alton Towers

alton towers in the UK holds the current rollercoaster record for most inversions these 14 inversions though would drastically impact the future of the park with one tragic event this is the story of the smiler join us we belong to the smiler the smiler the world's first voting looping roller coaster look now Alvin towers calm for now starting your correctional process the black hole was added to Alton Towers in 1984 the new ride captured the imagination of guests visit in the park located in a large 10 it was the park's second major coaster it was even dismantled and modified to fit couple trades instead of single trains to increase capacity of the popular ride in 1997 though something big was coming to the area every ride from the zone was removed except for the black hole and construction began on secret weapon for [Music] the first of two worlds first coasters that would eventually end up in the zone in addition energizer and enterprise were added and the area was refeed 2x sector the brand new zone was to be phim to a sinister futuristic government facility in 2005 black hole closed due to health and safety changes and alter not wanting to spend money to bring it up to code and oblivion stood by itself as the only roller coaster in the so that though would change the black hole was finally removed in 2007 leaving the 10 empty it would feature Scarefest mazes in 2011 before it was removed in 2012 they say the perfect gifts are smiling but here at the smiler shop TV our gift is a smile snarl smile we have just the thing to help you spread the happiness to everyone you meet they'll be thankful you have after all who wouldn't want to receive a gift from that smiler plans on what will come in were submitted in December 2011 and granted in March despite the usual opposition the park gets it will be girl hour who would build a new roller coaster for the park secret weapon 7 was the first infinity coaster a variant on the popular Eurofighter model such as saw the ride there have been quite some time since Alton had received a real secret weapon for a ride with over 10 years since secret weapon 5 in 2002 I don't really count secret weapon 6 as afro ride that ride was a bit timid at least it's time now to get off little joke there ok no that doesn't count less than a month before permission was granted a new website launched where you could input your information to get updates on the new right secret weapon 7 would feature to chain lifts one being vertical a drop of 98 feet and the most inversions on any roller coaster in the whole world at the time the ride with the most inversions was also at a Merlin park with 10 on Colossus at 4 Park tied with one in China and another Park was rumored to be working on an 11 root braid Olten didn't want to just beat that record they wanted to smash it the original brief called for 12 or more and they came back with 14 located on the site of the black hole with 20 tons of Sora removed from the site similar to nemesis due to the treeline restrictions at the park the new ride would cost 18 million pound and was squeezed into a very small footprint it would be Alton Towers longest rollercoaster by track lengths the track would be a very dark gray to fit the surrounding theme with a unique story it was officially announced as the smiler [Music] a huge marketing campaign surrounded the upcoming attraction spray-painting of the right logo which resembles a smiling face began to appear all over the park and subliminal advertising appeared at different sections of the Alton Towers website the logo began appearing all across the country including billboards in London train stations and even projected onto buildings such as big bet a selection of sheep flocks were also sprayed with the logo around the UK which really got the media talking this week we took the decision to paint sheep across the country to announce the name of our new world first roller coaster the smiler need you I feel used a countdown clock counted down to the right opening on the 16th of March 2013 on the very early plans which were discovered eight inversions were seen with a dark tone an industrial grunge style station and while the dimensions of the final result were the same the feem was completely different original femen element shown were a giant mechanical spider which the ride would fly through the legs of and while this was incorporated this element was completely different to the originally planned exacta industrial femen seen on the early plans a smile a video game for mobile was released and it had a much brighter fene hello my name is dr. Killman i'm chief of myths here at the sanctuary i wish you all a very sincere welcome by choosing the sanctuary you can rest assured you're in safe hands after all we are the market leaders and social compliance treatment from before the right opening in 2012 through to 2014 scare fest at the park featured a haunted maze themed to the ride located inside the iconic towers which would introduce the right story and introduce the world to the Ministry of joy this old facility allowed you to check yourself in for a checkup for those who are down or had lost their smile this concept was called Marmol ization and was developed by the secret group called the ministry of joy 50 years ago dr. Kalman the head of the project used a team to experience on the mind and body for an increased social satisfaction as they put it this method though often led to disfigured subjects who had been caged away in the basement of the sanctuary and that was the story of this haunted maze and this maze was actually pretty good selected treatment accesses various parts of the body and of the mind in order to abolish any reoccurrence with any welcome my friends to the sanctuary in 2012 the ministry had returned with new modern methods to save us from the tragedy known as sorrow the first patient to be mammal eyes was mal Cedars state relations my athelas he was only halfway marmalades but it worked and they kept going and wanted to spread joy to many more the center of the smiler ride features the mama Liza and you Laredo are voluntary and to take this experience the different processes seen on the mom Eliza the spider-like structure in the center of the ride are there in oscillator where a serum is injected into the patient's by syringe to give them a boost of joy the tickler where you are simply tickled until you can't not smile the flasher wear bright lights from above will blind and disorient the patient the giggler which use laughing gas to force you to laugh and the Hypnotizer where swirling illusions were used to disorientate and mesmerize you miles Cedar's tests hey you stink you mean your bag no seriously stick him in the back you might be good for research or something in January the countdown time was removed and the opening of the ride was delayed now planning to open in May 2013 to compensate for the delay the park opened the sanctuary maze until mid-april the official date for the opening was set as may 16th 2013 this wasn't mad mode due to delays in construction the following day a press event was held and a train stopped on the Left Hill and riders were stuck for an hour before being evacuated a new opening day of May 23rd was announced the resort was booked out solid for the opening and the hype of the new attraction was huge marketing was seen everywhere and the world record looping roller coaster was about to open except it wasn't less than 24 hours before opening the resort announced it would not again be opening due to Tevan problems tickets were revalidated and the hotel stays were rebooked with no clue when it would actually open eventually it did of course open on May 31st with no prior announcement at midday the compact dry begins with a hidden inversion inside before entering the first lift hill and directly after a blur of inversions hit you for both halves of the raid [Music] after its opening the right was closed multiple times due to technical issues twice within a week in early June the Train stalled during test runs during the Wrights batwing element before the park opened the following month 48 people were evacuated from the ride after an item fell from a section of the track described by riders as a one foot long metal bar or some kind of bolt it caused two sections of the track to disengage creating a small gap shortly after the ride was closed for five days after cracks were found in the base of one of the right supports later in the same year four people were injured when they were struck by guide wills that detached from the changer in the vertical lift hill so as you can see that open year was quite troublesome unfortunately though something more tragic was going to occur two years after opening that would severely damage the parks reputation attendant sending home and seriously injure multiple people as a word of warning some of the following footage and information may be distressing it's dubbed the most terrifying roller coaster ride on earth this afternoon at 9 minutes past two the terror became reality 16 people were in the carriage which collided with an empty car on the smiler roller coaster on a very windy day on June 2nd 2050 in the ride was operated as normal even though winds had reached 46 miles per hour and it was suggested not to operate over 34 miles per hour shortly after 1:00 p.m. the ride issued a warning light indicating a fault visitors on the ride were removed and engineers were called at this point the ride had been operating with four trains on the track staff had been told to add a fifth train due to the number of guests in the park and decided to do this while the ride was empty while the fifth train was being added employees and an empty carriage around the track to check operation was normal this empty train though failed to make it up the incline and a warning system was activated engineer successfully fixed this issue with the empty train due to a breakdown of communication the engineers on site had not been told a fifth train had been added and began the process to restart the ride with staff preparing to allow visitors back onto the ride another empty train was sent around to make the claim and roll back down the track and came to arrest in a valley operators on the ride were unaware the train was stuck on the track and the first car full of passengers were sent around the track as it climbed the first lift Hill the right system stopped it from moving ahead indicating the track ahead was occupied as it was designed to do the engineer still not aware that five trains were on the track checked the location of the four he believed were active and did not see the fifth train sat stood on the track he later stated he felt he was pressured to minimize downtime on rides along with a colleague they overrode the safety warning and the Train with passengers continued up the lift Hill this train then slammed into the stored car creating what some described as a horror seem similar to a 90 miles per hour car crash as hundreds watched on in panic the two cars rocked back and forth along the track with passengers at the front trapped between the crash barrier of the train it took almost 20 minutes for the first 999 call to be made the injured passenger sat trapped on the track for four to five hours before they were able to be released from the carriage with some suffering from significant blood loss the injuries resulted in leg amputations shattered knees and punctured lungs if you think about how many theme parks there are in the world and therefore how many thousands of people must ride on rollercoasters every single day while statistically incidents like this are very rare indeed but Alton Towers has said that this accident is the worst in US history this tragic accident changed the lives of 16 people riding the train forever right after the incident the smiler saw the ride and two other roller coasters at Chessington World of Adventures closed while investigations got underway Alton Towers was closed completely for five days as a result after this the smiler remain closed while the other merlin parks rise were reopened I'm no Craig I'm HS EES have operations for the Midlands when people visit theme parks they should be able to enjoy themselves safely on 2nd of June last year Merlin attractions operations limited failed to protect their customers they let them badly down it is right that they've been held to account for those fading 'z in a criminal court Berlin were fined five million pound for a failure of health and safety rules over the crash they also rejected the idea that they had put pressure on employees to keep downtime to a minimum over safety the impact of this crash would affect the resort drastically and even to this day they were to recover attendance plummeted after the incident an ultima ported a 14 million drop in revenue as a result of the crash multiple rides were closed in relation to the revenue loss an investment into the park reached a new low new safety measures were introduced and compensation claims still continue to be assessed throughout the last 16 months we've been very aware that we would end up here today facing a substantial penalty and that has now been delivered however what I would like to say is that Alton Towers and indeed the wider Merlin group are not emotionless corporate entities they made up of human beings who care passionately about what they do and in that respect the far bigger punishment for all of us is the knowledge that on this occasion we let people down with such devastating consequences it is something none of us will ever forget and it is something we are utterly determined will never be repeated nobody set out to hurt somebody that tragic day but the impossible had happened the smiler did reopen in March 2016 with new safety checks and all references to Correction and Marmol ization removed many people still remain cautious to ride the attraction but no further incidents have occurred since the smiler crash was not only foul in every aspect of the business but also with the employees who called the park home as well as the passengers who were injured and continues to be a devastating day that the park has been working hard to put behind them for many though it will never be forgotten and is sadly what this record-breaking ride is now known for [Music] thank you so much for joining us on this episode if you enjoyed it subscribe to join us on future expeditions and follow us on Twitter and Instagram for updates on where we are heading next a special thank you to our patrons for supporting the channel take a look if you would like to get early releases on upcoming videos have you been on the smiler and does the crash impact how you feel about the resort let me know in the comments below and we will see you next time [Music]

Channel: Expedition Theme Park

Views: 1,875,599

Keywords: expedition theme park, expedition weekly, expedition alton towers, alton, towers, smiler, the smiler, alton towers crash, simler crash, most inversions, x sector, smiler crash, alton towers future, alton towers rides, rides, theme park, history, rollercoaster, coasters, crash, roller coaster, amusement parks, worlds best roller coaster, merlin, thorpe park

Id: WHe87P1zT0s

Length: 18min 8sec (1088 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 15 2019