Coaster Zone: The Rollercoaster Social Network

The longer these current investigations take would imply the length of the rides closure. I personally didn't expect the whole park to be on shutdown for any more than a day but now it being closed multiple days, including tomorrow, may mean Smiler is shut down for a good while afterwards. That may mean X-sector is shut down with it to allow easier manuovrability for staff and investigators around the ride and surrounding area.

Yeah that is a very true point that you raise. I think the park and Merlin still have a big concern over if this could happen on any of the other rollercoasters at Towers, and until they can be certain that it won't happen again, then it is probably better to play it safe rather than sorry. Shares in Merlin Entertainments, have fallen just over 2.6% since the accident, wiping about £100m off its stock market value.

I think Merlin's descion to keep The Smiler closed indefintely is a good thing Merlin have also taken the descion Saw The Ride at Thorpe Park will be closed until futhur notice since the accident on Tuesday and most likely won't reopen this season. Rumours have been circuling that The Smiler could facing the scrap heap.

There is no way that Alton will get rid of the ride due to 1 crash! Many coasters have crashed and even killed before which are still operating! In comparison, the people in the front row are lucky to only have serious leg injuries and still be alive!

In all honesty, I think it is very hard to believe that Alton Towers will be able to reopen it, you do raise the point that other rollercoasters have remained open after incidents of death, but this is a very different situation most of the times rollercoaster accidents don't stay in mainstream news for a prolonged period of time, and The Smiler is still one of the main news stories, and I have to agree with Dalek Sec that I think The Smiler's days are seriously numbered.

I'm still not sure. You have to remember the other rides were in other countries though so may have been in the news a lot more in their respective areas/state rather than over here.

UPDATE: The Park will re-open tomorrow but the X-sector area will stay shut until further notice due to the ongoing investigations on Smiler

Sonic Spinball will also be closed as well as X-Sector which to be completely honest I expected to be the case as as Dragons Fury and Rattlesnake are still closed at Chessington.

I know that Alton Towers will have lost out quite a bit over the course of this past week, and I hope that the investigation finds out the cause of the incident sooner rather than later.

More bad news for the park, it's been confirmed that 1 of the teenagers in the front row has had to have her leg amputated.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33 ... w_facebook

Yep, that really isn't good news for Alton Towers, Merlin and The Smiler.
It is however today having test runs as part of the HSE Investigation.