Alton Towers says Smiler roller coaster accident caused by human error

I don't think that surprises anyone.

What has impressed me most is that since the moment of the accident, Alton Towers has owned this situation. As horrible as it has been, they have not tried to do the PR spin or make excuses. They have taken care of the guests involved and owned up to what happened. Certainly there are likely dozens of lawyers involved on all sides of this, but it really seems like they are willing to admit what happened and own up to it and do what needs to be done. Despite the horrible accident, they have definitely earned respect from me in that sense.

Agreed. Merlin has been a responsible corporate citizen through all of this.

Yes they have, which hopefully, somehow, will be to their benefit.

Do they intend to let humans near the control panel next year?

Decided to post in this thread as I think it's more applicable to this title than the other. Alton is closing six rides next year. Now, the headline seems a bit hyper, and while the article is light on details I think what they failed to get across is that they're closing these rides to make changes to their ride control systems and other operational modifications. They never directly state that, but closing multiple unrelated rides for good just makes 0 sense, and I know Merlin is overhauling attraction safety in a major way in the wake of the accident (new dept. and all that jazz focused solely on safety/training/etc).

^ I don't think it has anything to do with safety. It's all about costs.

Huh...I guess I spoke a little too soon. I saw the Nemesis: Sub-Terra title and thought they just added on to the coaster's name. That's actually a different attraction. They do seem to be relatively minor attractions, but the driving school...I hear that's a safety headache at the LEGOLAND here. Guess this is mostly cost related. Move along, then, nothing to see here (the new dept. at the parks thing is true, though).