Anyone who has ever felt terrified of going on a rollercoaster will remember June 2nd last year when The Smiler at Alton Towers was involved in a crash, resulting in a couple of people having their legs amputated. Seems like your fears might have been justified.

Featured Image VIA

The rest of us probably just blew it off as something that happens once in a lifetime, but it turns out that that might not be the actual case as The Smiler has broken down again today, just over a year since that infamous crash. At least two trains were operational at the time with people riding on them, with one stuck on a vertical stretch of track and the other on an upwards ramp. It doesn’t look fun, but it certainly looks scary:

https://twitter.com/SandysBitxh_/status/771286222140497920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Alton Towers are trying to fob it off as something that was meant to happen with the following statement (but I’m not so sure):

On Thursday 1st September, Alton Towers Resort stopped The Smiler to investigate claims a piece of debris that had fallen from a carriage.

At no time were guests on the ride at any risk and all were safely removed from the ride promptly by staff in line with our comprehensive standard procedures.

As the health and safety of our guests is our priority, the ride will remain closed whilst the Resort’s technical team investigate the matter.

Hmmm, I mean yeah maybe, but surely they would have stopped the ride when people weren’t riding it if this was the case? I mean maybe, just maybe this alert was so urgent that they had to stop it right there and then when people were on a vertical section of it, but I’m not really buying it, are you? Especially given the ride’s previous shortcomings.

I still really want to ride it though – check out these pictures to see how completely sick it looks.