The day The Smiler stopped smiling

2nd June 2015, what started as a normal day at a theme park, turned into a nightmare for riders of The Smiler.

Now a bit of background for those who do not know — The Smiler is one of the top attractions at Alton Towers but since it’s opening in May 2013, there have been several incidents which have led to it being closed down temporarily each time.

This time was different though, it hadn’t broken down due to a fault. Human error had been to blame, and as a result of an overridden warning four teenagers were seriously injured in the crash between two carriages.

The Guardian ran a liveblog covering the events as they unfolded, this included videos, audio from interviews and tweets from witnesses at Alton Towers. I think this is a great way of covering live events because it keeps the whole story together in one place and allows for a chronological log of what has happened. The liveblog also meant that all forms of media could be included, such as the audio from interviews, and it provides the audience with a richer story.

The first two components to look at in this narrative are Character and Setting.

The setting is where the accident took place, Alton Towers, and more specifically the ride itself. This is the main focus for The Guardian liveblog, but as the story progresses other scenes would include the three hospitals the teenagers were taken to — Royal Stoke University Hospital and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire.

There are many characters that can be seen in this story, aside from the four main victims — Witnesses, Paramedics, Fire Officers, Police, Health and Safety Executive and the Alton Towers staff. A big indirect character, or as we later find to be direct in future angles of the story, is the Alton Towers worker who overrode the controls. It could be argued that he/she is one of the main characters too, because without their mistake it probably wouldn’t have ever happened. These characters have different roles but all played a part in this one story and they can also be used to identify movement.

This story involves a lot of movement as it was incredibly fast moving over the course of an afternoon. The first sign of movement would be different characters coming onto the scene — the paramedics, fire and police. Then as they work together to try and free the victims, you could argue they create a chemistry. They had to create relationships of trust with the riders on The Smiler whilst battling with unpredictability of the ride itself. Moving on in the story is the Air Ambulance arrival and their departure with the victims — this is a literal movement, as they go on a journey to the hospitals with the most seriously injured riders. More movement would include the Health and Safety Executive arriving at the theme park and shutting it down whilst they investigated the incident.

The Smiler story overall is a symbol of both conflict and chemistry in my opinion, although as the story develops in the future it probably veers closer to conflict when Alton Towers reopens the ride and the victims understandably didn’t like it. The chemistry definitely originates with the first responders and the victims, without them this could have had a tragic ending and they are certainly portrayed as the heroes of the story.