Roller coaster cars collide again at Alton Towers in England
In July 2015, two cars on Sonic Spinball, later known again as Spinball Whizzer, collided at low speed. One person was taken to hospital as a precaution, and visitors had also been stuck on the same ride shortly before.
More context
Spinball Whizzer returned to the Alton Towers safety debate in July 2015. At the time the coaster was still called Sonic Spinball and carried the Sonic theme, but it was the same Maurer spinning coaster in Adventure Land. Looopings reported that two cars collided at relatively low speed. Eyewitnesses said riders complained of head and neck pain, and one person was taken to hospital as a precaution. The timing made the incident more sensitive. One month earlier, The Smiler had suffered a severe crash in the same park, after which Alton Towers said it would tighten safety protocols on all coasters. Sonic Spinball appearing in the news again so soon after that gave the story extra weight for visitors and fans. Looopings also noted that guests had been stuck on the same ride for forty minutes the day before. For Spinball Whizzer's history, this is an important chapter: the family-friendly spinning coaster was not being discussed because of speed or records, but because of reliability, incident handling and the wider question of trust in Alton Towers after a difficult period.