Reading up on the accident on Wikipedia (haven't heard anything in a while and was seeing if I'd missed anything), I came across this article... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/alton-towers-victim-furious-as-ceo-tells-her-they-are-reopening-the-smiler-because-they-are-losing-a-a6669286.html

 

That is not the way to handle that question. Also, I highly doubt reopening the ride will help their financial and attendance issues... The reason behind the closure is what's keeping people away.

Unfortunately it looks like the investigation has determined that 'human error' was the cause of this accident. It appears that the manual override of the ride safety control system was used without following the proper safety protocol. I know that this was the main thought by the majority of people here. It is so unfortunate that a simple human error has caused so much damage not only for the injured individuals but the company as well. It will be interesting to see the fallout of what they have concluded. It seems that this may be put on the mechanic team servicing the ride at the time of the incident and not the ride ops. I just feel awful for those permanently injured due to what has now been concluded as someone making a mistake. 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/24/alton-towers-rollercoaster-crash-caused-by-human-error-theme-park-says

Alton Towers To Open During Christmas Season First Time Ever In Attempt to Boost Profits After Disastrous 2015:

http://m.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Alton-Towers-open-time-Christmas/story-28318676-detail/story.html

It would not sadden me at all to see Smiler meet the wrecking ball.

 

Still so sad what happened to those kids.

...even though it was found employee error was the cause.

Alton Towers has opened on Christmas for years.

went to look back at this topic for updates and using a quick search, The Smiler has reopened to the public as of March 19.

Does Alton Towers release ridership numbers? That would be an interesting stat to look at.

I can't think of any park that releases ridership numbers for any individual ride other than for a milestone such as "Banshee's 1,000,000th rider!"

^ Kings Island has.

I remember Cedar Point also releasing numbers in a blog post.

Despite the accident if one does a YouTube search along the lines of "The Smiler reopened" it appears that the lines are still multiple hours long. A change that stood out to me is that all references with the word "corrected" have been removed. In the spot where it pauses before the second lift and it said "half way corrected" now just says halfway. The audio has also been changed to omit halfway corrected. I hear there are now more operators and more cameras around the ride.

Breaking update, Owners plead guilty to Health and Safety Law violations: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/22/alton-towers-owner-pleads-guilty-over-smiler-rollercoaster-crash

Merlin has been fined 5 million pounds (6.6 million USD):

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/merlin-fined-5-million-over-roller-coaster-crash-2016-09-27

Its been a while since these incidents have happened so I thought I'd ask the question- would you guys ride it if you had the chance? This ride has seen its fair share of issues but that always doesn't sway people's opinions. 

I'd ride it as long as the idiot that overrode the blocking system no longer works there.

Also, Gerstlauer is still building plenty of rides and are doing all the right things.  Heck, Knott's new ride, HangTime, is the same make and model as Smiler.  

I have no problems with Smiler or Gerstlauer. 

Hopefully, Gerstlauer has stopped making wooden coaster trains.