The accident in June was a devastating event for Alton Towers and for Merlin, for which we accepted responsibility and are deeply sorry.

In the immediate aftermath, our priority was those who were injured and their families. Since then we have been humbled by their grace and fortitude, and we will continue to do whatever we can to support them.

The decision was taken to close the park immediately. We firmly believe that this was the right course of action, reflecting the seriousness of the incident and the impact on our staff, and to allow the team to focus both on those affected and on the development and implementation of new safety protocols where necessary.

Equally important was to establish exactly what happened, through our own and the Health and Safety Executive investigations, in order to ensure that such an event cannot occur again. These investigations are ongoing.

In addition, we felt it appropriate to significantly reduce our marketing activity in light of what happened.

We reopened Alton Towers six days after the incident, and the park is now fully operational. However, the number of people visiting has understandably been adversely impacted as a result.

Alton Towers has a proud track record as the number one theme park in the UK, a position endorsed by our consistently high customer satisfaction scores and the recent recognition as Trip Advisor’s best UK theme park. We have been encouraged by those customers who have continued to come to the resort and by the many others who have written to us expressing their support.

We are confident that we will rebuild our position as the UK’s favourite theme park. We are proud of our fantastic team and thank them for their dedication and commitment through this period.

Some crises go largely unnoticed, while others can draw a crowd. When media and other stakeholders are drawn to the crisis, it can create tremendous pressure on an organisation. We can call these public interest crises. An accident at an theme park would be a public interest crisis.

These accidents have victims, a sense of drama and make potential customers wonder if that could happen to them. Organisations need to manage these various pressures when providing their response: a response that stakeholders will examine closely.

The first priority always must be public safety. The response must emphasise concern for the victims and efforts to prevent a repeat of the crisis situation.

An organisation must explain what it’s doing to help the victims and how it will protect public safety now and in the future.

The now means closing the attraction that was involved in the accident and investigating the cause. Once known, the organisation can discuss how it will seek to prevent a repeat of the accident in the future. This involves explaining new safety procedures if they are required.

Sometimes an accident can be a result of the actions of the victim. In those cases, management needs to explain how the guest caused the accident. The key is to be descriptive but not to overtly place blame on the victim. A clear explanation of events will allow others to realise who was really at fault. The narrative can include, for example, if a guest might have violated stated safety rules or that the incident resulted from an unknown medical condition.

Even when self-inflicted, the crisis communication needs to reflect sympathy for the victim.

The second priority is returning to normal operations. Potential customers will want to know when they can enjoy that attraction again. This concern needs to be placed in the background of the crisis messaging. Many people will want this information but featuring the return to normal operations too prominently can create a backlash effect. Some stakeholders might feel the organisation is only concerned about its profits and lacks empathy for the victim or victims.

Any discussion of operations should be short and at the end of the crisis message. When public safety is a concern, crisis communication must feature the victim and how the organisation is working to ensure a safe future for customers.

Customer-facing organisations will, or should have, crisis management plans. If your business involves serving people, you need to know how you will react to a crisis and who will take the lead.

The reputation of a company can be won or lost on the action taken in the first hours after a serious incident. In some cases it can be hard to recover if you have the wrong response. Look at BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, which led to CEO Tony Hayward stepping down over his reaction to the fatal event.

As with any incident where the press is involved, you cannot shirk from your responsibilities and you have to be clear on your message and be open to speaking to all, even if it’s difficult and at inconvenient times of the day and night. “No comment” is simply not acceptable.

When a crisis occurs you need to be quite clear on your plan of action. What happened at Alton Towers was a terrible incident and heart-breaking for everyone involved: first and foremost, for those injured and their families; but also for Nick Varney and the staff at Merlin. I think Merlin’s handling of the incident has been commendable. They’ve been open and Varney has taken full charge of the situation and been the spokesman in the media and through the press. I am certain this was the right course of action.

As industry professionals, safety is our top priority and we are constantly working to improve the safety of our parks and attractions for our guests and employees. IAAPA focuses on safety above and beyond all else and is concerned with any incident that occurs.

The association works tirelessly to help develop, promote and maintain the highest industry standards possible throughout the world. Of equal importance is the proactive engagement of members in the association, not only to support the standards development process but also to reinforce best practices and reduce risks.

We, as members of the association and committed partners in the industry, must work together to ensure the safety of our guests and staff on a daily basis. The key to improving safety is the constant exchange of information that takes place between and among park personnel and manufacturers following an incident. If there is new learning that comes from an incident, I’m confident it’s shared within the industry and appropriate changes to safety standards specified by ASTM or EN are made.

Also, it’s important when discussing incidents to keep in perspective how rarely they happen in the attractions industry.

Here are a few facts to better explain how rarely injuries occur on fixed-site rides each year:

• There are approximately 300 fixed-site amusement parks in Europe that entertain approximately 183 million guests annually.

• Those same 183 million guests safely enjoy 1.1 billion rides taken annually.

• The likelihood of being seriously injured (require overnight hospitalisation for treatment) on a permanently located amusement park ride in the US is 1 in 24 million.