Gerstlauer

History

In 1982 Hubert Gerstlauer, a former employee of the Schwarzkopf GmbH, founded "Gerstlauer Elektro GmbH". With this company he delivered electric and pneumatic equipment for Schwarzkopf's facilities. After final bankruptcy of Schwarzkopf in 1992, Gerstlauer acquired part of their production halls and continued the manufacture of amusement rides and roller coasters. The company was renamed "Gerstlauer Amusement Rides GmbH" in March 2007.

Gerstlauer's first individual roller coaster "G'sengte Sau", a Bobsled roller coaster, was built in "Erlebnispark Tripsdrill", an amusement park in Baden-Württemberg. Since 2003 Gerstlauer became popular with their "Euro-Fighter" coaster, which is present in different styles all over Europe and the United States. A specialty of all "Euro-Fighter" coasters is a drop with a "beyond vertical" angle of more than 90 degrees. Another model is their spinning roller coaster in which riders are seated facing each other. Gerstlauer also built trains for several wooden roller coasters, several of which are no longer operating. Examples of these include The Boss at Six Flags St. Louis. The Smiler located at Alton Towers has been known to have had a number of significant structural and technical difficulties before and after the rides opening in 2013. The most serious incident to occur happened in June 2015 when a train loaded with 16 people collided with an empty train. This caused serious injuries to a number of its riders. Two front-row passengers sustained serious leg injuries, each had one leg partially amputated. This is the biggest incident in Alton Towers' history. The Smiler reopened on March 19th 2016. A subsequent investigation by the United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive concluded the incident at Alton Towers was caused by human error, and that the Smilers safety systems worked exactly as intended Merlin attractions were fined for failing in their duty of care as a result of this investigation.