The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Alton Towers faces £10m fine
The Smiler rollercoaster crash which left five passengers with life-changing injuries was like a 90mph car accident, a court has heard.
Alton Towers operator Merlin Attractions Operations is facing a fine of up to £10million after admitting a health and safety breach on the thrill-ride.
Vicky Balch, then 19, and Leah Washington, then 17, who each lost a leg in the crash in June last year, and several other people who were trapped for hours attended
“Merlin fell short when it came to governing the need for engineers”
Stafford Crown Court on Monday for the sentencing hearing.
Prosecuting, Bernard Thorogood told the court that the passengers on the £18million rollercoaster watched with “disbelief and horror” as they realised they were going to collide with an empty carriage.
He said the kinetic energy involved in the crash on June 2, 2015 was equivalent to “a family car of 1.5 tons having collided at about 90mph”.
Losses of the parent company as a result of the smash were laid bare by Merlin’s barrister Simon Antrobus, who said there had been a £14million drop in revenue overall. He said the company had “got the message” on health and safety, having accepted it was at fault.
The judge heard the firm’s full-year turnover of £384million in December 2014 was cut to £281million two months after the crash the following year.
By this August, the firm was £2.3million down on the like-for-like figure.
He added that Nicholas Varney, Merlin Entertainments’ chief executive – who had apologised for the accident on the day of the crash – had a £581,000 salary last year, adding up to £733,000 with pension payments.
The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) barrister Mr Thorogood said the company’s financial loss “cannot properly have been said to have brought the message home”.
The HSE concluded that the defendant, Merlin, fell “far short” when it came to governing the inevitable need for engineers from the park’s technical services department to fix faults on the ride.