The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Alton Towers’ £5m crash fine
Court: Theme park operators found guilty of ‘catastrophic safety breach’
Alton Towers operator Merlin Attractions has been fined £5million for a “catastrophic failure” of health and safety rules over the Smiler ride crash.
Two teenagers – Vicky Balch, then 19, and Leah Washington, then 17 – could have bled to death from their injuries and each ended up losing a leg after the collision last June. The victims, left suspended in the ride 20ft (6m) above ground for up to five hours, are now expected to seek civil compensation.
Lawyers for eight of those hurt said the fine was believed to be the largest ever of its kind for a leisure industry company.
Stafford Crown Court had heard that the passengers watched with “disbelief and horror” before ploughing into an empty carriage on the track, with the impact likened to a 90mph car crash. The court was told that engineers overrode the computer system which had correctly stopped the ride because they believed it was an error, allowing the carriage to collide with the empty car.
The company was fined after a HSE investigation found an engineer “felt pressure” to get Smiler back into service after it developed a fault shortly before the devastating crash.
Sentencing, Judge Michael Chambers QC said the “obvious shambles of what occurred” could have been “easily avoided” by a suitable written system to deal with ride faults and a proper risk assessment.
Shortfalls in oversight and training were also identified. The judge added: “Those in the front row bore the brunt of the collision and had their legs crushed in the tangled steel.” Mr Chambers added that all 16 people in the carriage had been “injured to various degrees”.
Miss Balch, Miss Washington, fellow front-row passengers Joe Pugh and Daniel Thorpe, and Chandaben Chauhan, in the second row, were all seriously injured in the crash.
Lawyers for Merlin said the company had seen a £14million drop in revenue as a result of the crash, and had made changes to safety measures, equipment and training. The Smiler reopened earlier this year.