Advertisement

CCTV of Alton Towers crash released as theme park faces sentence

Footage of the Alton Towers Smiler crash which left two teenagers needing leg amputations has been released for the first time.

It comes as Alton Towers operator Merlin appeared in court to be sentenced following the horrific rollercoaster smash, which happened at the theme park in June 2015.

The clip shows the moment of impact between a full carriage and an empty, stationary test-car.

Screams and cries for help can be heard as the two carriages then "meshed together", rolling back and forth on the 14-loop ride.

The collision had a similar impact to a car of 1.5 tons being involved in a 90mph crash, Stafford Crown Court was told.

Merlin was at fault for the incident despite "human errors", the court heard, and the company is facing a fine which could top £10 million after admitting a health and safety breach.

Several of the victims, including Vicky Balch and Leah Washington, who each lost a leg, were in court for the first day of the hearing.

Barrister Bernard Thorogood told the court a test carriage sent around the track had failed in the bottom-most part, unseen by staff.

Believing the ride had been stopped in error, engineers overrode a computer system "block-stop", sending a full 16-seater car around the track - and into the empty carriage.

"The subsequent collision was plain to see to some in the train," Mr Thorogood told the court, saying passengers in the front row spoke of their "disbelief and horror as they saw ahead up the track the train into which there were going to dive".

The barrister, speaking for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), said that although there had been "a number of human errors", the "fault here is with the employers", and not individuals.

Engineers, responding to a fault, were "without guidance from above", he said, and had not been given a system to follow to safely deal with the problem on the track.

At the beginning of Monday's hearing, Judge Michael Chambers said the victims' wounds, both physical and psychological, had "changed the lives of some of those injured, in the most dramatic way".

The crash victims were left for a "significant period of time" at least 20ft (6m) above ground, the court heard, waiting for medical attention because of the inaccessibility of that part of the ride.

Merlin carried out its own internal investigation following the incident. The company's barrister told that hearing bosses accepted that additional measures could have been taken to guard against safety risks.

The Smiler ride itself, it was concluded, was "well-designed" as were the computer and "sophisticated" control systems, while the operator of the ride had followed safe working practices.

However, Merlin fell "far short" when it came to governing the inevitable need for engineers to fix faults.

Mr Thorogood said one engineer who worked on the Smiler that day told investigators after the crash that he had "assumed" the rollercoaster had been fitted with a type of safety trip-switch present on at least one other park ride, when in fact it had not.

The prosecutor told the court that a number of errors were made, with Merlin "ultimately responsible" for these errors although "they were made by individuals".

Speaking about the potential fine to Merlin, Mr Thorogood said it could be anything between £3,000 and £10 million - with a possibility to be increased even further.

Merlin's barrister Simon Antrobus told the court the company's top executives had accepted responsibility for the crash from the day it happened, and had apologised.

He said: "(The company) accepts its responsibility that this should never have happened and accepted that the accident was attributable to failures that, while they were never intended, would have been avoidable with greater care."

Describing Merlin as "the most reputable operator in this field", he said it was "a good organisation that made a serious failure, but is one that is of otherwise good character."

The hearing was adjourned on Monday afternoon, with sentencing set to take place on Tuesday.