Last year, the Alton Towers rollercoaster crash made headlines worldwide due to the terrifying footage that revealed the moment a fully loaded carriage collided with an empty train at high speed.
Recently, newly-released footage from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) showed the shocking events that led to the crash.
The incident occurred when a full carriage collided with an empty train on the Smiler ride, which had come to a stop on the track.
The video footage shows the empty train starting a test run around the 14-loop rollercoaster at 1:40 pm.
Unfortunately, it came to a halt due to wind gusts of 46 mph. Staff failed to notice that it was still on the track.
The carriage containing the five injured passengers, including Vicky Balch and Leah Washington, who each lost a leg in the crash, was held at the top of the first loop for nearly eight minutes before it was eventually released.
The safety mechanism was overridden by staff, and the carriage plunged down the loop and smashed into the empty car with the force of a 1.5-tonne car traveling at 90mph.
The collision resulted in several passengers sustaining horrific physical and psychological injuries, including the loss of limbs.
The victims were frustrated that it took nearly 20 minutes before the first 999 call was made to emergency services, despite a crowd of shocked onlookers gathering within seconds of the collision.
Alton Towers owner Merlin Attractions was sentenced at Stafford Crown Court, where the victims were present.
The two-day court hearing detailed the catastrophic events leading up to the collision, including the failure of staff to notice the empty train on the track and override warning signs.
The victims were also critical of the delay in emergency services responding to the incident.
The footage of the Alton Towers Smiler ride crash was released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for the first time during the sentencing of Alton Towers’ owner, Merlin Attractions.
The collision happened on June 2, 2022, when a full carriage containing passengers collided with an empty train at high speed.
The collision resulted in the two trains “meshed together,” causing severe leg injuries to the front-row passengers.
The court heard that the victims were “frustrated” that there was almost a 20-minute delay before the first 999 call was made to emergency services, despite a crowd of shocked onlookers gathering within seconds of the collision at 1.51 pm.
The court was told that paramedics first arrived at 2.37 pm – almost 50 minutes after the crash.
The collision happened because of a series of errors made by the engineers and staff, who failed to notice the empty train on the track, dismissed warning signs on the £18m ride as false alarms and overrode a security feature that halted the ride.
Engineers responding to a fault were “without guidance from above” and had not been given a system to follow to safely deal with the problem on the track.
The ride, which was not supposed to operate in wind speeds above 34mph, stayed open despite another attraction being closed more than an hour earlier due to gusts of 46mph.
Merlin Attractions pleaded guilty to breaking health and safety laws and faces a potential multi-million-pound fine when sentenced later.
The company accepted responsibility for the crash and apologized to the victims.
A 254-page expert report commissioned by the HSE found that there were four human errors in the run-up to the crash yet criticized senior management for their “manifestly inadequate” governance of its technical monitoring.
Alton Towers has instituted 30 changes following the crash to improve the safety of the ride.
»The Alton Towers Smiler Ride Crash: Details of Catastrophic Events«
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