Huge fine handed down to Alton Towers for Smiler crash
MERLIN ENTERTAINMENTS, the owner of Alton Towers theme park, has been fined £5m for its negligence which led to “life-changing” injuries on its Smiler ride.
Judge Michael Chambers QC described the events which caused the crash as a “catastrophic failure”.
He added: “This was a needless and avoidable accident in which those who were injured were lucky not to be killed.”
16 people were injured in the incident at the Staffordshire theme park last June. Two female passengers, Leah Washington and Vicky Balch suffered leg amputations and three others were also seriously injured when their carriage collided with a stationary carriage on the same track.
Merlin Attractions Operations pleaded guilty to breaking Health and Safety rules at a hearing in April, following a corporate prosectution by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Neil Craig, HSE’s head of operations for the Midlands, said: “Merlin failed to protect their customers. They let them badly down. It is right they have been held to account for those failings in a criminal court.
“This avoidable incident happened because Merlin failed to put in place systems that would allow their engineers to work safely while the ride was running.”
Nick Varney, chief executive of Merlin Entertainments, said the company had “accepted full responsibility for the terrible accident” from the beginning and he repeated “sincere and heartfelt apologies to those who were injured”.
He said: “In accepting responsibility and liability very early on we have tried to make the healing and compensation process as trouble free as possible for all of those involved. We have strived to fulfil our promise to support them in every way and I promise that this support will continue as long as they need it.
“We were always aware that we would end up here today facing a substantial penalty, as has been delivered by the court today.”
Merlin Entertainments’ share price rose 1% in the 30 minutes after the judge announced the level of the fine.
