The judge, Michael Chambers QC, said Merlin Attractions Operations’ safety procedures were “woefully inadequate” and a “shambles” in scathing criticism over the Smiler crash on June 2 last year.
He added: “This was a needless and avoidable accident in which those injured were fortunate not to have been killed or to have bled to death.”
The two-day sentencing at Stafford crown court heard how the crash was like a 90mph car accident, and that the victims waited nearly an hour in mid-air before paramedics were able to access the £18mn rollercoaster.
Chambers said Vicky Balch and Leah Washington, who each lost a leg, were fortunate not to have bled to death in the four to five hours they were trapped in the Smiler. On that day Alton Towers “fell well short” of the safety standards expected of the UK’s biggest theme park, the judge added.
Outside court, the victims’ lawyer, Paul Paxton, welcomed the record-breaking fine but said “money alone will never repair limbs or heal the psychological scars”.
Standing on the steps of the court alongside the victims, he said: “Symbolically and practically, this marks a closure for what has been a long painful chapter for my clients, one in which they have frequently been exposed to the horrors of that day back in June last year.
“It’s worth remembering that this hearing is the first time that my clients have heard the full extent of the criticism against Merlin. To be candid, they have been shocked and disappointed by the catalogue of errors. The list goes on and on: the catastrophic failure to assess risk, the inadequate training, inadequate supervision, inadequate management, failure to communicate, failure to put in place safe systems of work.
“But this has not been about retribution. This has been about finding out why this accident happened and making sure that lessons have been learned, not just by Merlin but by others throughout the industry, and I think my clients can take comfort from that.”
In his sentencing, the judge rejected Merlin’s assertion that the crash was down to “human error”. It was, he said, the company’s “catastrophic failure to assess risk and have a structured system of work”.
Investigators from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which brought the prosecution, found that a chain of errors led staff to override a safety warning when an empty test carriage got stuck on the track in strong winds.
Engineers mistakenly believed the safety warning was a false alarm, the investigation found, and released the next carriage full of passengers, with the disastrous effect that it crashed at high-speed into the empty test carriage.
