Alton Towers Smiler victim Leah Washington-Pugh reveals new details of horror rollercoaster crash - as she marks 10 years since her 'life changed forever'

Daily Mail​

5 days ago

Two victims of the Alton Towers crash will be throwing a charity ball to mark that 10 years has passed since the accident.
Amputee Leah Washington and her husband Joe Pugh, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire - who was also injured in the crash - will be hosting the event on June 7.
According to Leah, who took to Instagram to share details of the event, it will be 'a celebration of how far we've come, but also a chance to give back and raise money for some truly deserving charities'.
Leah shared two poignant images - one taken of her not long after the crash, as she was recovering from the accident, after which she had to have her left leg amputated, and one of her taken recently, showing how much she is thriving a decade after sustaining the life-changing injuries.
She accompanied the moving photos with a lengthy caption, in which she described her experience over the last 10 years - and in doing so, unwittingly shared her indomitable and inspiring spirit.
Leah wrote: '10 Years. 2/6/2015 – A day I'll never forget.
'Ten years ago, my life changed forever in ways I could never have imagined. It feels like both a lifetime ago and just yesterday since the smiler crash accident. If I could go back and speak to the 17 year old me in the hospital bed, I would tell her you're going to be ok. You'll find the confidence you thought lost, and grow into a strong, resilient woman who embraces life even with the challenges it throws your way.'
She added that during this time, there had been 'moments when it would've been easy to hide away, to let life pass by'.
But, she added, love and support from her family, friends, and rehab team helped her find her purpose again. 'Slowly but surely, I rebuilt my life and I'm proud of where I am today,' she said.
The caption continued: 'But despite it all, my outlook on life has transformed. I've learned not to take a single moment for granted and I try to live each one like it could be my last.'
Describing the charity ball she and husband Joe will be hosting on Saturday to mark the 10 year milestone, she said: 'It's not just a celebration of how far we've come, but also a chance to give back and raise money for some truly deserving charities...Thank you to each and everyone of you for your continued support these past 10 years.'
The life-changing crash took place on June 2, 2015. Visitors were removed from the Alton Towers Smiler ride after a warning light indicated a fault.
Staff sent a test train around the track, but it didn't make it around. Due to a breakdown in communication, staff did not realise this carrigage was still sitting on the track.
Passengers were let back on but as the first carriage made its way around, the computer system stopped it because it showed something was blocking the track.
Engineers were still not aware that there was a fifth carriage sitting on the track and overrode a fault which had been detected by the computer system, sending the ride crashing into an empty carriage with the force of a '90mph car crash'.
At least 16 were injured and five people were seriously hurt.
Leah, and Vicky Balch from Leyland, Lancashire, were both forced to undergo leg amputations as a result of the horror crash.
Leah's now husband Joe, as well as Daniel Thorpe, from Buxton, Derbyshire, also suffered serious leg injuries, along with 49-year-old Chandaben Chauhan.
The trapped ride-goers had to wait more than four hours to be freed from the crumpled carriage while rescue workers battled to reach them as they sat 25ft up in the air at an angle of about 45 degrees, pinned in by the mangled metal.
Last year, Leah and Joe opened up about the life-changing day of the crash.
The couple, whose rollercoaster carriage smashed into a second stationary car at around 50mph, revealed paramedics were told 'not to save them because it wasn't safe'.
Leah told the Tom's Talks Podcast with mindset coach Tom Dickinson: 'They actually got told not to save us, for health and safety reasons, the air ambulance got told ''it's not safe, you can't go up there and treat them''.
'But they ignored whoever told them to do that and they did save our lives. They basically said, "if we don't go help them now, they are not going to survive".'
The pair, who were on their first date at the time, revealed they queued for nearly three hours to get on the The Smiler rollercoaster on that fateful day.
Joe added: 'We got on, set off and were held at the top incline for about 20 minutes, they came over the tannoy saying "everything is fine, we just have a technical problem, we are fixing it", and that was it, they set us back off again.'
Leah added: 'We did a couple of loops and then we went around this corner and as we went around I could see another cart straight away.'
The pair said they were stuck on the rollercoaster for four hours after the crash because of the difficult position their carriage was stuck in.
Leah said: 'Where we crashed, we weren't at ground level so there was probably ten metres below us to the floor, so for them to get to us they had to build scaffolding up to us.'
Joe added: 'Plus the carriage was at a 90-degree angle, so you are not sat upright, we were at an angle. I don't think they realised the extent of our injuries, not saying they brushed it off but when they got up I think they were like "f**k".
'It was such a complex operation, once they cut the bars off us to cut us out, we were not strapped into anything.'
Leah said she had severed a main artery during the crash and was 'bleeding to death' throughout the long winded rescue mission.
She added: 'They were flying blood in for me while I was on the ride, when they rang through to the hospital they said it could be a double amputation for me, they could see one leg was very injured but they weren't sure about the other.'
Speaking about the extent of his own injuries, Joe said: 'I shattered both knee caps, broke my middle finger on my right hand and snapped my little finger off my left hand and they basically just reattached that. I had knee surgery and basically just have one whole knee cap between two knees.'
An investigation into the 2015 accident concluded that the crash was due to human error; an engineer had wrongly restarted the ride while a stationary carriage was on the track in front of it.
Alton Towers owner Merlin Attractions were fined £5million for health and safety breaches which were blasted by Judge Michael Chambers QC as a 'catastrophic failure'.
They were fined an initial £5million, and interim payments have covered Leah and Joe's medical and physio bills to date - but the pair have also submitted a 'substantial' compensation claim.
In spite of the trauma of the crash, the pair have stayed together and tied the knot in a dazzling ceremony at a country house hotel in Yorkshire on May 25 .
What happened during the Alton Towers Smiler crash?
On June 2, 2015, visitors were removed from the Alton Towers Smiler ride after a warning light indicated a fault.
Staff sent a test train around the track, but it didn't make it around. Due to a breakdown in communication, staff did not realise this carrigage was still sitting on the track.
Passengers were let back on but as the first carriage made its way around, the computer system stopped it because it showed something was blocking the track.
Engineers were still not aware that there was a fifth carriage sitting on the track and overrode a fault which had been detected by the computer system, sending the ride crashing into an empty carriage with the force of a '90mph car crash'.
At least 16 were injured and five people were seriously hurt.
Leah Washington from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, and Vicky Balch from Leyland, Lancashire, were both forced to undergo leg amputations as a result of the horror crash.
Joe Pugh, also from Barnsley, and Daniel Thorpe, 28, from Buxton, Derbyshire, also suffered serious leg injuries, along with 49-year-old Chandaben Chauhan.
The trapped ride-goers had to wait more than four hours to be freed from the crumpled carriage while rescue workers battled to reach them as they sat 25ft up in the air at an angle of about 45 degrees, pinned in by the mangled metal.