Latest news with #JoePugh
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Alton Towers Smiler victim Leah Washington-Pugh reveals new details of horror rollercoaster crash - as she marks 10 years since her 'life changed forever'
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 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.
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Alton Towers 2015 Smiler crash 'like driving into a car at 90mph'
A couple who were seriously injured in the Smiler rollercoaster crash at Alton Towers say they can "never move on" from it, but still "couldn't be happier".Now married, Leah Washington-Pugh, then 17 and 18-year-old Joe Pugh, from South Yorkshire, were on a date when their Smiler carriage rammed into another at the Staffordshire theme park, 10 years legs were crushed, forcing the amputation of her left leg above the knee whilst both of Joe's kneecaps were shattered and some of his fingers severed in the crash, they said was "equivalent to driving into a car at 90mph". The crash, on 2 June 2015, led to operator Merlin being fined £5m, with compensation paid to the 16 victims. Speaking through their legal representatives, the pair said despite going through some dark times they had "definitely come a long way" since the the day, the couple said they had made a beeline for the ride as soon as they had entered the park. Technical difficulties had delayed them getting on, but "I never thought anything of it," said Leah. After eventually setting off, their carriage had "gone around a corner and crashed straight into the empty cart," she explained. "I think if I remember rightly if you compare it to a car accident it was the equivalent of driving into a car at 90 miles and hour, it was pretty severe," added Joe. "And then I looked down at my legs and realised that something wasn't right," said Leah. "I looked at Joe and Joe's little finger was hanging off." Stranded on the ride for about four hours, she credits emergency workers for saving her life. "The air ambulance was flying in blood for me because I was just losing that much," she said. "If it wasn't for the air ambulance and other services on the day I know I wouldn't be here today." 'Learn to live again' Following her rescue, Leah spent five days in intensive care and was in hospital for eight weeks. After being discharged "navigating life in normal surroundings was quite difficult at the start," she said. "We had to learn not only how to walk again and live again, but how to build a relationship again with each other," added Joe. The couple said supporting each other through their recovery had been "really important"."Yes, our injuries were there and everything else around us was going off, but we still had that relationship and friendship and that got us through everything." "Fast forward ten years we're both really happy," continued Joe. "We're now married, we're almost a year into us marriage, we've got a beautiful home together we couldn't be happier." The crash was "utterly shocking" and "unlike anything that had ever happened the world over," according to one industry expert. Vicky Balch, of Leyland, Lancashire, also needed a partial leg amputation after the crash. "Knowing quite a bit about the theme park industry, it was a shock as to how it could have happened and what would have been the cause," said European Coaster Club journalist Marcus Gaines."The incident attracted worldwide attention which shows how rare and unusual it was and what a major incident it was," he added. Merlin Attractions Operations Ltd admitted breaches of the Health and Safety Act in what bosses called "the most serious incident" in Alton Towers' the fine on Merlin, Judge Michael Chambers QC said the crash had been foreseeable, but accepted the company which owns Alton Towers had subsequently taken full and extensive steps to remedy the problems that led to it happening. 'Unprecedented accident' Mr Gaines added that at the time the UK was recognised as one of the leading experts in amusement park safety. "Lots of other countries don't have any real regulation about ride safety," he said. He said safety measures put in place since the crash included visual checks where staff physically inspect the entire length of the track to ensure it is clear."We've had this horrific accident, but it is unprecedented that that accident happened," Mr Gaines continued."I think the fact that we haven't seen anything like that before, and we've not seen anything like it in the 10 years since, shows what high standards we do have in the UK." Reflecting on a decade since the accident Leah said: "You've always got to find the positive in the negative and just got to grab life, because it's so precious, and make the most of it".The couple are using the anniversary to host a ball to support the Staffordshire Air Ambulance, Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the LimbBo Foundation, a charity which supports limb-different accident was "tragic," Leigh added, but it has also "fetched a lot of happiness and experiences that we would never have had." Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
