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Alton Towers fined €5.7 Million

The operator of Alton Towers has been fined €5.7 million over health and safety breaches following a...
TodayFM
TodayFM

11:43 AM - 27 Sep 2016



Alton Towers fined €5.7 Millio...

News

Alton Towers fined €5.7 Million

TodayFM
TodayFM

11:43 AM - 27 Sep 2016



The operator of Alton Towers has been fined €5.7 million over health and safety breaches following a crash on The Smiler ride last year.

Merlin Attractions, which operates the Staffordshire theme park and a number of others, admitted the offences at Stafford Crown Court.

Two teenagers - Vicky Balch, then 19, and Leah Washington, then 17 - each lost a leg in the collision in June 2015.

The court had earlier heard that an engineer "felt pressure" to return the ride to service after it developed a fault, shortly before the crash.

A report compiled by a group of consultants said that the park's management linked the payment of bonuses to "acceptably low levels of downtime" for rollercoasters.

Victims had watched with "disbelief and horror" as the carriages they were riding in ploughed into empty carriage on the track in front.

The prosecution said the impact was equivalent to a 90mph car crash.



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