Today, Alton Towers has been fined £5 million pounds in court after The Smiler crash which happened in June 2015, which left 16 guests injured, 5 seriously injured.
Merlin Entertainments today went to court at Stafford Crown Court after pleading guilty to owning responsibility of some kind of the crash. The court said there was a number of health and safety warnings which made this situation worse. The judge described the crash as a "catastrophic failure" with the collision being "needless and avoidable".
(Footage from Alton Towers CCTV of The Smiler at the time of the crash)
The court held them liable for failing to protect customers in a number of ways. One of them being a 17 minute delay before Alton Towers called the emergency services. Another of these issues were employees were found to be "under pressure" of bonuses to keep the ride open and to get the ride open as quickly as possible when it goes down. Also reports show that the ride was being operated above recommend wind speeds.
The court categorised the offence under "high culpability", which would range the fine from 2 million to 6 million pounds.
Merlin Entertainments have accepted full responsibility and the executive Nick Varney saying "From the beginning the company has accepted full responsibility for the terrible accident at Alton Towers and has made sincere and heartfelt apologies to those who were injured."
“We were always aware that we would end up here today facing a substantial penalty, as has been delivered by the court today. However, Alton Towers – and indeed the wider Merlin Group – are not emotionless corporate entities."
For further information about the crash, check the following sources below.
Ride Rater - http://riderater.co.uk/