Students apologise to Smiler victims for 'roller coaster costume'

Students who dressed as a roller coaster for a charity pub crawl haveapologised to victims of the Alton Towers Smiler ride crash.

The group, named 7 Legless, denied the costume for the night out in Nottingham was a reference to last year's incident in which two teenagers each lost a leg.

One victim, Joe Pugh, who had been in the front row of the roller coaster with his girlfriend, Leah Washington, when it ploughed into an empty carriage, criticised the costume choice.

He tweeted: "How awful and disrespectful can people get? Disgusting."

Nottingham University Students' Union released a statement refuting a link to the crash but apologising to anyone who was offended.

It said: "The costume was in no way intended to reference the tragedy thatoccurred on the Smiler roller coaster at Alton Towers.

"Its design was based on a traditional concept that has existed for severalyears and no reference was made to the Smiler by the students involved.

"'7 legless' was intended to be a pun on the name of the bar crawl '7 Legged' and the state of being inebriated."

It added: "The students involved further wish to apologise unreservedly tothose affected by the Smiler incident for any offence or distress they may have unwittingly caused."

Vicky Balch, then 19, and Ms Washington, then 17, both had to have legamputations after the incident on June 2 2015, while Joe Pugh, Daniel Thorpe, and Chandaben Chauhan, who was sitting in the second row, were all seriously injured when their packed carriage was crushed against another car.

The theme park's owner, Merlin Entertainments, was fined £5 million last month after admitting health and safety breaches.

Judge Michael Chambers QC, passing sentence at Stafford Crown Court, called the accident a "catastrophic failure" by the company involving basic health and safety measures.