Smiler crash: 'equivalent of a family car crashing at 90mph'

Alton Towers operator Merlin is facing a very large fine over the Smiler rollercoaster crash which left two teenagers needing leg amputations and several other passengers seriously injured.

Merlin Attractions Operations Ltd had already been warned by a judge earlier this year to expect a fine for health and safety breaches which led to a carriage on the £18 million ride smashing into an empty car.

On Monday, several of those left trapped on the ride following the crash in June last year attended the start of what is scheduled to be a two-day sentencing hearing at Stafford Crown Court.

The Recorder of Stafford, Judge Michael Chambers QC, will hear evidence from the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) investigation into the crash, and mitigation from Merlin, before passing sentence.

At the beginning of the hearing, Judge Chambers said: "One of the features is not just the impact on those injured, but on those close to them."

He added that he had read all the victim impact statements.

He said the wounds suffered, both physical and psychological, had "changed the lives of the some of those injured, in the most dramatic way".

Vicky Balch from Lancashire and Leah Washington, who each lost a leg in the crash, were in court for the hearing, along with Joe Pugh, Daniel Thorpe and Chandaben Chauhan, who were also seriously hurt.

A hearing in April this year was told that Merlin had carried out its own internal investigation following the incident, which established that a worker manually "overrode" the rollercoaster's governing computer system.

Indicating a guilty plea to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act, Merlin's barrister told the previous hearing that the company accepted that additional measures could have been taken to guard against safety risks.

Lawyers for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have said the Smiler ride, which opened in 2013, never had "a proper settled system" for staff to follow when carriages stopped on the track.