Alton Towers operator Merlin Attractions has been fined £5 million at Stafford Crown Court after admitting health and safety breaches over The Smiler rollercoaster crash.
The crash left two teenagers needing leg amputations, and several other victims with serious injuries.
Several victims of the crash were in court, where the hearing was told the force of the rash was equivalent to a family car crashing at 90mph.
The Smiler rollercoaster crash at Alton Towers was a "catastrophic failure" of health and safety and could have been "easily avoided" by a suitable written system to deal with ride faults and a proper risk assessment, Judge Michael Chambers QC has told Stafford Crown Court.
Concluding the two-day sentencing hearing, he said the injured "endured great pain and distress" while waiting for medical help, with the first 999 call not made until 17 minutes after the crash. It took up to five hours for them to be freed from the wreckage.
"Human error was not the cause as was suggested by the defendant in an early press release," he added.
"The defendant now accepts the prosecution case that the underlying fault was an absence of a structured and considered system not that of individuals' efforts, doing their best within a flawed system.
"Members of the public have been exposed to serious risk of one train colliding with another with a computer control system was reset, having been overridden to address a fault."
A video showing the moment a carriage on the Smiler rollercoaster at Alton Towers crashed into an empty car has been shown in court.
Merlin, the operator of the park, has been told it should expect a "very large fine" for breaching health and safety.