Two of the people injured in the Alton Towers rollercoaster crash were a teenage couple enjoying a day out together, family members said on Wednesday as sources said the accident was likely due to human error.
Among the four seriously injured was Joe Pugh, 18, who was on The Smiler ride with his girlfriend, Leah Washington. The couple are from Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
Four riders were airlifted to hospital on Tuesday when a carriage full of passengers collided at speed with a test car that had come to a halt on the £18m ride. West Midlands ambulance service said they were two men aged 27 and 18, and two women aged 19 and 17. A total of 16 people were hurt.
Pugh’s father, Simon, confirmed his son, a barman and Huddersfield University student, was involved in the incident.
Steve Hibbert, bar manager at the Oaks Working Men’s Club, where Pugh is employed, said he was shocked to see him being carried away from the scene on a stretcher in television footage.
“Joe was in the front row with his girlfriend when the incident happened,” Hibbert said. “We just want to wish him well and his job is still here when he’s feeling better.”
Friends of Pugh expressed their shock on social media. On Twitter, Jessica Martin said: “Cannot actually believe what’s happened! Get well very soon Joe Pugh. Just seen you on the news, can’t miss that jacket haha! Love you.”
One former Alton Towers employee explained that The Smiler could have up to five cars moving around the track at once and a “block system” run by sensors prevented two cars entering specific sections at the same time.
“Only one car at a time is permitted in each block and, at the end of each, there is a section where a train can be stopped if it needs to be,” the former worker said.
“It looks like it will have been down to both human and mechanical error. Really a computer runs the ride and a member of staff just presses a button to release the cars from the station.
“Technically, it should be absolutely impossible for two cars to enter the same block, which is down to sensors run by a computer.
“But as horrible as it is to say, a member of staff should probably not have released the car from the station when an empty one hadn’t made it back.”
Another former staff member said: “The block system should have been clear before another craft is able to enter that section of the ride. If it was not, the whole ride should have automatically shut down.”
It has emerged that The Smiler was manufactured by German firm Gerstlauer, which also built the trains for a rollercoaster in Six Flags Park in Texas from which a woman fell to her death in 2013.
The Health and Safety Executive has launched an investigation into what went wrong and to determine whether the theme park was operating the ride within the law.
The owners of Alton Towers, Merlin Entertainments, said the park would remain closed as the investigation continues. “The decision has been taken that Alton Towers theme park will remain closed tomorrow following the incident on The Smiler,” a spokesman said.
