THE ALTON TOWERS crash which left two people needing leg amputations was caused by ‘human error’ according to the theme park’s owners.
Merlin Entertaintainment have said today there was no mechanical problem with the ride, but that the control system was overridden by staff after they misunderstood a warning message.
The 2 June crash at the popular theme park saw five people seriously injured when one of the ride’s carriages crashed into the back of another carriage when it become stuck on the track.
One of the two women who had leg amputations after the crash described how she couldn’t feel her toes and was drifitng in and out of conciousness following the crash.
In a report released today, a spokesperson for Alton Towers said that “the ride itself was proven to be working properly at the time of the incident.”
“However a ride shutdown message, a warning message in the operating cabin, was misunderstood by staff at the ride,” Liz West said according to the BBC.
“This led to a decision to manually restart the ride, overriding the control system without appropriate safety protocols being followed correctly”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say