A couple who suffered life-altering injuries on their first date during the infamous Smiler crash at Alton Towers nearly a decade ago have tied the knot in a magical ceremony.
Leah Washington, 26, and her husband Joe Pugh, 27, were involved in the horror rollercoaster smash back in 2015 that resulted in Leah losing a leg and both of Joe’s kneecaps being smashed in as well as the loss of sensation to one of his fingers.
Now nine years on from the traumatic event, the pair, who were actually on their first proper date when disaster struck, have declared their love for one another during their idyllic Leeds nuptials.
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The couple became engaged during a romantic getaway to Italy in 2022, years after the high-profile incident. Leah, 26, went on to enjoy a hen do with a dozen close friends and family in the Algarve in Portugal last year ahead of their big day.
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Sharing images of their wedding, beaming Leah was seen in an elegant white dress during their dazzling celebrations as Joe opted for a classic tuxedo and black tie. They married at the idyllic Woodlands Hotel in Leeds surrounded by their family and friends.
Both teenagers at the time of the terrifying theme park incident, the carriage the couple was in on the 14-loop rollercoaster smashed into an empty, stationary cart in front of them at around 50mph nearly a decade ago.
They and other passengers were trapped for four-and-a-half hours, 25ft up in the air with Leah describing the moment of impact as ” like driving a car into a brick wall”.
(Image: Sunday Mirror)
Reliving the moment, she once said: “I knew my knees were bad because I could feel flesh but I couldn’t feel pain and just thought I had broken some bones. I remember going really cold and my mouth went really dry then the pain hit me and I was in agony until the paramedics injected me with painkillers.”
The empty test carriage had stalled mid-ride due to a gust of wind and the ride’s block system shut down the ride accordingly, but it was overridden by the engineers on duty. At least 16 were injured and five people were seriously hurt.
Leah, from Barnsley in South Yorkshire and Vicky Balch from Leyland, Lancashire, were the most severely injured, having both been forced to undergo leg amputations as a result of the horror crash and were sitting in the front row at the time.
(Image: SplashNews.com)
Alton Towers and its owner Merlin Entertainments said there was a drop in visitor numbers in the aftermath of what it called a “terrible incident” and a “devastating day”.
A subsequent investigation into what went wrong on the £18 million rollercoaster found an engineer wrongly restarted the ride while a carriage sat stationary on the track in front of it. Judge Michael Chambers QC described it as a “catastrophic failure”.
Theme park owner Merlin admitted breaching the Health and Safety Act and was fined an initial £5m in September 2016. Both women who lost their legs later sued Merlin Attractions Operations Ltd for negligence, receiving a payout estimated to be in the millions.
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