Alton Towers crash amputee Leah Washington, 24, reveals her engagement to Joe Pugh – six years after they survived the rollercoaster collision on their first date
- Alton Towers Smiler crash survivor Leah Washington shared engagement news
- Her fiancé, Joe Pugh, was also a victim of the rollercoaster crash six years ago
- The amputee shared a photo of the couple in Venice to her 25,000 followers
Alton Towers crash amputee Leah Washington has announced her engagement to boyfriend Joe Pugh – six years after they survived rollercoaster crash on their first date.
The courageous amputee, 24, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, who has gained almost 26,000-followers on Instagram by sharing her progress since the shocking accident that summer, shared a picture of the couple’s happy announcement.
Showing off her diamond ring, she smiled as Joe, 25, beamed behind her, after proposing in Venice, with Leah writing: ‘So this happened yesterday… I SAID YES’.
Joe also shared a snap of their Italian short getaway, writing: ‘What a great end to a long weekend in Venice… SHE SAID YES.’
Leah Washington and Joe Pugh recently shared news of their engagement to Instagram while abroad
Leah shared a photo of her sparkling diamond ring alongside perfectly manicured nails during the couple’s trip to Venice
As congratulatory comments rolled in, Joe’s mother publicly gave her blessing, saying: ‘Fabulous news . Lots of love to you both’.
The engagement comes after the decision to buy a Yorkshire bungalow together, which the happy couple have been enjoying since November last year.
Leah was on her first proper date with boyfriend Joe Pugh when the Smiler rollercoaster carriage smashed into a stationary train at Alton Towers, in Staffordshire, in June 2015.
Leah from Barnsley, was one of two young passengers who lost a leg while Joe, suffered devastating injuries himself including two shattered kneecaps.
The couple beamed as Leah shared their exciting news to her 25,000-strong Instagram following
In spite the trauma of the crash, the pair have stayed together and often post pictures of their days out on social media.
Despite having a state-of-the-art £60,000 prosthetic leg which allows her to walk unaided, she still suffers crippling pain and fatigue after standing for long periods.
An investigation into the 2015 accident concluded that the crash was due to human error; an engineer had wrongly restarted the ride while a stationary carriage was on the track in front of it.
Alton Towers owner Merlin Attractions were fined £5million for health and safety breaches which were blasted by Judge Michael Chambers QC as a ‘catastrophic failure’.
They were fined an initial £5million, and interim payments have covered Leah and Joe’s medical and physio bills to date – but the pair have also submitted a ‘substantial’ compensation claim.
Leah’s £60,000 prosthetic leg – which contains a microprocessor knee – will need replacing every few years, which will amount to hundreds of thousands of pounds over her lifetime.
What happened during the Alton Towers Smiler crash?
On June 2, 2015, visitors were removed from the Alton Towers Smiler ride after a warning light indicated a fault.
Staff sent a test train around the track, but it didn’t make it around. Due to a breakdown in communication, staff did not realise this carrigage was still sitting on the track.
Passengers were let back on but as the first carriage made its way around, the computer system stopped it because it showed something was blocking the track.
Engineers were still not aware that there was a fifth carriage sitting on the track and overrode a fault which had been detected by the computer system, sending the ride crashing into an empty carriage with the force of a ’90mph car crash’.
At least 16 were injured and five people were seriously hurt.
Leah Washington from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, and Vicky Balch from Leyland, Lancashire, were both forced to undergo leg amputations as a result of the horror crash.
The Smiler at Alton Park, where 16 people were injured in a 2015 collision (file picture). An investigation found that a computer block stopping the ride because of a stationary car on the track had been over-ridden by staff, causing the crash
Joe Pugh, also from Barnsley, and Daniel Thorpe, 28, from Buxton, Derbyshire, also suffered serious leg injuries, along with 49-year-old Chandaben Chauhan.
The trapped ride-goers had to wait more than four hours to be freed from the crumpled carriage while rescue workers battled to reach them as they sat 25ft up in the air at an angle of about 45 degrees, pinned in by the mangled metal.
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