A rollercoaster crash at Alton Towers that left four thrill-seekers seriously injured has triggered the closure of three more rides at two other theme parks.
Four riders were taken to hospital on Tuesday with serious leg injuries after a carriage full of passengers collided at speed with a test car that had come to a halt on the £18m Smiler ride at Alton Towers.
Health and safety investigators have handed the Staffordshire-based theme park a prohibition notice – a legally enforced ban – on operating the Smiler until action is taken to deal with the cause of its failure.
The 14-loop rollercoaster and the Saw ride at Thorpe Park in Surrey have been closed for the “foreseeable future” until overhauled safety rules are brought in. The Dragon’s Fury and Rattlesnake rollercoasters at Chessington World of Adventures, in Surrey, have also been shut down.
Merlin Entertainments, which owns all three theme parks, said it took the decision after Tuesday’s collision, which left riders suspended 8 metres (25ft) in the air at a 45-degree angle for several hours.
Merlin’s chief executive, Nick Varney, said: “It is an accident that should not have happened, and we are determined that it will never happen again.
“Whilst the investigation into the causes is continuing, we have identified a series of additional safety protocols that we are implementing immediately across our multi-car rollercoasters.
“These will act as an additional safeguard to further strengthen our operating and safety standards. This has been a devastating experience, and we are committed to learning the lessons from it.”
Following the crash, Merlin's shares tumbled. The company's market value apparently dropped by £160 million on the afternoon of the crash but since then has seen a steady recovery. Shares closed the following day at 6.6p higher at 450.9p.
The most seriously injured passengers have been named as Daniel Thorpe, 27, a hotel assistant manager from Buxton in Derbyshire; Vicky Balch, 19, from Leyland in Lancashire; textile design student Joe Pugh, 18, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire; and his girlfriend, Leah Washington, 17.
Aerial footage of the aftermath shows a number of ambulances rushed to the closed off section of the theme park as well as several rescue workers and cherry pickers.
Both the Smiler and Saw, the latter of which is themed around the horror-film franchise, were manufactured by Gerstlauer. The German firm also built the trains for a rollercoaster at the Six Flags Over Texas amusement park in Texas from which a woman fell to her death in 2013.
Alton Towers, which remained closed on Friday, is reportedly losing around £500,000 a day until the park reopens. Executives have said they are unsure if the park will be open at the weekend.
The Health and Safety Executive, which was removing the crashed carriages on Friday and transporting them to a laboratory in Buxton, Derbyshire, served the prohibition notice on the Smiler.
Neil Craig, HSE’s head of operations for the Midlands, said: “HSE expects the park operator to apply any early learning from the incident to wider risk management at the site. The decision about when to reopen the park is for the owners to make.”
A senior accident investigator has said the HSE inquiry could last up to two years but would establish within weeks whether a criminal negligence prosecution should take place.
John Cox, a former HSE advisory committee chair, said Alton Towers staff would be questioned and documents seized, including the rollercoaster’s design dossier, as well as maintenance and safety records.
“They are the prosecuting authority so at the very, very beginning they have to lock down the case and secure the scene so that evidence isn’t lost, in the same way police would do with a crime,” he said.
In a recording taken minutes after the collision happened, riders can be heard screaming for The Smiler to be stopped as the carriage swings back and forth.
This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: The future of our everyday devices is a material you've never heard of