Alton Towers amputee Leah Washington is left heartbroken at the passing of her great-grandmother – just months after losing her grandfather
- Alton Towers Smiler crash survivor Leah Washington revealed her heartbreak
- The brave woman, 22, from South Yorkshire, revealed great grandmother died
- Shared a touching tribute along with a picture of her late relative to Instagram
Alton Towers Smiler crash survivor Leah Washington has revealed her heartbreak at the loss of her great grandmother, just months after she lost her grandfather.
The brave amputee, 22, from South Yorkshire, who has garnered an almost 20,000-strong following on Instagram by sharing her progress since the shocking accident, shared a tribute to mark her loss online this week.
Posting a touching picture as she planted a kiss on her late relative, Leah wrote: ‘My beautiful and loving great grandma we will miss you forever thank you for everything you ever did for me. You were so generous, kind and gave the best advice. I love and miss you lots’.
Alton Towers Smiler crash survivor Leah Washington has revealed her heartbreak at the loss of her great grandmother in touching post to Instagram
The brave amputee, 22, from South Yorkshire, who has garnered an almost 20,000-strong following on Instagram by sharing her progress since the shocking accident, shared a tribute to mark her loss online this week
The sad post comes just months after Leah lost her grandfather in January.
Sharing a snap at the time, Leah wrote: ‘My loving and caring granddad! I will miss you so much. You can now rest in peace and out of pain. I will always be ‘your little princess’ thank you for being the best granddad’.
Leah’s posts were inundated with messages of support from her followers expressing their condolences.
The sad post comes just months after Leah lost her grandfather in January
Sharing a snap at the time, Leah wrote: ‘My loving and caring granddad! I will miss you so much. You can now rest in peace and out of pain. I will always be ‘your little princess’ thank you for being the best granddad’
The sad post comes just months after Leah lost her grandfather in January
Posting a touching picture as she planted a kiss on her late relative, Leah wrote: ‘My beautiful and loving great grandma we will miss you forever thank you for everything you ever did for me. You were so generous, kind and gave the best advice. I love and miss you lots’
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, during 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.
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, the teenager still suffers crippling pain and fatigue after standing for long periods.
Brave 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
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.
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, during June 2015 (seen)
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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