One of the most seriously injured victims of the Alton Towers rollercoaster crash was in a critical condition on Friday as the resort’s owners shut 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.

Vicky Balch, from Leyland, Lancashire, was in the front row of the rollercoaster when it crashed. The 19-year-old was in a critical condition after the “life-changing disaster”, solicitors representing her family said.

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, also 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.

Footage of the Smiler ride seconds after the crash Guardian

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.”

Daniel Thorpe, 27, a hotel assistant manager from Buxton in Derbyshire, Joe Pugh, 18, a textile design student from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, and his girlfriend Leah Washington, 17, have been named as the other three of the four most seriously injured in the crash.

Paul Paxton, a partner at Stewarts Law who is representing the Balch family, said: “Whilst it is anticipated that there will be a substantial claim for damages to support Victoria in her recovery, the main focus at present for the family is Victoria’s wellbeing and ensuring that the investigation into the accident is carried out swiftly and vigorously.

“They have every confidence in the police and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). It is expected that serious consideration will be given to criminal prosecutions. The family are distraught that a fun day out could turn into such a potentially life-changing disaster.”

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 will remain closed on Saturday, is reportedly losing around £500,000 a day until the park reopens.



Merlin, which has a market value of £4.47bn, has seen its share price fall around 4.6% since the FTSE 100 opened on the day of the crash. It fell 1% on Friday.

The HSE was removing the crashed carriages on Friday and transporting them to a laboratory in Buxton, Derbyshire.

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.”

Shaun Lundy, a safety and risk management expert and member of a HSE panel, said the decision to close the rollercoasters meant engineers had discovered a serious flaw in the safety mechanisms or that they had not yet uncovered the problem and were acting on precaution.

He said questions could be asked as to why the rides were not withdrawn earlier, but added: “If the other rides have similar safety design features to the Smiler then it would be advisable to take this action.



“I would have thought the decision would have come about following advice from the safety management team and the regulator but does not necessarily mean that they know exactly what has happened. Insurers are also often interested at this point due to increasing uncertainty on the risks and associated liabilities so pressure may have brought there as well.”













