Leah Washington
Surgeons have been forced to amputate the left leg of Leah Washington

Surgeons at the Royal Stoke University Hospital have been forced to amputate the left leg of Leah Washington after the teenager sustained serious injuries in The Smiler crash at Alton Towers.

Washington, 17, was on a date with Joe Pugh, 18, when the carriage they were in slammed into a stationary one on Tuesday, 2 June.

University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust today confirmed she had her left leg amputated above the knee and that the teenager also suffered a fractured left hand.

Alton Towers today partially re-opened to the public for the first time since last week's horror crash on The Smiler rollercoaster that left four people seriously injured.

Alton Towers
Joe Pugh and Leah Washington were riding The Smiler at Alton Towers Facebook

The Staffordshire theme park has been closed since Wednesday (3 June) at a reported cost of £500,000 a day since a carriage on the Guinness World Record holder ride slammed into a stationary one.

Pugh, Washington, Victoria Balch, 20 and Daniel Thorpe, 27, all sustained leg injuries in the crash and were airlifted to hospital for treatment.

Washington will be in line for hundreds of thousands of pounds in damages.

"(Safety measures) clearly weren't adequate on Smiler, because the accident happened ... I want to be able to look everybody in the eye and promise them when they come to our parks and get on our rides that they are safe."

- Nick Varney, chief executive of Merlin Entertainment

Merlin chief executive, Nick Varney, said the "We closed the park immediately whilst preliminary investigations took place and to give our staff time to come to terms with the accident and its aftermath. In recent days our management team have been engaged in a thorough review of our operating and safety procedures before making this decision."

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