Alton Towers crash amputee Leah Washington shares inspirational video charting her journey

Alton Towers crash amputee Leah Washington has shared an inspirational video which charts her journey over the last eight years ‘since my life flipped’. 

The 25-year-old from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, has gained more than 28,000 followers on Instagram by marking her progress since the shocking accident in 2015. 

Giving an update last night, Leah said: ‘I feel the best I have felt in a long time.’

She has also offered a glimpse into preparations for ‘dream wedding’ to partner Joe Pugh, to whom she got engaged last year.

The video showed Leah’s life since the rollercoaster crash, starting with her in hospital and then showed her learning to walk on her new prosthetic leg.

It then cut to Leah taking part in sports including running track, skiing and skipping rope.

The courageous amputee, 25, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, who has gained more than 28,000 followers on Instagram by sharing her progress since the shocking accident that summer, said ‘I feel the best I have felt in a long time’ when giving an update last night

She has also offered a glimpse into preparations for ‘dream wedding’ to partner Joe Pugh , to whom she got engaged last year

The video also showed the young woman partying, modelling, and even added a few sneak peeks into her upcoming wedding.

On Instagram, Leah wrote: ‘8 years since my life flipped, how time has flown!

‘A brief little journey from then until now, a 17 year old girl thinking what was going to happen next, under confident after surgery & struggling to think positive…

‘Fast forward 8 years and I feel the best I have in a long time, planning my dream wedding, feeling continued improvements in my fitness & us of my prosthetic along side the support from my friends, family & followers.’

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 was one of two young passengers who lost a leg while Joe, suffered devastating injuries himself including two shattered kneecaps.

Leah Washington and Joe Pugh shared news of their engagement to Instagram last year

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.