Four In Hospital After Towers Crash

Four In Hospital After Towers Crash
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Four teenagers have been taken to hospital with serious injuries after 16 passengers faced a four-and-a-half hour nightmare trapped on an Alton Towers rollercoaster following a crash.

The accident happened at around 2.09pm on the Staffordshire resort's 50mph Smiler ride after two carriages crashed on a low section of the track.

Two males and two female teenagers suffered serious leg injuries in the crash, while the other 12 occupants required triage.

Their evacuation went on until 6.35pm, an Alton Towers spokeswoman said.

Steve Wheaton, Assistant Chief Ambulance officer for West Midlands Ambulance Service, said: "Of the 16 patients involved I can confirm four of them have significant lower limb injuries and were trapped in the carriage for quite some time.

"Of the other 12 patients we now believe they will be walking wounded patients and the delay has just been in extricating them from the car.

"Of the four critically injured with lower limb injuries two of them have gone to the Royal Stoke University Hospital and two of them have gone to the University Hospitals of Coventry and Warwickshire as trauma centres."