Leah Washington and Joe Pugh were both teenagers riding the Smiler when it crashed in 2015. Leah’s leg was later amputated and Joe had shattered knees. Leah showed off her engagement ring in a photo from Venice on her Instagram page. She received thousands of likes and wrote: “So this happened yesterday… I SAID YES.” Joe wrote on his Instagram page “What a great end to a long weekend in Venice… SHE SAID YES” The pair, from Barnsley in South Yorkshire, were among 16 people hurt in the crash, five of them seriously, when two carriages on the ride collided in June that year. An investigation by the Staffordshire theme park in November 2015 found it had been caused by human error. Joe Pugh, who was 19 when the crash happened, and Leah Washington, then 18, continued dating Theme park owner Merlin admitted breaching the Health and Safety Act and was fined £5m in September 2016. Leah and Vicky Balch, of Leyland, Lancashire, who also lost a leg as a result of the crash, later announced they were suing Merlin for negligence and or breach of statutory duty.
