HSE issues warning to those hiring out inflatable leisure devices

Date:

26 August 2009

Release No:

HSE/WM/344/2009

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning people who hire out inflatable leisure devices that they must ensure all operators are fully trained and that the equipment is properly anchored to the ground at all times.

This follows the successful prosecution of a Shrewsbury operator, Robert Andrew Phinn, who was today (26 August) given a 12 month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £500 costs by Oswestry Magistrates' Court.

Mr Phinn from Albert Square in Harlescott pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The court heard how the former partner in the inflatable equipment hire firm Fun-4-All had hired out an inflatable bungee run to the Connexions and Youth Services division of Shropshire County Council for the West Midlands Show in Shrewsbury last year.

On the 22nd of June last year, the bungee run lifted from the ground in windy conditions and moved about 15 feet, knocking into several bystanders, some of whom may have suffered injuries as a result.

HSE investigating inspector Hilary Lidbury said:

"Employers and those who are self-employed have a responsibility to ensure the safety of people who are not working for them.

"Robert Phinn failed to warn the Connexions and Youth Services team, whom he had trained, that the inflatable should not be operated in windy conditions.

"He also failed to provide sufficient anchorage or ballast to keep the inflatable anchored to the ground.

"Inflatable play equipment which is not properly anchored is liable to lift from the ground even in relatively light winds, potentially endangering members of the public in its vicinity as well as youngsters playing on it. 

"While Robert Phinn had no intention of harming anyone, his ignorance of the appropriate standards put people's lives at risk on what should have been a happy family occasion."

Notes to editors

1. Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every self-employed person to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that he and other persons (not being his employees) who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety".

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR West Midlands.