Fairground ride owner and private inspector convicted after women are flung from ride

Date:

22 June 2010

Release No:

WM153/10

The owner and inspector of a faulty fairground ride have been convicted of health and safety breaches after two women needed hospital treatment after being flung from it.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) brought a prosecution against both the owner and the inspector of the Orbiter ride at Moxley Park Fairground in Bilston, West Midlands for breaching health and safety regulations.

Wolverhampton Magistrates Court heard how Jessica Oseland and Alison Foxall were on the 27-year-old revolving ride on 6 May 2006 when the incident happened.

Ms Foxall suffered head, neck and back injuries, but was released from hospital soon after the incident. However, Ms Oseland received severe spinal injuries and spent months recovering at a specialist centre, before moving to a specially adapted house.

Thomas Denzil Jones, of Cradley Heath, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 5 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. He was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £5,000 costs.

Fairground Inspection Services, the company tasked with carrying out safety tests on the ride, was ordered to pay £35,000 compensation to Ms Oseland after pleading guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The Orbiter featured a rotating vertical pole with six arms - each holding a cluster of spinning cars. The car the two women were in broke away from the arm and was flung through the air before coming to rest near an adjacent fast-food stall.

The ride had only been operating for 20 seconds and was not up to full speed when the malfunction occurred. The court heard that if it had been up to full speed, the consequences for the women, and those in the vicinity of the ride, could have been fatal.

An investigation showed the there was a failure of a weld that held the car to the ride. Despite receiving an annual inspection, which took place just weeks before the incident, the problem was not detected.

HSE inspector Gareth Langston said: "These two young women suffered serious injuries but the results could have been much, much worse. If the ride had been at full speed, we could have been looking at a fatal incident, with possible injuries to other passengers on the ride as well as onlookers.

"As the ride's owner, Mr Jones had a duty to ensure his ride was maintained in good working order, while Fairground Inspection Services had a duty to carry out a thorough inspection. They both failed in their responsibilities and have left these two young women with life-long injuries."

In November 2009, Fairground Inspection Services admitted failing to properly examine a similar ride in Suffolk, breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. It was then ordered to pay a £8,000 fine with £1,000 costs.

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement.
2. Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."
3. Regulation 5 of The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states: "Every employer shall ensure that work equipment is maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair [and] ensure that where any machinery has a maintenance log, the log is kept up to date."
4. Visit http://www.hse.gov.uk to see more information and other HSE press notices.

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News & PR (West Midlands)