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Practice meets perfect
May/June 2023 issue

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Catering and leisure
News

*UPDATE* Rollercoaster inspector missed entrapment risk

Open-access content Wednesday 14th June 2017
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

Lucy Hibbert, from New Zealand, boarded the Ladybird rollercoaster at 2.15pm on 5 June 2012 with her cousin and six other family members. The ride was designed to complete two circuits of a figure-of-eight-shaped track.

During the first circuit Lucy's right leg came out of the side of the car and became trapped between it and the platform edge when the train pulled into the station. Her leg was drawn along the 15 m platform as the rollercoaster passed through the station and embarked on the second circuit.

She sustained ligament, cartilage and nerve damage to her leg and foot.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Kate Dixon served an improvement notice on LVA on 12 June 2012. She told IOSH Magazine that the need for a prohibition notice was obviated by the company's promise to close the ride until it had reduced the risk of entrapment.

By 3 July that year, LVA had fitted a fibreglass panel to the right side of each of the cars. Children accompanied by adults now are required to sit on the right and the height requirement for unaccompanied children was increased from 1.1 m to 1.2 m.

LVA built ramps at the ends of the station platforms to remove the point where limbs could be drawn in. "The ramps eliminated the sudden start of the platform, which was a very obvious entrapment risk," Dixon said. "If your foot was outside of the carriage, the ramp would lift it up and over the platform, rather than it becoming caught."

The company updated signage and put up additional notices warning passengers to keep their hands, arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. It also introduced two-way radio communication for the ride's operator to use in times of emergency.

During its investigation the HSE found that LVA had contracted David Geary (who was trading at DMG Technical Services) to carry out design maturity risk assessments on all of the theme park's rides, which he did between 2000 and 2002. Under the Amusement Device Inspection and Procedures Scheme (ADIPS), a design maturity risk assessment is required on devices manufactured before October 1997.

Geary risk assessed the rides again in 2006, however he had failed to consider the possibility of lower limb entrapment on the Ladybird, the HSE found.

Dixon said: "[The risk assessment] mentioned shearing and entanglement but absolutely nothing about entrapment. It also mentioned fingers, hands, hair and clothing, but nothing about legs or feet either."

It HSE also found the ride operator had failed to check that Lucy's lap bar was in place and that she was wearing her seatbelt.

Both parties were sentenced at York Crown Court on 26 May, when Judge Andrew Stubbs said there was a "lack of dialogue as if the piece of paper alone was sufficient. There was also a failing in the way the ride was operated."

LVA pleaded guilty to breaching s 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work (HSW) Act in July 2015. It was fined £40,000 ordered to pay £17,000 towards the prosecution costs.

The judge determined that LVA's culpability was medium and placed the offence in harm category 3: "The likelihood of harm was low but a large number of people were exposed to the risk and the breach was a significant cause of harm," he said. The company had an annual turnover of £6m and was classed a small organisation under the sentencing guidelines.

Geary was found guilty of breaching s 3(2) of the HSW Act and was fined £7,500 plus £2,500 costs. Judge Stubbs said it was "not in the interests of justice to apply the guideline as if I were sentencing an individual" because [Geary] was "plainly operating as an organisation".

You may also be interested in...

The Ladybird rollercoaster | This photo, "Lightwater Valley 035", is copyright 2010 Jeremy Thompson and made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

 Contractor failed to identify ‘foreseeable’ risk of entrapment on rollercoaster

Wednesday 31st May 2017
Five-year-old New Zealander Lucy Hibbert was on holiday in the UK with her family when the accident happened on 5 June 2012 at Lightwater Valley Theme Park, North Yorkshire.The Ladybird rollercoaster was returning to the station (the area where passengers board and exit the ride) when Lucy’s right leg came out of the carriage and became trapped between it and the platform edge. Her leg remained caught as the ride advanced the full length of the platform. Lucy sustained ligament, cartilage and nerve damage to her leg and foot.
Open-access content

 Irish engineers fined €750,000 for unsafe lift pit

Friday 7th July 2017
On 2 March, Tralee Circuit Criminal Court heard that Ellickson Engineering’s installation for the refuge space safety system in the inspection pit at the bottom of the lift shaft failed to include critical components required to ensure a safe minimum space between the base of the lift and the pit. The lift could have crushed anyone in the pit carrying out maintenance work.The omission came to light when the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) investigated a lift failure on 9 July 2011 that dropped five hotel guests about 5.85 m to the hotel’s basement level.
Open-access content
Lewes Crown Court. Image credit: © REX/Shutterstock

 Millionaire businessman and foreman convicted for manslaughter over fatal fall

Wednesday 14th June 2017
The incident, which took place in September 2014, occurred only a year after a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspection identified poor work at height standards at the same site, and work was stopped until improvements were made. The HSE had found numerous openings in the first floor, through which anyone working in the building could have fallen several metres. Training for site workers was also found to be inadequate.
Open-access content
The JCB drove through the wall | Image credit: HSE

 *UPDATE* ‘Man of straw’ lands suspended sentence for botched demolition

Friday 16th June 2017
The building on High Street in Ramsgate was owned by Panther VAT (PAL), a subsidiary of property investment company Panther Securities. It was an old textile printing factory with a historic frontage, but PAL had planned to convert it into 20 flats and had contracted sole trader Martin Elmes to undertake the demolition work.
Open-access content
Image credit: ©LongQuattro

 £700 wheel handler could have saved JCB reseller £67k fine

Friday 9th June 2017
Holt JCB instructed the apprentice to replace the machinery’s air-filled wheels with foam ones on 8 April 2016, Swansea Magistrates’ Court was told. As he did, one of the 400 kg tyres fell on him and broke bones in both his feet. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the company had failed to risk assess the job, had not trained staff on how to handle tyres, and did not have any wheel handling equipment at the site in Port Talbot, Wales.
Open-access content

 Suspended sentence for contractor over botched demolition job

Thursday 8th June 2017
Canterbury Crown Court was told that the building on High Street in Ramsgate was owned by Panther AL (PAL), a subsidiary of property investment company Panther Securities. PAL contracted Martin Elmes to undertake the demolition work but did not confirm that he was suitable and competent to complete the task.
Open-access content
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