Gloucester Crown Court
A Cotwolds-based activity centre, Head 4 Heights, has been cleared of health and safety failings after a 10 year old girl fell from a 10m platform and suffered serious injuries.
The trial heard from instructor Andy Russell, a former employee, and managing director, Rod Baber, regarding the incident which happened in July 2015 at the centre in Cotswold Water Park.
The girl, who could not be named, was attached to a three-loop spreader bar, which should have held her weight as she jumped from the platform in a simulated free-fall.
But half-way up the ladder to the platform she back came down, and when she re-ascended Russell had not secured the bar correctly, causing her to fall and break her wrist and dislocate her elbow.
Russell had mistakenly set up the device like a different product also used by the company.
New device
Health and safety consultant Stephen Flanagan, who is an accident expert at amusement parks and leisure resorts, told Gloucester Crown Court the device was new to the firm, and was introduced in ‘an uncontrolled way’ that ‘led to a failure to identify the increased risk of human error which would result.’
He said that having two separate devices – one with a single loop and one with a triple loop – was like using the wrong credit card and putting the wrong PIN into an ATM as a result.
Therefore it gave the ‘potential for the operator to use the wrong routine’.
Primary issue
But company owner Baber outlined safety was ‘always our primary issue’ to the prosecution, local authority, Cotswold District Council.
He said the firm undertook daily and monthly inspections, documented operational inspections as well as annual inspections. It also did independent inspections, with files going back to 2003.
Baber also outlined how the firm had a ‘near miss book’ which provided the team with learning for the future.
Responsibility
Russell also said the incident was entirely his responsibility, and the company was not at fault. The firm was standing trial for failing to make a suitable and sufficient risk assessment and failing to ensure that people were not put at risk.
Prosecutor Bernard Thorogood asked Russell if a second instructor to check harnesses would have assisted with safety, or if using different coloured straps would have helped.
He admitted that a second person whose sole job it was to check equipment would have assisted in safety checks, but stressed that the accident was his responsibility and was the result of human error.
Excellent culture
A psychologist, Dr Tim Marsh, supported the defence, stating there was an ‘excellent’ organisational culture within Head 4 Heights.
The local authority had claimed there was not enough paperwork on risk assessment, but Marsh said the ‘hands on’ approach was ‘entirely appropriate’.
He said it was ‘clear what they had to do’ and was too simple a task to have any benefit from being written down.
Marsh claimed a number of organisations had good paperwork but not actual safety ‘on the ground’ – or ‘safety as done not as said’.
Verdict
The firm was cleared of all charges by the jury who deliberated for three and a half hours on the case, acquitting them of the two alleged offences of failing to ensure public safety.
The trail lasted 11 days.
