Health and Safety Questioned in Rollercoaster Incident
Any time there is a death brought about by equipment failure or death occurs at a public venue, the HSE is brought in. In 2009, a toddler was killed in North London. The toddler was killed by a rollercoaster after slipping through a gap in a fence. The inquest ruled yesterday on the case. The child had been in the Fun Bag bouncing. His father was watching him, but then the child slipped through a fence and was killed by a passing rollercoaster. An incident such as this is always taken seriously because workstation risk assessments should prevent such issues.
The yellow fencing obviously left enough room through which the child could crawl. This meant there was danger that should have been noticed on health and safety audits conducted by the fun park. The child suffered fatal head injury and impact wounds. Experts were called in to testify in the inquest to determine if there was any wrongdoing on the part of the fun park. It was mentioned that the strips were in place to make certain that the fence panels were held together at the fair. It was also mentioned that only one fence separated the fun bag the child was playing in from the rollercoaster. It was due to a lack of space that another fence was not added. It is believed the child crawled either under or between the slats. This means they were not secure enough to prevent such an incident.
