A serious accident at Cardiff's Winter Wonderland has sparked a new inspection regime of fairground rides in the UK. In November 2022 two people were hospitalised after they reportedly "came off" a ride at the attraction.
According to eyewitnesses at the time a number of people fell from the Ice Skater ride after a "massive bang" was heard. A spokesman from the Welsh Ambulance Service confirmed that two patients were taken to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.
Britain’s workplace regulator the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated the accident and will now carry out hundreds of inspections on rides this summer. It follows a string of similar incidents in London, Barrow, Hull, and Barnsley as well as a fatal incident in 2016.
Read more: Man on stag do prompts huge emergency response after jumping into River Taff
The HSE inspection campaign aims to promote the safe use of certain rides. HSE inspector David Kivlin said: “When there is a failure or incorrect operation of a ride it can result in catastrophic consequences. HSE recognises that recent incidents, including the prosecution of operators following a fatal incident in March 2016 involving inflatable devices, have raised public awareness of the potential for injury and harm to users of such devices when they are not set up, maintained, and operated in line with manufacturer guidance or good practice standards.
"HSE’s overall strategy is to promote the safe use of fairground rides and inflatable devices and in doing so reduce the risk of such catastrophic incidents to as low as is reasonably practicable." Starting this month HSE will carry out 100 targeted inspections of specific fairground rides with the programme set to finish by September.
The inspection programme comes as HSE continues to build upon intervention work undertaken in previous years to address emerging safety issues in the fairground industry. The rides being targeted are Round-Ups, Crazy Frogs, Twists, high-speed rides, and Star Flyers used at travelling fairground and theme park sites. Each of the rides will be inspected to ensure that they are safe for workers and passengers to use and are being correctly maintained and operated.
HSE will focus on these particular rides following a number of incidents at different fairgrounds and theme parks. Several of these incidents are now being investigated by HSE.
The regulator continues to investigate two incidents involving Twist rides which took place at Cardiff Winter Wonderland in November 2022 and Cavendish Park, Barrow, in August 2021. HSE has also investigated high-speed ride incidents at Hull Fair in October 2019, at Yiewsley Wood, West Drayton, in April 2018, as well as Brockwell Park, London, and Penny Pie Park, Barnsley, which both occurred in August 2019.
In addition HSE said it was aware of an incident involving a Star Flyer ride at Planet Fun, Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, in July 2021. Another HSE intervention in 2022 identified that the control system being used for the restraint system on a Crazy Frog ride was inadequate and needed improvement.
Should HSE inspectors from the national fairground inspection team (NFIT) identify any ongoing risk of serious personal injury a spokesman said enforcement action will be taken according to HSE’s enforcement management model. There are a range of enforcement options available to HSE including providing information face-to-face or in writing, serving Improvement and prohibition notices, and prosecution. Inspectors will also be looking to help ride owners and operators understand the risk involved with these rides.
READ NEXT:
- Bomb squad called to Welsh beach after explosive discovered
- Jehovah's Witness organisation 'not liable' for rape of woman by elder
- Killer driver says he'd drunk 10 double shots and taken cocaine
- Police discovered £29,000 worth of drugs in man’s home
- Drunken man was frothing at the mouth during struggle with police officers
