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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

James said:
Haha, back away slowly, topics can become lethal during closed season. :p
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I know lol. I am even keeping out of music debates lol!!

I got sucked into all that during my first closed season, this Chessington topic has the ability to induce serious H&S and Penguin rage!

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Chessington has pleaded guilty to a breach in health and safety, admitting failures regarding the maintenance of the Tomb Blaster queue line. Sentencing is taking place on Monday, doesn't look good on Merlin's part..

BBC News said:
Chessington World of Adventures in Surrey has admitted safety breaches after a girl of four fell 14ft (4.2m) and suffered a bleed on the brain.

The girl's skull was fractured in 2012 when she fell from the queue for the Tomb Blaster ride.

Guildford Crown Court was told that water dripping from a roof had rotted fence posts lining the queue to the ride.

The theme park will be sentenced on Monday.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) brought the prosecution accusing it of failing to properly inspect and maintain fences.

It said there had been systemic failures by Chessington in the way it maintained the queuing area and that it failed to record its maintenance schedule although the route was checked every day.

The court was told that on the day the girl, from Kent, was injured another family further up in the queue had to grab their daughter by her coat to stop her falling over the fence.
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Source
 
It looks better than the defiant stance they initially took. I'm pleased they've seen sense and admitted guilt. Another Warwick Castle-style protesting of innocence, under public ownership wouldn't have gone down well.
 
It certainly looks better to admit they've done something wrong, but it looks bad on such a huge company to allow something this serious to happen in the first place is the point I was trying to get at :)
 
Tom said:
Failed to maintain fencing in a public elevated place. You can simplify it or ridicule it all you want, but you're wrong to do so.
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Don't even bother - it's a waste of time. Neither of them have any understanding of basic H&S legislation.
 
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Sam said:
Don't even bother - it's a waste of time. Neither of them have any understanding of basic H&S legislation.
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I'm not sure if even that is necessary is it? Surely it's obvious that they should be protecting guests from injury.
 
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My point is, wood rots everywhere, local parks have ageing fences, it's simply an act of god. It is called an accident for a reason you know.
 
BenBowser said:
My point is, wood rots everywhere, local parks have ageing fences, it's simply an act of god. It is called an accident for a reason you know.
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Thing is, the local council is less of a surprise.

Chessington is a premium theme park where people pay a hefty sum of money for the experience.

Wood should not be rotting there.
 
It's clear that the fences should have been checked and replaced if they were in a state of disrepair. Would have cost a lot less than the huge fine they will rightly receive for this.

You cannot defend Chessington or Merlin here, it was a simple and almost fatal failing on their part. I am just pleased they have pleaded guilty.

:)
 
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there is two sides to health and safety. the employer and employee, or in the case of a theme park. the company and the guests.
It is the duty of the company to make sure reasonable steps are taken to ensure the guest safety. and it the duty of the guest to take reasonable steps to ensure they own safety. I would love to see the report on the tomb blaster incident, as this would show the risk factors that came together to allow the incident to happen.
 
Let me make my views here absolutely clear.

This is a Theme Park that is predominantly aimed at children, they charge you a fortune to enter and environment in which as a parent you have certain expectations, this is not a FREE PUBLIC PARK. This is a place that charges nearly 50 quid for very small child. For that money you expect to be able to afford your kids some freedom in a safe environment.

This is not an assault course, a large adventure playground, or a big grown up amusement park.

This is aimed nowadays SQUARELY at children, children sometimes run off, or climb on things, or do stuff like that - remember, that's what kids do.

If you want the parents money, to this degree, you provide a safe environment.

I have not seen the reports so I am not casting judgements, what I am saying is, it is beyond unreasonable to attribute the same levels of responsibility to an adult behaving irresponsibly to a child in what is advertised as predominantly an environment to take your children.

A prosecution of this nature would suggest that they failed in this provision. This is not a fine. This is SENTENCING. If they did not maintain a safe FENCE on a significantly raised platform that holds many little kids, there is ONE PLACE that responsibility falls!

If it's a fence, the idea of which, is to keep you IN, and it FAILS due to lack of maintenance, and a child suffers a serious injury as a result, there is no defence and that is in no way shape or form justified with the H&S gone mad responses.
 
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