Fairground fear as child slips from safety restraints

Fairground fear as child slips from safety restraints

We all love to go to the fairground; the thrill of the fast rides and the party atmosphere; it’s a lot of fun! Rides are scary enough, but when they become life threatening, it’s no longer a laughing matter.

Rides must undergo stringent testing and inspection to ensure they are safe to use, given the dangers they could potentially cause. So it’s never nice to hear when a child is injured on a ride where negligence could be involved.

According to sources from The Mirror (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/07/22/tot-thrown-from-ride-in-fair-horror-115875-22431048/), a young boy was thrown from a fairground ride after a flying shoe knocked him unconscious, resulting in him slipping from his safety restraints, plummeting to the ground.

It’s a terrifying story to hear of! Onlookers watched in fear as the three year old fell from the spinning Sky Diver (a ferris wheel type of ride with rising seats) at the Dagenham Town show in Essex. He was given first aid as his hysterical mother was consoled, and he is now said to be recovering at home. The news report states that medics struggled to reach the unconscious boy amid thousands of families attending the event. He was eventually reached and taken to Romford’s Queens Hospital.

It is not yet known whether there is a defect with the ride, or whether the boy was too small to have been on the ride in the first place. The Health and Safety Executive, together with the local council and police, are now investigating the incident.

Thankfully, the reports indicate that the young boy is recovering and will not suffer any permanent damage from the fall.

This story of course brings in to question a great deal of concerns about the safety of the ride in question. All rides have guides as to the size and age of customers being beyond or within a particular category. This could be a case of either a defect with the ride, or a safety breach by allowing the child to go on to the ride if they were not fit to do so. If the ride or the ride owners are found to be at fault for this incident, they are negligent; and are therefore liable to compensate the young boy for his suffering.

So, what should you do if you have been injured through the fault of someone else?

Seek advice from an independent specialist injury lawyer, like us here at The Injury Lawyers, for the best guidance and representation for claiming. 

Health and safety laws, rules and regulations are there for a very good reason – to protect people from coming to harm! If a person or a company fails to adhere to such rules, they must compensate the victims for their suffering.

Let’s face it; this story could have been so much worse. Thankfully, tragedy appears to have been averted. But it’s a miracle the young lad wasn’t more seriously injured. Hopefully he will make a speedy recovery.