Airport fined after boy was trapped in baggage carousel Six-year-old got leg caught in reclaim area

BIRMINGHAM Airport has been fined £100,000 after a young child became trapped in its baggage conveyor belt.

The six-year-old boy was kept in hospital for three days after the “traumatic” event which was witnessed by other travellers.

Luckily he did not suffer any permanent injury in the accident which happened on September 4 last year.

Birmingham Airport admitted a charge under the Health & Safety at Work Act at the city’s magistrates court and was fined £100,000. It was also ordered to pay £1,251 costs.

The court heard the youngster had been with his father and partner in the baggage reclaim area of the airport and had wandered over to a conveyor belt used for oversize baggage.

Geoffrey Brown, prosecuting for Health and Safety, said: “This is where the conveyor met the flatbed of rollers. Where the two systems met there was a gap.

“That is where his foot and leg were drawn in and the grip caused the leg to be drawn in further.”

He said the boy was taken to Birmingham Children’s Hospital but did not suffer any fractures or breaks.

Blood was found in his urine and he was kept in for two nights for observation.

Mr Brown said there were a number of measures the airport could have taken, including installing a totally enclosed cage which was only opened when the delivery of luggage was imminent. The company could also have staffed the area.

“It was not done and the airport fell significantly short in that regard,” he said.

“It was foreseeable that a child or vulnerable person might find their way into that gap and expose themselves to risk.”

Mr Brown said there had been a previous safety arrangement in place, involving a flexible tube, designed to stop the belt if a problem arose. But that was found to have stopped the mechanism unnecessarily and was replaced by a cage, though this had not prevented access to that particular area.

District Judge Jan Jellema said it was clear that what happened had come as a severe shock to the company, which had helped the boy overcome his trauma by giving him a VIP visit to the airport.

“Nonetheless this accident should not have happened,” he said.

“The change to the cage structure may have provided a false reassurance of a substantial physical presence but which in reality was open to the exploration of a six-year-old boy, perhaps bored or investigating, while waiting for his family’s baggage to arrive at a neighbouring carousel.”

Sarah Le Fevre, defending, said the company, which had no previous convictions, had been embarrassed by its failure. There had been a warning sign, the belt concerned had been removed immediately and the accident had resulted in a wider exploration of health and safety matters, she said.