Dad says family day out a failure after ‘mishaps’
ADAD was left “fuming” after visiting Funderworld over what he claimed was a series of mishaps on its opening day.
Dean Mann claims he experienced rides starting late and breaking down, and he says his daughter narrowly escaped getting hit by a dodgem car.
The 32-year-old took his family to the Hengrove Park fairground last Tuesday.
Dean, of Knowle, said, “My family tried to make the best of it, but the day was a failure. My worry is how dangerous the park seemed to be when we were there.”
A Funderworld spokeswoman said it was “not possible to comment on alleged incidents”, but said tight controls ensured safety standards at the site are “maintained to a high level”.
Dean and partner Becky paid £15.99 each for entry to the fairground, while tickets for the five children cost £12.99 each.
The first ride, Dean says, started about 15 minutes late. He went on the rollercoaster with two of his children and said the seats were “covered in bird poo”.
Dean, a first aid community advocate, said: “My family and I were in a cart on the ground at the point when the ride broke down. There was a family screaming at the top of the ride. They were 25 to 30ft in the air. It was a man and three young girls. They were screaming for a little bit, they panicked and didn’t know what was going on.
“The operator was telling people to keep shuffling in their cart to get it moving again. He was bashing on buttons. It took at least 15 minutes for the ride to get going again.”
Dean took his family on another couple of rides, which he says were fine, but he claims there were problems when they came to the dodgems.
“My children passed the man at the front of the ride and he stood there with his hand lowered to his waist, and just passed a token,” Dean said.
“I went, ‘Oh, do I need this?’ He just stood there and carried on passing out more tokens. He didn’t speak.”
Dean was in a bumper car with his five-year-old daughter. His nine-yearold son, seven-year-old daughter and his son’s nine-year-old friend were each in a car of their own.
“My seven-year-old started shouting ‘it’s not working, it’s not working,’” Dean said. “I told her to put the token in, but she said, ‘I don’t understand, I didn’t get a token.’ I’m shouting across to put the token in and she’s panicking. She’s looking around.
“I turned to shout to the man at the front for help, but he was nowhere to be seen. My daughter panicked and ran across the court to my son and got in his car.
“Just as she put her seatbelt on, the ride started up. If it had been three seconds earlier, the cars would have started going when she was in the middle of the court.
“There had been no safety checks. The man didn’t check where the children were, that they were OK and what they were doing.”
He then noticed his son’s friend was sitting in his stationary car, saying: “Mine doesn’t work. What do I do?”
Dean added: “He was getting bounced around left, right and centre. It seemed the tokens were needed to start the cars, and the problem was the man hadn’t been saying ‘you need this token.’”
Dean says he complained to the operator at the exit to the ride.
“I was so angry,” Dean said. “It was by mere luck my daughter didn’t get hit. She’s only seven.”
Dean says power cuts plagued other rides at Funderworld that day.
A Funderworld spokeswoman said: “It is not possible to comment on alleged incidents. There are policies, processes and procedures which enable people to resolve their issue or have it duly processed by the appropriate authorities and agencies.
“The leisure and entertainment industry is tightly controlled to ensure safety standards are maintained to a high level. They also protect either party from unsubstantiated claims or cover-ups.”
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) spokesperson said: “HSE has been made aware of a number of concerns related to Funderworld including a power supply issue. We are making enquiries and will be sending an inspector to visit the site.”