Theme park is fined £1m over death of girl, 11
A THEME park has been fined £ 1million after ‘ systemic’ safety failings led to the death of an 11-year-old girl.
Evha Jannath was thrown from the Splash Canyon rapids ride at Drayton Manor in 2017.
Sentencing the park operators yesterday, Mr Justice Martin Spencer said: ‘This was an utterly tragic waste of a young life.’
‘Evha had a bright future. She was doing well at school and had said she wanted to be a teacher herself. The fine must reflect the seriousness of the offence. In my judgment this is plainly a case of high culpability.’
Evha had been on an end- of-year trip with friends from Jameah Girls Academy in Leicester, Stafford Crown Court heard.
She and fellow pupils were unsuper
‘A hole in the heart of the family’
vised on the rapids ride and trying to ‘get the wettest’. Evha, who could not swim, stood up when their circular boat hit a wooden barrier and was pitched head-first into the water.
She tried to climb up a conveyor belt but ended up in a deep pool.
A member of the public ran to alert staff but it took 17 minutes to rescue her and she later died in hospital. She had suffered a broken pelvis and a severe chest injury.
Mr Justice Spencer said CCTV covered only half of the ride and staff had to split their time between watching the screen and helping board the passengers.
He said it was significant and surprising that boarding passengers were not told by staff to stay ‘seated at all times’.
On the day of the accident, experts found 70 occasions of people standing in the boats but the operator had not used the Tannoy once to tell them to sit down. The court heard the Staffordshire park was guilty of health and safety failures at an ‘organisational level not a level of individuals’.
Prosecutor James Puzey said there had been ‘inadequate training’ for staff, under-staffing and no water rescue equipment.
Four incidents were recorded between 2011 and 2015 where people fell into the water on Splash Canyon. Each time, they managed to climb out or were helped out. Mr Puzey said: ‘The defendant was aware guests had fallen in, so these were not theoretical risks – it was happening once or twice a year.’
Mr Justice Spencer fined Drayton Manor Parks Ltd £1million but said there was ‘no prospect of the fine being paid’ as the company had gone into administration and the theme park was under new ownership.
Afterwards, the former Leicester East MP Keith Vaz, who has supported Evha’s family, said the past four years have been ‘torture’ for them and ‘lessons need to be learned’.
‘No one has lost their jobs as a result of this, the company will not pay this fine, no individual has said they are responsible, but there remains a hole in the heart of the family,’ he added.
The Splash Canyon ride has never reopened.