Sentencing hearing on theme park ride death
SENTENCING HEARING AFTER THEME PARK ADMITS HEALTH AND SAFETY BREACHES
DRAYTON Manor theme park’s operators oversaw “systemic failures of safety” on a water rapids ride on which Leicester schoolgirl Evha Jannath drowned, a court has heard.
Evha, 11, was jolted from a vessel on Splash Canyon at the park near Tamworth during an end-of-year school trip with friends from Jameah Girls Academy, in Leicester, on May 9, 2017.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) brought a prosecution against the park for not properly ensuring the safety of its guests, with Drayton Manor already admitting breaching Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
At the start of a two-day sentencing hearing at Stafford Crown Court yesterday, James Puzey, barrister for the HSE, told the judge the accident happened “in context of the systemic failures of safety on this ride”.
“The control measures they had were failing every day,” he said.
A High Court judge, who was due to pass sentence today, heard from the park’s barrister, Richard Matthews QC, who said it was “a corporate failing”.
Evha, who lived in Belgrave, was ejected from the boat while standing up out of her seat and, although initially unhurt, later fell into 12ft of water from the conveyor belt which takes vessels to the ride exit.
The HSE’s lawyers said there was “inadequate” signage for those on the ride telling them to stay seated, “inadequate training” for staff, an element of under-staffing and a lack of emergency planning.
Mr Puzey said CCTV only covered 50 per cent of the course and was “not an effective means of monitoring the boats” or their passengers’ behaviour.
The court heard although signs warned passengers to stay seated, people still got up. Mr Puzey said the management of that risk was the ride operator’s responsibility.
A technical analysis found people standing up on the ride was “relatively frequent”.
Watching CCTV of the ride on the day of the accident, experts recorded 70 occasions of people standing up in the boats.
The court also heard that in separate incidents between 2011 and 2013, four people ended up in the deepest part of the course, the trough, where Evha drowned.
In August 2013, a boy, 10, was ejected from the ride at the same point as Evha and – like her – was not spotted by ride staff, instead being pulled to safety by a quick-witted member of the public.
The ride’s most current risk assessment, from April 2014, identified the fact “guests regularly fall in due to them standing up”.
Mr Puzey said: “It is clear from the risk assessment the defendant was aware that guests had actually fallen in and this wasn’t a theoretical risk.”
The then Splash Canyon ride manager had said falls from the ride on any part of the course happened
“once or twice” a year, the judge heard.
Less than a month before the fatal incident, the ride’s operating staff raised issues about the CCTV system, people getting out of their seats and the warning signs, at a work meeting.
Mr Puzey said Drayton Manor “accepts it failed to appreciate the seriousness of risk identified”.
Although a fine of anything up to £2.5 million could be issued, the judge was told Drayton Manor Parks Ltd, which operated the site at the time, is in administration with its assets – including the park – under new ownership.
Splash Canyon has not reopened since Evha’s death.