Owners of theme park fined £1 million over Evha’s death
THE operators of Drayton Manor theme park have been fined £1 million at Stafford Crown Court for safety failings which led to the death of an 11-year-old Leicester girl on its water rapids ride.
Evha Jannath was “propelled” from a vessel on the Splash Canyon ride at Drayton Manor, 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), prosecuting the park for not properly ensuring the safety of its guests, said the theme park’s operators oversaw “systemic failures of safety” on the river rapids ride.
Drayton Manor had admitted breaching Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Sentencing Drayton Manor Theme Parks Ltd at Stafford Crown Court yesterday, Mr Justice Spencer said: “This was an utterly tragic waste of a young life.”
The HSE said the accident “should never have happened” and that Drayton Manor’s operators “failed to take the action that could have prevented Evha’s death”.
But the judge said there was “no prospect of the fine being paid” as the company operating the park at the time had since gone into administration, after years of losses brought to a head by the site’s shutdown during the pandemic.
The firm’s assets – including the park – were sold under a “pre-pack sale”, the court heard, and were under new ownership, with the attraction set to reopen on April 12.
Splash Canyon has never reopened since Evha’s death, and will not without the HSE’s agreement.
The judge said of the park’s operator: “There was a failure to make appropriate changes following prior incidents of passengers falling into the water. The failure here was noone identified the seriousness of the risk.”
The judge said safety breaches had gone on “over a long period of time”, adding: “The individual members of staff were not to blame, it was the system that was at fault.”
Evha was thrown from the raft while standing up. CCTV showed she was above water for a minuteand-a-half, before falling from a lift carrying vessels out of the rapids.
Evha was not spotted by ride staff and the alarm was only raised because a member of the public saw her fall in.
The judge said: “There was a wellrecognised risk passengers would ignore the signs telling them to remain seated and would stand or move about within the ride.”
The HSE found inadequate or faded signage telling passengers to stay seated, inadequate staff training, an element of under-staffing and a lack of emergency planning for the ride, which opened in 1993.
The judge said it was significant and surprising that boarding passengers were not told by staff to stay “seated at all times”.
JUDGE IMPOSES PENALTY FOR
SAFETY FAILIINGS BUT ACCEPTS IT WON’T BE PAID