£¼m f ine for holiday firm after boy aged 6 dies in pool
A CARAVAN park company has been hit with a £234,000 fine after health and safety failings led to the death of a sixyear-old boy.
Aidan Sands, who could not swim, died after falling into the leisure centre swimming pool – where no lifeguards or firstaiders were on duty.
Aidan’s father said his son’s death at the Red Lion Caravan Park in Arbroath, Angus, had ‘ripped [his] family apart’. The boy’s mother died of an overdose less than two years later.
Yesterday the park’s operator, Loch Earn Caravan Parks, was heavily fined after admitting that health and safety failings led to the tragedy.
Forfar Sheriff Court heard how Aidan, of Dun- dee, his mother and three siblings had arrived on a short break only three hours before his death in June 2011.
The schoolboy had been playing in a toddler pool at the Seafront Leisure Centre with his brother while his mother and two sisters swam in the main pool.
Aidan, who was 3ft 10in, then made his way to the edge of the 4ftdeep main pool with a tubular float but lost his grip of it.
CCTV captured the boy going underwater for 51 seconds before his brother noticed what was unfolding and pulled his head above the surface. He was dragged from the pool but – with no lifeguards or first aid trained staff to help – other swimmers were forced to perform CPR on Aidan.
Paramedics worked on Aidan for 40 minutes before he was taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, where he died of brain injuries four day later.
Fiscal depute Gavin Callaghan said: ‘Had the lifeguarding provision been in place, intervention would have taken place before the tragic consequences were allowed to develop.
‘The provision of lifeguards would have reduced the likelihood of the incident occurring and the failure to have lifeguards in place is therefore a significant causal factor in the resultant death.’
Loch Earn Caravan Parks, based in Errol, Perthshire, pleaded guilty on indictment to charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act. The company admitted failing to carry out a suitable risk assessment, to ensure safety of all people using the pool, adequate supervision and to provide sufficient information and training to staff.
Defence advocate Barry Smith said: ‘I am expressly instructed to tender on behalf of the company and all those associated with it the sincere condolences of that company and those people to the family of Aidan Sands.’
He said the pool now has two fulltime lifeguards in place and a tranche of other safety measures.
Sheriff Jack Brown reduced the fine from £350,000 to £234,000 because of the guilty plea.
He said: ‘It goes without saying that no financial penalty will ever reflect the loss suffered by Aidan’s family.’
Outside court Aidan’s father, Kevin Yule, said: ‘I’m glad the matter has been decided and the owners have accepted responsibility.
‘It has ripped our family apart – not just my side but both sides of the family.’
Aidan’s mother, Mandy Sands, died in February 2013. Her death certificate states she was killed by an overdose of the opiod pain medication Tramadol.
Brian Castle, of Digby Brown solicitors in Dundee, said the family had faced a ‘long and difficult road’ to get answers to their many questions in the five years since Aidan’s death.
He added: ‘This guilty plea is a belated one but it does provide some considerable comfort to the family to learn that the caravan park operator is now accepting responsibility for Aidan’s death.’
‘It has ripped our family apart’