Inspector crash fine
A man involved in the botched testing of a roller coaster which subsequently crashed at M&D’s Theme Park has been fined.
Hamilton Sheriff Court heard that William Testo was “under-qualified” for the job he was doing.
Nine people, most of them children, were injured in the horrific crash at the Strathclyde Park funfair in June 2016.
Self-employed Testo, 54, of Rutherglen, admitted a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £1,000.
At the same court in May this year, equipment inspector Craig Boswell, 56, of Calderpark Road, Uddingston, also admitted an offence under health and safety legislation.
He was ordered to carry out 160 hours of unpaid community work.
The court heard of a catalogue of serious injuries sustained by the casualties, aged between 11 and 19.
One boy, aged 12 at the time, had to be resuscitated after he stopped breathing. He suffered two punctured lungs and other injuries and was placed in an induced coma for six days.
An 11-year-old boy lost part of his hand and was in hospital for four weeks. His hand was reconstructed using skin from his leg.
The boy has had 13 operations so far and more surgery is anticipated.
The court heard welding repairs carried out to axles on the ride’s individual passenger cars were “inadequate and unsound”.
M&D Leisure had employed contractors to carry out repairs and the ride had been passed safe, but the company accepted it should have involved the manufacturer or another “competent person”.
Boswell, a self-employed inspector, admitted that he hadn’t obtained a report from another inspection company before the ride was given a compliance certificate.
In the latest case, Testo admitted “failing to display the expected competency” in his testing of the roller coaster before the crash.
He was a friend of Boswell who had encouraged him to apply for the job.
Nicholas Scullion senior, defending, said Testo was “part of the system” which had failed and wished to “apologise profusely”. He is now working as a lorry driver. Sheriff Thomas Millar said it was clear that Testo was “inexperienced and under-qualified”.
But the sheriff accepted his “level of culpability was low” and he had “worked to the best of his ability”.