Blackpool Council has been fined £18,000 after a ten-year-old boy suffered serious head injuries when part of a park swing collapsed on him. Blackpool council had been warned repeatedly that the swing needed urgent attention, Blackpool Magistrates’ Court heard on 23rd October 2013.
The young boy was playing on the tyre swing at Claremont Park in Blackpool with his friends when the incident took place in June 2011, the court heard.
The swing was connected to an arched metal beam by four chains which hung from a suspension mechanism and gave way while the child was underneath it, hitting him on the head. He was immediately taken to hospital after suffering a crushed and fractured skull and a loss of vision in his right eye. He stayed in hospital for eight days.
An investigation was launched by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) which found that Blackpool Council had been repeatedly warned about problems with the tyre swing by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa), which the council had employed to undertake quarterly inspections of the playground equipment. An engineer from Rospa told the council in March 2010 that the swing required ‘urgent attention’ because the suspension mechanism wasn’t rotating correctly. The court heard that the engineer recommended the council contact the manufacturer for advice, and the same warning was issued following a further three inspections, though the council didn’t act on these reports.
Substandard repair work on the swing most likely triggered the swing’s weakening and the HSE said that this meant other tyre swings were unlikely to be affected by the same problem.
Blackpool Council was fined £18,000 and told to pay £20,000 in prosecution costs after pleading guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act.