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Bolton
Wanderers Football Club has been fined £90,000 and ordered
to pay £9695 in full costs after a boy riding a motorcycle
was killed in a car park at the club's ground.
Bolton
Crown Court heard on 6 September that 14-year-old Christopher
Ormesher had been taken to the Reebok Stadium car park on
31 August 2003 by his parents to practice riding his 125cc
motorcycle. The teenager was riding the vehicle along a central
access road in the car park when he collided with an unmarked
metal chain strung across the road that was difficult to see.
The
chain rode up the fairing of the motorcycle and caught under
the boy's chin, severing his windpipe and spinal cord and
propelling him 30 metres along the road, causing further injuries
to his head, arms and legs. He died almost instantly.
In
a prosecution brought by Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council's
health and safety unit, the company pleaded guilty at an earlier
hearing to a breach of s3(1) of HSWA 1974 in failing to ensure
the safety of non-employees.
Sentencing,
Judge Clayson said the football club had fallen short of the
required standard and that the breach of the HSWA had led
to the death of Christopher Ormesher.
Investigating
officer for Bolton Council, Graham Olive, said that there
had been long-term problems with the car park at the Club.
"The company knew that motorcyclists were using the car
park illegally and I had asked it to do something about safety
on many occasions over the past four or five years."
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There
had been two previous incidents of vehicles hitting the same
chain - in May 2003 and December 2002. Although the company
had agreed to put up large high-visibility chevron boards
over the chain and take other safety measures, it had failed
to do so. "On the day of the accident, the company had
not barriered the road off, it had not put up the chevron
boards, and the chain had been put back as it was with no
markings on it," Mr Olive said.
The
company said in mitigation that it had spent a lot of money
on health and safety; it had entered an early guilty plea;
and at the time of the incident the car park was being used
unlawfully because the boy was trespassing.
Mr
Olive commented "This case highlights how important it
is for all businesses to act on advice given by inspectors.
In this case, failure to act in a timely manner resulted in
the death of a 14-year-old boy."
He
pointed out that, in general, the Council's health and safety
unit often has problems with people not doing what they are
advised. "We will advise them and tell them to do things,
but we end up having to chase them up. They think that if
they ignore us, we will go away, but we won't," Mr Olive
emphasised.
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