http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-27548277
This is something that's always in the back of my mind when on fairground rides, what state of maintence and what engineering knowledge does the person putting it together have, It's one thing being able to assemble a piece of kit, but its an other understanding the engineering behind it, worn components, hairline cracks, indications of fretting/flexing etc. do the people putting them together/maintaining them have any formal training other than whats handed down through the family, is the ride regularly inspected/certificated by an independent body, like MOT ing your car, I suspect they have to be insured ? Does the insurance company inspect them, I know things like forklifts, cranes etc we had at work were inspected by our insurance company twice a year...
The Health And Safety Exuective report says a clip and pin failed, but also noted that there were other obvious defects on the ride, I recall being on a ride with my kids some years back, it was called the Twister, a fairly common ride at most fairgrounds, the ride spins you around with a jerking sensation each time it changed direction, the carrage we were in gave a loud clonking noise every tine it changed direction, I looked at the securing pins, there was about half an inch wear in the joints, this would have been zero when new, some of the securing pins rather than being held in place by hardened "R" pins had six inch nails pushed through them and bent to keep them in position,,, an accident waiting to happen and sure enough it did, few years later it's on the TV news, people killed on one of these Twister rides due to a securing pin failure...
Kids must have their seat belts on in a MOT'd car built to ridged safety standards to drive to the fairground to get on a death trap...
This is something that's always in the back of my mind when on fairground rides, what state of maintence and what engineering knowledge does the person putting it together have, It's one thing being able to assemble a piece of kit, but its an other understanding the engineering behind it, worn components, hairline cracks, indications of fretting/flexing etc. do the people putting them together/maintaining them have any formal training other than whats handed down through the family, is the ride regularly inspected/certificated by an independent body, like MOT ing your car, I suspect they have to be insured ? Does the insurance company inspect them, I know things like forklifts, cranes etc we had at work were inspected by our insurance company twice a year...
The Health And Safety Exuective report says a clip and pin failed, but also noted that there were other obvious defects on the ride, I recall being on a ride with my kids some years back, it was called the Twister, a fairly common ride at most fairgrounds, the ride spins you around with a jerking sensation each time it changed direction, the carrage we were in gave a loud clonking noise every tine it changed direction, I looked at the securing pins, there was about half an inch wear in the joints, this would have been zero when new, some of the securing pins rather than being held in place by hardened "R" pins had six inch nails pushed through them and bent to keep them in position,,, an accident waiting to happen and sure enough it did, few years later it's on the TV news, people killed on one of these Twister rides due to a securing pin failure...
Kids must have their seat belts on in a MOT'd car built to ridged safety standards to drive to the fairground to get on a death trap...
