Chessington World of Adventures has been prosecuted following safety failings that led to a 4-year-old girl sustaining severe injuries when she fell through a gap in a wooden fence and landed four metres below, whilst queuing for the Tomb Blaster ride in June 2012.
An investigation carried out by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors found that rotten paling in the wooden fence was responsible for the incident. The company did not have an adequate system of checking and inspecting the fencing and failed to ensure that defects and faults were identified and remedied it found. Judge Mrs Justice Elisabeth Laing told the court Merlin had spent £4.6m on remedial work, some of it urgent since the incident.
The fine came after Chessington failed in court to enforce a ban on an email campaign criticising its safety record. The High Court ruled in September 2014 that Dr Peter Cave, a critic of operator Merlin Entertainments, owner of Chessington, had the right to speak his mind about the Surrey theme park.
Dr Cave's survey consultancy Peer Egerton identified 2,000 safety issues in a report for Merlin.
