This took its time getting through the courts, 7 years.
Before this happened I interviewed with FlipOut to be a manager at one of their parks, not this one, one in Birmingham, and I came away from the interview saying no way in hell will I work for them. The franchise manager for the UK was an absolute cockwomble who said the trampoline industry didn't have a problem with safety and even if it did, as long as the company couldnt be prosecuted, he wasnt interested in safety. Absolute cockwomble.
Shortly after that I started working as the health and safety manager for another trampoline franchise looking after multiple parks. I remember when these accidents happened and I how the industry reacted. They didn't have a clue what they were doing. They didnt investigate the route causes and instead looked for easy 'seen to be doing something' solutions that yes, reduced risk, but not in the right way.
In the case of people breaking their backs they bought out a PAS stating that jump towers could no longer be higher than two meters. I think the one in Chester was 4m. The height wasnt the problem, the problem was they had a very shallow foam pit, over a hard surface, and staff let the foam blocks get displaced so you landed on that hard surface not on foam. Where as our parks had an airbag beneath the foam pit. The went on to say foam pits should be over trampolines but that was the wrong decision as well as you cant properly inspect the trampoline for damage when its in a foam pit, but this was the industry at that point, new, ignorant and prone to knee jerk reactions from owners not health and safety trained people.
What dissapoints me about this judgement is that the cockwomble overseeing parks in the UK gets away scotfree. Yes, the franchise owners are responsible for their park, but it was a new industry in this country and they were very much reliant on the advice from the cockwomble on how to run the park safely. Sure, there was lots of stuff that they should have known about general health and safety practices that they didnt bother with, but there was a lot of specific stuff that the cockwomble put in place, ie a badlu designed and built park, that was his responsibility.
Did I mention the guy was a cockwomble ?
