Company Fined After Safety Failure At Bournemouth School

2 October 2013, 13:16

A Wiltshire company have been prosecuted more than three years after a Bournemouth boy got trapped in an electic gate.

Camera Security Services have been fined three thousand pounds for failing to keep the gate safe. 

A three year old, who can't be identified, escaped serious injury after getting trapped at Heathlands School in West Howe. 

He was playing around the gate when it closed on the 6th January 2010. 

Parents and passers-by were able to push the gate open just enough to prevent it from closing completely. 

The child had to be physically pulled free, but escaped serious injury. 

At a hearing, Swindon Magistrates Court heard how Camera Security Services Ltd had fitted an electronic closing device to the metal vehicle gates. 

However, they failed to fit appropriate sensor safety devices which would have automatically stopped the gates from closing completely if it detected someone was in the way. 

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found the gate automation equipment installed by the company did not meet essential safety requirements and that their assessment had failed to identify the foreseeable risks associated with the crushing point between the gate and gate post. 

The location of the gate, at the entrance to a primary school, increased the level of risk. 

Camera Security Services Ltd., of Glenmore Business Centre, Waller Road, Devizes, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11 of the Supply of Machinery Regulations 1992 and was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £7,000 in costs.