Thames Coromandel District Council must pay a victim of a fall from a collapsed giant inflatable slide, like this one, $10,000. Photo / Supplied
Thames Coromandel District Council must pay a victim of a fall from a collapsed giant inflatable slide, like this one, $10,000. Photo / Supplied
A council has been ordered to pay the most injured victim of a giant inflatable slide collapse $10,000 for its part in the disaster that resulted in a dozen people, mostly children, falling from heights of up to 12 metres.
Louwan van Rooyen, who was on the slide at the Whangamatā Summer Festival in December 2020, broke both his ankles in the fall and has since required 11 surgeries.
WorkSafe prosecuted the slide’s operator, JTK Trustee Limited, trading as Fun Solutions.
The company was fined $350,000 and ordered to pay more than $40,000 in reparations and consequential loss reparations of $12,958 in August last year.
Now Thames Coromandel District Council [TCDC], which authorised Fun Solutions to operate the slide that day, has been sentenced for its part in failing to keep festival-goers safe and failure to manage a shared risk.
The council was convicted in the Tauranga District Court last Friday and ordered by Judge Bill Lawson to pay $10,000 reparation to van Rooyen.
WorkSafe area investigation manager Paul West said: “Over and above the operator’s obvious failures, the council plainly failed to do its due diligence on an operator with a poor safety record”.
By the time the council authorised Fun Solutions to operate the slide, JTK Trustee Ltd had had 11 prior interactions with WorkSafe, including an incident in 2015 at the Masterton A&P show where a huge slide became overloaded and collapsed – injuring six children.
Eric Mitchell Gerritsen, of JTK Trustee Ltd, trading as Fun Solutions, after a previous court appearance in Hamilton in 2017. Photo / NZME
The company’s director, Eric Gerritsen, was fined $115,000 for obstructing WorkSafe’s investigation.
A Fun Solutions slide also collapsed in 2016 at a Hamilton Gardens event and 10 children fell about 10m.
In response, WorkSafe issued a directive letter, and Hamilton City Council later banned the company from operating at the site.
In the Whangamatā incident at Williamson Park, WorkSafe found JTK applied to TCDC using an old form that didn’t require confirmation the slide met safety standards.
A permit was given three days after JTK applied, without the council doing any of the checks recommended by its own staff, WorkSafe found.
There were no rules displayed for the slide, no instructions were given, and no weight or age information, and there were no workers at the top of the slide at the time of its collapse, witnesses said.
They also claimed people who were on the slide were not evacuated effectively or safely afterward.
After the incident, expert reports found the slide was electrically unsafe, had air leaks via holes and seams, and poor anchoring.
“Businesses and organisations that consent and permit events and equipment cannot absolve themselves of responsibility for health and safety when things go wrong,” West said.
“Whānau should have the confidence that public events they attend are being run in a safe manner.”
The council was charged under sections 34(1) and (2)(b) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.
West said inflatable slide users can keep safe by looking for the AS 3533 label, which should be prominently displayed on inflatable slides from reputable manufacturers, and can ask the supplier or operator about their practices and how it can be used safely.
