The safety initiative we launched recently has been extremely well received within the events industry. Admittedly it has increased our workload somewhat, especially on the paperwork side, I am just finishing the safety documents for an event we are attending with a single cart, and it runs to 84 pages! Luckily virtually everyone accepts our documents in PDF format so we can adhere to our environmental policy as well as our safety policy.
Safety has been in the news recently with the story about the prosecution of Brouhaha International and Maurice Agis over the Dreamscape disaster at Chester Le Streets Riverside Park in 2007. This was when a giant inflatable sculpture blew away in the wind tragically killing two women and injuring some 13 other people. Now this was a tragedy by any measure, and the funfair industry has felt the backlash of it with the canceling of a number of long established events which were usually held in the same park. One of which happened to be an event we supply attractions to, so we felt the effects directly.
THe thing which is annoying, is the fact that we are now preparing and presenting 84 pages of safety data for a single Ice Cream cart at an event indoors. Not only that but we are having to adhere to the guidelines and strictures contained in those 84 pages, for something which is pretty safe by any standards. So why the hell was a structure the size of a football field, which was made to contain dozens of people at a time not subject to similarly stringent safety regs. To be honest its something that has annoyed me ever since we started working in the corporate events arena. We regularly come across inflatable structures that aren't anchored down, that are powered using petrol generators which are refilled whilst they are running. Many inflatables are delivered in the back of a transit van, plugged in to the power using 13amp household plugs which are not meant to be used outdoors, inflated, then the guy delivering it cheerily waves goodbye and rolls up 6 hours later to collect it. How does he know the people he has left it with are competent to operate it. What happens if it rains on his non waterproof plugs, and one day someone is going to be filling the petrol generator when it bursts into flames, I have a vision of the blower used to keep the structure inflated, sucking these flames inside the structure and giving us a low budget remake of towering inferno.
Why when the funfair industry is being regulated ever more stringently (even though we have one of the best safety records of any industry) does other industries seem to have little or no regulation at all. We have hired numerous inflatables from companies to complement our own when we have busy periods, and only once have we been handed a safety document. Even then it was a case of "Sign this mate so we aren't blamed for any accidents", rather than a genuine attempt to ensure we were capable operators. The end results of allowing amateurs to operate at outdoor events is exactly what we seen at Chester Le Street, the local authority answer to the catalogue of cock ups, is to prevent funfairs operating at the venue, even though they have been doing so without mishap for generations. Perhaps if one of these endless risk assessments we are forever filling in was applied to the Dreamscape structure, someone might have realised that it wasn't safe in the wind.
The motto we have adopted with the first of our new range of safety policies is "Safety Is No Accident".
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Safety has been in the news recently with the story about the prosecution of Brouhaha International and Maurice Agis over the Dreamscape disaster at Chester Le Streets Riverside Park in 2007. This was when a giant inflatable sculpture blew away in the wind tragically killing two women and injuring some 13 other people. Now this was a tragedy by any measure, and the funfair industry has felt the backlash of it with the canceling of a number of long established events which were usually held in the same park. One of which happened to be an event we supply attractions to, so we felt the effects directly.
THe thing which is annoying, is the fact that we are now preparing and presenting 84 pages of safety data for a single Ice Cream cart at an event indoors. Not only that but we are having to adhere to the guidelines and strictures contained in those 84 pages, for something which is pretty safe by any standards. So why the hell was a structure the size of a football field, which was made to contain dozens of people at a time not subject to similarly stringent safety regs. To be honest its something that has annoyed me ever since we started working in the corporate events arena. We regularly come across inflatable structures that aren't anchored down, that are powered using petrol generators which are refilled whilst they are running. Many inflatables are delivered in the back of a transit van, plugged in to the power using 13amp household plugs which are not meant to be used outdoors, inflated, then the guy delivering it cheerily waves goodbye and rolls up 6 hours later to collect it. How does he know the people he has left it with are competent to operate it. What happens if it rains on his non waterproof plugs, and one day someone is going to be filling the petrol generator when it bursts into flames, I have a vision of the blower used to keep the structure inflated, sucking these flames inside the structure and giving us a low budget remake of towering inferno.
Why when the funfair industry is being regulated ever more stringently (even though we have one of the best safety records of any industry) does other industries seem to have little or no regulation at all. We have hired numerous inflatables from companies to complement our own when we have busy periods, and only once have we been handed a safety document. Even then it was a case of "Sign this mate so we aren't blamed for any accidents", rather than a genuine attempt to ensure we were capable operators. The end results of allowing amateurs to operate at outdoor events is exactly what we seen at Chester Le Street, the local authority answer to the catalogue of cock ups, is to prevent funfairs operating at the venue, even though they have been doing so without mishap for generations. Perhaps if one of these endless risk assessments we are forever filling in was applied to the Dreamscape structure, someone might have realised that it wasn't safe in the wind.
The motto we have adopted with the first of our new range of safety policies is "Safety Is No Accident".
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