A government department has refused to make public the health and safety investigation report into last year’s bouncy castle accident on Douglas seafront.
The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture turned down a Freedom of Information request made by Isle of Man Newspapers.
Onlookers at the 2015 Douglas Carnival watched in horror as a bouncy castle was lifted by a gust of wind and pitched over railings, flinging six-year-old Liam Hansen into the sea. Fortunately Liam, from Onchan, was rescued by a quick-thinking hero Johnny Glover who leaped into the water and brought him safely back to dry land. A second child managed to cling on to the bouncy castle as it was blown from Loch Promenade.
DEFA cited as a reason for not publishing the investigation report an exemption covering ‘investigations and legal proceedings’.
This is despite confirming that the Health and Safety at Work Inspectorate’s investigation into the July 2015 incident is now complete – and that it has been decided that no criminal proceedings will be instigated.
Isle of Man Newspapers has requested a review of the decision.
The Health and Safety at Work Inspectorate issued an improvement notice in December last year to Playmates, the Ramsey-based company that supplied and operated the bouncy castles.
A copy of that notice, with names redacted, was included with the FoI response.
It states that ‘adequate weights, or any other effective means of securing an item of inflatable play equipment were not attached or otherwise applied which allowed it to be blown from the promenade into the adjacent sea when it was affected by a gust of wind’.
The notice required the company to remedy the contraventions.
DEFA accepted a factor favouring the disclosure of the full investigation report was that the information would likely improve public confidence in the health and safety aspects of the operation of children’s entertainment equipment and in the health and safety regulation of the operators of such equipment.
But it listed three reasons why the report should not released.
DEFA said the release of the level of detail contained within the report may compromise future H&S investigations.
And it said that in order to ‘regulate and deliver justice effectively a level of discretion is required to be given when information is gathered, otherwise people may not disclose what they know’.
It added: ‘Although an improvement notice was issued, it was decided not to instigate any criminal proceedings. The operating company would therefore not expect the level of detail contained in the report to become public knowledge and it would be unreasonable for it to be released.’
The FoI response indicates no health and safety investigation reports will be made public.
DEFA previously turned down our FoI request for the release of the investigation report into the tram that overturned at Laxey station in 2015. Our request was rejected on the grounds it was possible civil action could be instigated up to six years after an incident. We have also submitted FoI requests for the report in the Mount Murray fire and the runaway Snaefell Mountain tram crash.