A holiday park in a popular UK seaside town faces a fine of over £1 million after a young girl fell off a wall and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Harper Surman was just four years old when the accident happened in October 2019 and her mother, Amanda Hurst, launched a claim to the High Court.
She accused Haven Leisure, the owners of Perran Sands Holiday Park in Perranporth, Cornwall, of negligence for failing to recognise the danger the wall posed. Harper, who is now nine, reportedly fell backwards off the wall and onto the ground one and a half metres below. She fractured her skull and suffered a brain haemorrhage.
As reported by Cornwall Live, no one saw Harper climb onto the wall, which was less than 50cm high on one side. Haven claims that her stepfather had put her on the wall but this has been denied by the family.
The court documents, which have just been made public, show that Harper’s mother accuses Haven of failing to carry out an adequate risk assessment. She claims the company should have realised that a barrier was needed to keep visitors safe from the drop behind the wall.
She also alleges that the company failed to take measures to discourage climbing and sitting on the wall and that signs warning of the risk of falls from the wall should have been installed.
Since the accident took place, signs have been put up which read: “Please do not climb on this wall.” Mrs Hurst is now seeking provisional damages and more compensation if her daughter’s condition worsens. Haven Leisure has declined to comment.
A UK train company was recently fined £1 million after Bethan Roper, 28, died after sustaining a fatal head injury from an overhanging tree branch while leaning out of a window. The rail safety watchdog found that the incident, which happened when she poked her head out of a window while the train was travelling at 75mph, was a “preventable tragedy”.
Great Western Railway (GWR) was fined £1 million and ordered to pay costs of more than £78,000 after pleading guilty to breaches of health and safety law and railway safety regulations on Friday. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said the firm had been aware of “a number of previous incidents” linked to droplight windows, which enable passengers to use the handle on the outside when disembarking, but failed to introduce recommended safety measures.