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21/03/06 Amusement Park gets Belt and Braces Treatment

Hampshire’s leading family theme park has enlisted the help of fall arrest experts to ensure the safety of staff who carry out routine maintenance work and checks on the rides.

Paultons Park near Romsey, Hampshire, has worked with Certex UK – a leading supplier of lifting products and services – to install professional height safety equipment on three of its main attractions, including a brand new 17-metre-high family roller coaster – The Cobra.

Central to the work, is the installation of the new ‘CheckLine single lifeline system’, supplied by Certex and manufactured by UK-based Checkmate Safety. The CheckLine system protects against a fall from the access steps and access platforms of the rides should the user slip or become wrong footed.

Many UK employers – including those in the leisure industry – are having to put into place measures such as these, following recent HSE legislation introduced to reduce the large number of falls in UK workplaces.

Mark Taylor, Head of Operations at Paulton’s Park (left), and Jim Donelan, Manager of Certex in Southampton, make an ascent of the new Cobra ride using the specially installed safety system.

Jim Donelan, Manager of the Certex operations in Southampton, said: “The new regulations stipulate that anyone working ‘at height’ – which is defined as being at a place where a person could be injured falling from it – should use appropriate safety equipment. Many people don’t know what this entails and therefore organisations may not be giving their employees adequate protection or indeed staying within the law. This is where our expertise and services come in, because we can advise on the most effective personal and collective fall prevention and protection equipment for the tasks in hand.

“Organisations can also rest assured that our equipment, which is manufactured in the UK and includes a full range of harnesses, lanyards and other fall arrest devices, meets the most stringent health and safety standards,” he added.

Certex has also supplied the leisure park with ‘CheckRing’ safety harness eye bolt sockets, which have been fitted at intervals along the tracks of the roller coasters to provide safe access to the ‘car’ braking mechanism. Inertia reel lanyards and CheckRing eyebolts on special lanyards also attach the user to the socket whilst they are still attached to the lifeline, providing a double connection and improved safety.

Mark Taylor, Head of Operations at Paultons Park, added: “We take all matters of safety very seriously, including that of our employees. The new equipment will give our engineering and maintenance staff even greater protection and peace of mind while working on the bigger rides.”