Funfair accident toll raises questions about industry safety

“I could feel myself slip. I just woke up and I was laid on the floor on my back and I remember thinking, what am I doing here? I started panicking.”

Jade Harrison is describing the moment she was thrown from a ride at Hull Fair in 2019.

She suffered serious injuries, some of which she is still dealing with, six years on.

Jade is one of thousands of people who have been injured at funfairs and amusement and theme parks in England, Scotland and Wales over the last decade, a BBC Panorama investigation has found.

There were 3,188 injuries in England, Scotland and Wales between April 2014 and March 2024, including slips, trips and falls, with 350 in 2023/24, according to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request put to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Funfair rides have to undergo major inspections when they are first manufactured and at least every year afterwards – and inspectors of those rides play a crucial role in ensuring their safety.

However, Panorama has discovered serious concerns within the industry about the regulation of these inspections as well as accidents, criminal convictions and safety warnings linked to one inspector in particular.

A trip to Hull Fair with friends was one of Jade’s favourite annual traditions – but that changed in October 2019.

Jade, who’s now 27, boarded the Airmaxx 360 ride which can reach speeds of up to 60mph. Just seconds after it started up, something worrying caught her attention.

She says she heard a clicking noise in her safety restraint, after which she began to slip out of her seat. She was thrown from the ride, flying through the air and hitting another nearby ride.

When she eventually opened her eyes, she had no memory of what had happened, or where she was.

“I could barely walk, I broke my jaw completely in half. I had damage to mainly back teeth on both sides. I had internal bruising, severe damage to both thighs, and then just bruising all over my body, like black, purple bruises,” she says.

Surgeons had to remove two teeth that were unsavable, and placed three metal plates in her jaw. “They’ll stay there,” she says.

Jade received compensation from the ride’s owners, who admitted liability for her accident on the AirMaxx 360.

However, she received a further shock in 2023 when the HSE – which investigates serious funfair accidents – confirmed there had been a fatality on exactly the same ride in Australia in 2014.

Eight year-old Adelene Leong died after being thrown from the Airmaxx 360. She was 3cm shorter than the ride’s height requirement.

Panorama has seen documents, obtained by Jade through an FOI request, from the HSE’s investigation into the Airmaxx 360 accident in Hull.

They say that “the mechanical design of primary and secondary locks that are intended to prevent movement of the restraint was found to be inadequate”.

We also asked the Australian coroner for their report into the death of Adelene Leong.

This states that the safety of the machine was poor, particularly the locking mechanism of the restraints.

The ride was never used again in Australia after Adelene’s death, but three years later, in 2017, it was sold to a UK owner.

Ride owners, or controllers, are responsible for making sure their amusements are safe by having them thoroughly inspected. All rides are supposed to undergo a major initial inspection, called a design review, to ensure they are operating safely.

The company that carried out the design review on the Airmaxx 360 was DMG Technical, owned by David Geary. Panorama has discovered he and his company have a history of inspecting rides later involved in funfair accidents.

In 2017, after a five-year-old’s ankle was crushed by a rollercoaster, Mr Geary received a criminal conviction and a fine for failing to identify risks.

And in May 2024, he received a suspended prison sentence for a design review failure that contributed to a woman being thrown from a ride, leaving her in a coma for weeks.

As well as prosecuting him twice, Panorama has discovered that the HSE has also formally warned Mr Geary or his company about eight safety breaches over the past 10 years.

The HSE can ban inspectors but it rarely uses this power, and it did not take such action against Mr Geary.

The trade council for the funfair industry runs a safety scheme for ride inspectors, known as Adips (Amusement Device Inspection Procedures Scheme) which is endorsed by the HSE.

Despite Mr Geary’s convictions, fines and the multiple HSE warnings, he and his company DMG Technical were allowed to continue operating, and both remained on the Adips-approved list until they were finally suspended in March 2025.

In May this year an Adips disciplinary hearing decided Mr Geary should remain suspended and said he would have to resign from DMG Technical if the company is to remain on the Adips register.

Mr Geary says that during his more than 30 years in the industry both he and his company “have prevented numerous incidents” and “the primary concern has always been public safety”.

He also says he no longer carries out “any inspection work on amusement rides”.

Regarding the Airmaxx 360 ride, Mr Geary says that it had been modified following the Australian accident, and may also have been tampered with before the UK one.

He says he cannot comment further as he did not carry out the ride’s annual inspection.

An industry insider who has spoken to Panorama anonymously, describes the current Adips scheme as “not fit for purpose”.

He says: “There are some ride examiners who are not as competent as they should be and not as diligent as they should be.”

Adips says the fairground industry “has a record that would be the envy of many industries in this country” but it “will always look at learning points to make things safer”.

It says it is considering revising its disciplinary process so that suspension may be “the default position if enforcement action is taken by the police or regulator”.

After Mr Geary’s suspension, Adips gave the HSE a list of 87 ride designs he and DMG Technical had reviewed. The HSE has not shared it publicly, or explained what action, if any, it has taken as a result.

“If I was the Health and Safety Executive receiving that list of rides, I’d be concerned,” says Alex Nicholls, a ride inspector and engineer.

The HSE has not commented on the list but says it expects those who enjoy fairgrounds to be kept safe and adds that incidents are rare.

It says it is currently reviewing its industry safety guidance “to decide whether it, and the system it underpins, remains fit for purpose”.

Mr Nicholls says there needs to be a major overhaul of safety at funfairs: “We can’t allow this to happen again. You know, the names will change, but if the game is the same, then we’re just going to have the same problems over and over.”

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