Skiing Company Fined After Boy’s Tragic Death at Birthday Party

An indoor skiing company has received a £100,000 fine following an accident in which a 12-year-old boy died.

The boy was at a tobogganing party to celebrate a friend’s birthday. He was descending the main ski slope on a toboggan when it ran into the back of a member of staff who was…

Apr 17, 2025

Pexels zszen 12165452 1024x682

An indoor skiing company has received a £100,000 fine following an accident in which a 12-year-old boy died.

The boy was at a tobogganing party to celebrate a friend’s birthday. He was descending the main ski slope on a toboggan when it ran into the back of a member of staff who was conducting a slope walk. The member of staff fell backwards onto the boy, who tragically died at the scene from head injuries.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that the company had failed to ensure the safety of its customers while they were tobogganing at the venue. It did not have a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for tobogganing activities and had not fully considered all persons likely to be on the slope during tobogganing. As a result, there was no safe system of work, information, instruction, training or supervision to manage the risk of collisions between toboggans and pedestrians.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. It was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay costs of £14,534.

Was Restaurant Chef’s COVID-19 Redundancy Inevitable? Guideline Ruling

When employees are unfairly dismissed, it is commonplace for employers to assert that they would have lost their jobs in any event and that they have thus sustained no financial loss. As a case concerning a restaurant chef showed, however, such contentions are unlikely to be accepted in the absence of solid evidence. The chef was the most junior member of the restaurant’s 10-strong kitchen team of non-speciality chefs. Following a downturn in business arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, he was…

‘Long Covid’ Recognised as a Disability in Important Employment Ruling

Following recovery from the immediate effects of COVID-19, a substantial number of people have gone on to suffer from a phenomenon commonly known as ‘long Covid’. In an important ruling, an Employment Tribunal (ET) found that the condition is capable of amounting to a disability within the meaning of Section 6 of the Equality Act 2010. The case concerned a charity worker who initially suffered mild, flu-like symptoms after contracting the virus. At the end of his isolation period, however, he…

The Law is Not in the Business of Discouraging High-Risk Adventure Sports

Adventure sports enthusiasts have a perfect right voluntarily to place themselves in danger and, as a High Court ruling showed, the law is not in the business of discouraging organisers of challenging and high-risk events. The case concerned a very fit middle-aged woman who took part in a demanding obstacle race. She was swinging between monkey rings when she fell to the ground, suffering serious injuries to her right leg and shoulder. She sought compensation from the event’s organisers on the…