Mother hurled from fairground ride reaches £1.43m settlement with owner

The Health and Safety Executive published the footage after its prosecution of a firm and three individuals

A mother who was hurled from a fairground ride has agreed a £1.43 million settlement of a High Court claim against the ride’s owner.

Khadra Ali spent weeks in a coma and four months in hospital after she was ejected from the Xcelerator ride at the Funderpark funfair in Yiewsley, west London, on April 10 2018, with footage showing her flying through the air while the ride continued to rotate.

Ms Ali sued Derek Hackett, the ride’s owner trading as Hackett Fairs, for damages after being left unable to do chores or activities with her children.

In May, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said she had suffered multiple fractures to her back, hips, pelvis, ribs and both collarbones as well as internal bleeding and a significant head injury.

A High Court hearing on Wednesday was told that Ms Ali had reached an out-of-court settlement with Hackett, with her lawyer, Robert Kellar KC, claiming the £1.43 million sum was “within the range of reasonable offers”.

Judge Rebecca Crane approved the sum at the end of the short hearing in London, describing it as “a very sensible settlement for both parties”.

The HSE said earlier this year that Ms Ali, who is now in her 50s, was riding with her daughter and had not been properly restrained in her seat when she was thrown from the ride.

She “screamed for help” while on the “fast-motion” ride and clung on before being ejected, hitting the barrier of the next ride and landing on the ground, the executive said.

The HSE investigation into the incident found the ride’s seat restraint system was designed with electrical and mechanical failings by the manufacturer, Perrin Stevens Limited, while the ride control system was set up in a way that would not have detected all failures.

It said Mr Hackett failed to properly maintain the ride, but that this was partly due to Perrin Stevens’s operator manual lacking information on inspection and maintenance of the seat restraint system.

The investigation also found that on the day of the incident, Hackett’s ride operator had no attendant assisting them despite the operations manual requiring a minimum of two people to operate and monitor the ride.

The operator did not check each rider’s restraint bar as they should have before starting the ride and did not notice that Ms Ali required assistance and stop the ride.

Hackett, previously of School Street, Radcliffe, Manchester, was one of three men who admitted health and safety offences at Westminster Magistrates’ Court earlier this year.

He received an 18-week sentence, suspended for 18 months, and was ordered to pay £4,800 in costs.

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