Landmark bosses surprised by civil legal action for rollercoaster accident

Bosses at Landmark Forest Adventure Park have said they are taken aback by the legal action and will ‘robustly’ defend their position.

A spokesman for the theme park said: “We very much regret this incident occurred.

“Landmark Forest Adventure Park fully cooperated with HSE’s investigation into this incident which resulted in no enforcement action of any kind being taken against us by HSE.

“We also carried out our own investigation into the incident.

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“Our investigation confirmed that the defect which contributed to the accident should have been detected by a specialist contractor during the annual Non Destructive Testing (NDT) inspection prior to the incident.

“We understand that HSE’s investigations reached the same conclusion.

“NDT testing is a legal requirement which must be carried out every 12 months in accordance with industry guidance.

“This is a specialist process which is carried out by an independent contractor, who must be approved by the industry body.

“The contractor we used came highly recommended by our industry body.

“Landmark acted swiftly following the safety alert issued in 2014.

“The park passed the industry safety alert to the specialist contractor who confirmed that the annual NDT testing which had already taken place that year was sufficient, and no additional action was required.

“NDT tests continued to be carried out annually.

“We provided an independent expert report to Digby Brown in December 2022 confirming the outcome of our investigation.

“We have heard nothing further from Digby Brown subsequently and are therefore surprised to be included in the court action which we will robustly defend.

“We note that Digby Brown have also raised court action against the specialist contractor.

“We were not placed under any restrictions regarding the operation of the rollercoaster following the accident.

“However, we made the decision not to operate the rollercoaster on our site following the accident and it is no longer on site.”

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