Company guilty of fairground accident

A fairground inspections company has admitted that it failed to protect revellers using a ride in the Black Country after it broke away and hit a burger bar - leaving a Bilston woman in a wheelchair.

Jessica Oseland, aged 28, and 29-year-old Alison Foxall, both from Bradley, Bilston, were at the annual mobile fair off Great Bridge Road, Moxley, in May 2006 when disaster struck.

They were riding the Orbiter, a rotating vertical pole with eight arms, each holding a cluster of spinning cars. The car they were in flew 45ft into the air, hitting a burger bar.

Miss Foxall suffered head, back and neck injuries but was soon released from New Cross Hospital, while Miss Oseland suffered severe spinal injuries and spent months at a specialist centre in Oswestry.

Health and safety bosses ordered all 18 Orbiter rides in the UK be withdrawn from fairs to undergo safety checks after the incident.

Fairground Inspection Services director Frederick Meakin, who represented the Leicestershire-based company at Wolverhampton Crown Court, today admitted that the firm failed to protect the public by safety-testing the ride.

Thomas Denzil Jones, from Cradley Heath-based Thomas Jones Funfairs and was also charged under the Health and Safety at Work Act, denied the charge. He was granted bail while a trial date is fixed.