31/10/2016
Tragedy struck Australia last week when four people were crushed to death in the country’s largest theme park.
The accident occurred on one of the park’s tamer rides, the Thunder River Rapids, which is seen as safe for small children.
Both civil and criminal actions are likely to be brought against Ardent Leisure, the parent company that owns not only Dreamworld, but over 150 leisure assets across Australia.
Merlin Attractions was handed a £5 million fine after management at its Alton Towers theme park admitted health and safety breaches over the Smiler rollercoaster crash in which two young women each lost a leg. If Ardent Leisure is found guilty, the fines levied could also well run into the millions.
Crisis Management
A significant element of an emergency response is how the company acts in relation to the media, the victims’ families and the public following an incident. It is so easy to place blame on management, accusing them of not ‘behaving’ appropriately or showing compassion. This neglects the fact that CEOs are human beings. Injury or death of an employee or member of the public whilst at the helm is a nightmare situation all managers dread and unfortunately, there is no clear rule book for how to best deal with such an event.
It is well established that in the case of a tragic event, the priority of management should be on contacting and offering assistance to the victims and their families. However, often this is not done for fear of being seen to admit liability before the facts are known. But the loss of public opinion can be very hard to recover once lost. In one of the more embarrassing revelations at a press conference, Ardent CEO Deborah Thomas said she had not called the families of victims because Ardent, “didn’t know how to contact them”.
Thomas Cook, who took over eight and a half years to apologise to the parents of two small children who died of carbon monoxide poisoning at the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel in Corfu in 2006 because of fumes from a defective boiler, faced a storm of criticism on social media and had £75 million wiped off the value of its shares overnight, due to the way they dealt with the incident.
During an inquest into the deaths of the youngsters, from Horbury, West Yorkshire, Thomas Cook chief executive Peter Fankhauser said he had, "nothing to apologise for". Even worse in the eyes of the public, it emerged that the total compensation Thomas Cook received was £3 million and that its insurers had held on to the extra £1.5 million to cover its legal costs.
It is understood that the £3 million was around ten times the amount the parents received.
The benefits of a fast, experienced emergency response team
Social media has changed the way organisations must deal with a crisis, not only to protect their reputation with the public but also stop share prices plummeting and investors pulling out of funding agreements.
An emergency response team, experienced in health and safety law will ensure the right actions are taken, as soon as possible after the event occurs. The way communication with police, HSE inspectors, fire and rescue and insurers are handled within the first few minutes, hours, days and weeks of an incident occurring can greatly affect the chance of criminal prosecution and/or civil action occurring. Even if prosecution is inevitable, by engaging an emergency response team who can act swiftly and correctly, the level of fines imposed may be reduced.
Given that the Health and Safety Offences, Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety and Hygiene Offences Definitive Guidelines (or Sentencing Guidelines as they are commonly known) require that the Courts to now base the level of fines for health and safety breaches on company turnover and makes it easier to send directors to prison, getting proper legal advice immediately after an event occurs is imperative.
In Summary
In today’s world where social media can crush a company’s reputation and share prices overnight in addition to a Government health and safety sentencing policy that can result in directors being jailed and organisations being crippled by massive fines, a call to an experienced emergency response team can make a big difference to the outcome if a tragedy occurs.
Fisher Scoggins Waters are a London based law firm who are specialise in construction, manufacturing and engineering law. We can provide an emergency response following a disaster involving serious injury or loss of life and can be on-site within hours (depending on the location). Please phone us on 0207 993 6960.