Personal Injury Solicitors

The operating company of a leisure centre in Essex has been successfully prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after a young child suffered serious burns in the changing room.

The incident happened on 18 February 2012, when a two-and-a-half-year-old boy was on his way to the swimming pool at the Great Dunmow Leisure Centre, where he took weekly swimming lessons.

The boy and his father has just got changed and were making their way to the pool when they child slipped and fell, landing on his bottom on an internal drain cover which had just been cleaned with sodium hydroxide – a highly corrosive agent also known as caustic soda or lye. Caustic soda is used to clear blockages in drains, including grease and build-ups of hair.

The caustic soda burned through the child’s shorts and swimming nappy, leaving him with third degree alkaline burns to his skin, including full skin thickness burns to the top of his right thigh and buttocks.

The child was taken to hospital for emergency medical treatment and a skin graft. He was discharged 10 days after the incident.

The subsequent investigation by the HSE found that the leisure centre’s operator Leisure Connection Ltd had failed to put in place a “robust system of work” for cleaning the type of drain the child fell on.

The management team at the leisure centre working for Leisure Connection Ltd also told HSE inspectors they were not aware of the caustic chemical being used on site.

HSE inspectors said that a system should have been in place to ensure safe cleaning of drains at the leisure centre – and should not only have included clear instructions on how the drains should be cleaned, but also established whose responsibility it was to clean drains.

Leisure Connection Ltd had also failed to assess its use of chemicals properly – and had not provided proper training on the use of chemicals like sodium hydroxide.

On Thursday (05/12/13) at Chelmsford Crown Court, Leisure Connection Ltd of Potton House, Great North Road, Wyboston in Bedford admitting breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £45,000 and ordered to pay costs of £20,746.

After the hearing HSE inspector Kim Tichias said the incident which left the toddler with serious injuries was “entirely preventable”.

“Leisure centre operators have a duty to ensure that members of the public of all ages can enjoy their facilities safely – this includes putting the appropriate training and system of work in place to manage the risks of using cleaning chemicals.

“HSE will always consider prosecuting companies which put people at risk through negligence,” she added.

Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states:

“It shall be the duty of every employer and every self-employed person, in the prescribed circumstances and in the prescribed manner, to give to persons (not being his employees) who may be affected by the way in which he conducts his undertaking the prescribed information about such aspects of the way in which he conducts his undertaking as might affect their health or safety.”

Duncan Lewis Personal Injury Solicitors

Duncan Lewis is one of the UK’s leading firms of personal injury solicitors and can advise on a wide range of personal injury claims, including but not limited to:

• Accidents at Work
• Road Traffic Accidents
• Slipping and Tripping Accidents (slips, trips and falls)
• Children’s Accidents
• Holiday/Travel Accidents
• Fatal Accidents
• Criminal Injury Compensation Authority Claims (injury resulting from crime)
• Public Liability Claims
• Occupier’s Liability Claims.


For advice on how to make a no win no fee personal injury compensation claim, contact Duncan Lewis personal injury solicitors on 020 7923 4020.