Funfair worker who fell from giant ‘Freak Out’ ride wins damages payout

‌A travelling funfair worker has won a fight for compensation after being seriously injured falling from a ride.

Michael James, 41, sued his bosses for £100,000 after he fell while dismantling the giant ‘Freak Out’ ride at a site in Essex in 2019.

He slipped from a wet rail and crashed to the ground from 8ft high.

Mr James, of Plumstead in south London, sustained serious injuries including multiple fractures and dislocations.

He said one of his feet was left ‘deformed’ and he was unable to work.

He took his employer’s Shaw’s Leisure to trial at the High Court in London, and has now been awarded a damages payout.

The exact amount he will receive is yet to be decided.

‌The High Court heard Mr James had been working for Surrey family-owned Shaw’s Leisure for around five months when the accident happened in September 2019.

He was working with his boss Asa Shaw to dismantle the £350,000 spinning ‘Freak Out’ ride, a 21-metre-high twist on the classic pirates’ ship.

It consists of four swinging cars on a pendulum that rotates.

‌The court was told Mr James was not wearing a safety harness when he fell.

He had been unscrewing a stiff nut which suddenly loosened, causing him to lose his balance. Mr James was left waiting for an ambulance for around two hours.

Mr James fractured the bone on the top of his right foot and dislocated all of his toes, leaving him initially with an ‘obvious severe deformity’, his lawyers said in claim documents.

‌He had to have surgery to put wire into his foot as well as plates and screws, and spent three weeks in hospital after the fall.

Since then he has struggled to walk, uses a stick and said he is left in constant pain.

Mr Shaw – who was Mr James’ day-to-day boss, the general manager of the funfair company and son of its owner – denied any blame when he gave evidence in court.

He claimed he was ‘very safety conscious’ and had told Mr James to leave the nut which had seized while he fetched tools to try and solve the problem.

‌When he returned, Mr James had already fallen.

‌’I was very cross because what he had done, he caused himself,’ he told the judge.

‌’It was stupidity. I had no sympathy for him because it was stupidity. Perhaps that’s a bit harsh, but that’s the way I looked at it.’

‌Ruling on the case, judge senior master Jeremy Cook accepted Mr James’ account as the truth and found that Mr Shaw had fabricated his story to dodge the blame.

‌’I find it inherently unlikely that a good worker like the claimant, who usually did as he was told and followed directions, would take it upon himself to attempt to remove the nut,’ he said.

‌’So having considered the entirety of the evidence in context I conclude that the claimant’s account of the accident is correct and that Mr Shaw has made up his account to minimise the defendant’s liability.

‌’In the circumstances, I have no hesitation in concluding that this was an unsafe system of work. The claimant should not have been asked to perform this task because it was foreseeably dangerous.’

‌The judge said Mr James is entitled to compensation from his former employer, but the amount will be decided at a later date, if not agreed between the parties outside of court.

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