SCENARIO You are the newly-hired health and safety adviser for an amusement park. The park employs 90 permanent workers and 500 temporary workers (many of whom are students from the local college). There are permanent attraction managers (AMs) and shift supervisors; with the workforce covering the day and evening shifts. There is also a park CEO who spends most of their time in their office, occasionally walking around the park and speaking to the AMS. So far, the CEO and AMs have been too busy to meet you. This year the park CEO wants to win the Amusement Park of the Year award. This award is judged on the number of visitors, as well as service satisfaction ratings. The CEO has told the AMs that if the park does not win the award, permanent staff roles will be reviewed. The AMs manage one attraction each and have told the shift supervisors and workers to keep the attraction queues moving by any means necessary. Any worker who causes a delay will be given a verbal warning. The Haunted House This Halloween, the park reopened its haunted house attraction, after it had been closed for a year for renovations. The attractions AM brought the reopening deadline forward by one month, but this did not give the contractors enough time to complete the renovation. Therefore, the park used its own workers and in-house maintenance team to help the contractors. Double shifts were worked by all workers to meet the new reopening deadline. The attraction looks like a dimly lit, 200-year-old derelict house, and has a maze built on the inside. As visitors move through the Haunted House, they pass by cobweb-covered props, horror scenes, and animations that suddenly move when the visitors are nearby. Some workers jump out of dark corners to scare visitors, and others stand behind fake corridor walls making sound effects. The public is especially excited that the attraction is reopening. More temporary workers than usual have been hired for the attraction, and given basic job training by the shift supervisors. The new workers are given a 10-minute induction tour of the Haunted House and its backstage areas. This is followed by 15 minutes of job training. Most of the workers will act as zombies in the attraction, with others backstage making sound effects. Only a few workers will be operating mechanical props; these workers will receive separate training before carrying out the task. All the workers are shown where the exits are for each room and are given a map of the attraction. At the start of their first shift, everyone is given a newly-printed leaflet called What to do in a fire. This is available in several languages. The AM relies on their shift supervisors to remember what type of training each worker has received. The new hydraulic monster During the renovation, a large hydraulic monster was installed in the haunted house attraction. The monster is operated from a control panel located in a dimly lit area, behind a fake wall. The monster lunges out from the fake wall, pauses, and then quickly returns to its previous position. Only trained workers are allowed to operate it. An access gate to the hydraulics area is located to the left of the control panel, which separates the operator from the hydraulics area. A safety protection device is fitted to the gate that disables the hydraulics when the gate is open. The hydraulics area is also equipped with a small light that turns on when the gate is opened. At first, only the most experienced shift supervisors were trained to operate the hydraulic monster and were expected to subsequently teach the other supervisors and relevant workers. The supervisors developed a safe system of work (SSOW) for operating the hydraulic monster. Some of the workers did not fully understand the SSOW and asked for clarification. The supervisors were extremely busy when the attraction opened and was often difficult to locate. Those who could be found told workers that they would help soon but were not able to assist them before the shift ended. Some supervisors requested more time from the AM to conduct extra training sessions, but this was dismissed by the AM as a waste of time. After three days of requests, the workers and supervisors stopped asking. IG1_IGC1-0026-ENG-OBE-QP-V1 Apr23 NEBOSH 2023 page 3 of 5 One week after the reopening date of the Haunted House it has become the parks main attraction. During the day shift, the safety protection device on the hydraulic monsters gate stops working. The day supervisor contacts the maintenance team by hand-held radio but is told it cannot be fixed until the park closes that night. The day supervisor informs the AM, who then tells the workers not to use the hydraulics monster until it is fixed. During the shift handover, the day supervisor tells the evening supervisor that the hydraulic monster is not working properly. The day supervisor has written a report and left it on the monsters control panel. The day supervisor leaves quickly because they want to revise for an ex. the next day. The accident The evening supervisor has recently been promoted and this is their first shift as a supervisor. They eagerly begin with a behind-the-scenes walk-around before going to find the report. When they arrive at the control panel, they notice the monster is not being operated, but they know this sometimes happens during shift changes. The supervisor is not able to read the report due to the lack of light in the current location and tries to activate the monster, which appears to be working properly; this confuses the supervisor. They remember seeing another supervisor using the small light in the hydraulics area, which is activated by the safety gate, so they decide to do the same. They open the gate and reach in with the report to read it. At the same time, the hydraulic monster returns to its starting position, which crushes the supervisors hand. The supervisors cries for help are easily mistaken by workers and visitors as part of the attractions atmosphere. After several minutes, the supervisor remembers their hand-held radio and calls for help. The worker, who receives the call, quickly responds by locating the injured supervisor and helping to free their hand. The shocked worker then looks for the parks first-aider, but the first-aider is already dealing with a minor accident. As the supervisors hand starts to swell, they ask the worker to take them to the local hospital. Once there, the supervisor discovers that some of their fingers will require amputation. As soon as the AM is informed of the accident, they call the park CEO. The park CEO tells them to padlock the safety gate on the hydraulic monster, so that the haunted house attraction can continue to be used, and an investigation can begin in the morning. The AM padlocks the gate and places an out of order sign on the monsters control panel. Early the next morning, the park CEO asks you to carry out an accident investigation. The CEO hints that they would like the investigation to be carried out quickly. You are alarmed by this attitude and strongly argue that the investigation must be thorough. You ask why the investigation did not begin yesterday. The park CEO replies that health and safety is your responsibility and you do not work evenings. You also ask if anyone filled out the accident book last night, but do not receive an answer. The CEO is concerned that this accident could affect the parks image and ruin any chance at winning the Amusement Park of the Year award. They joke that the Haunted House may truly be haunted because this is another injury to add to its history.

Task 2

As the health and safety adviser you begin the accident investigation by securing the scene. (a) Based on the scenario only, what actions should be taken next to collect evidence for the investigation? (b) Based on the scenario only, what are the immediate causes of this accident?