Due to careless use of a makeshift sledge, a girl named Francesca Anobile died on 3^rd February 2009 during sledging, while three of her friends were hurt seriously. The teenagers had decided to sledge at Rother Valley Country Park situated in Rotherham, which was owned and managed by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. They used the roof of a Land Rover as a sledge and were hurtling at the speed of close to 50 miles per hour down a 270-metre long grass ski slope when the accident occurred.

About one and a half years back, the owners had erected a fence around the park in order to keep animals away. The teenagers hit the fence while sledging and were thrown out, which lead to Francesca and her friends sustaining serious injuries. Francesca however did not survive her injury.

The HSE and South Yorkshire Police both started an investigation into the incident in order to see if it was caused due to any negligence on part of the management of the park. However, the HSE found that the management had taken all necessary actions to prevent any such incident. The teenagers had brought the roof of the vehicle without the park employees having any knowledge of it. They were aware of the teenagers’ presence in the park but not of them making a sledge out of a vehicle’s roof.

Eyewitnesses suggested that the teenagers were going very fast on the sledge and so failed to control it. This, combined with the facts that the ski slope was high and had not been used for long and that their sledge was very heavy, eventually led to the accident.

Therefore, the HSE and the police both concluded that there was no negligence or fault on part of the park safety management whatsoever.

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