Childcare staff failed to prevent roundabout accident

The mother of a 10-year-old child is demanding lessons be learnt after her daughter suffered a serious injury when she was flung from a roundabout at high speed, whilst childcare staff stood by and did nothing to prevent the accident.

Alix Muir sustained a break to her right femur during a supervised after-school play session when staff failed to notice that a group of other children had started to spin the roundabout she was on faster and faster. Eventually she lost her grip and was thrown violently to floor.

Her mother Corrine Muir, 39 from Stirling instructed law firm Irwin Mitchell to take legal action against the Clackmannanshire Council ABC play group. She said “I felt I had to do something. I wanted to be certain that someone would take notice of what happened to Alix so that lessons could be learnt, and no other child’s safety compromised in such a way.”

On 21st June 2007 Alix attended the ABC’s Kidzone group which provides after-school facilities for children. Two members of staff took Alix, along with 13 other children, to a local play park before sitting some distance away.

Alix went to play on a ‘witch’s hat’ roundabout when other children, not from the nursery group, also joined in. She fell with such force that she sustained a serious break to the femur bone in her right thigh.

She was taken to hospital where she was placed in traction and kept in bed for eight weeks. Mrs Muir, who was heavily pregnant at the time said: “Alix was understandably very frightened by what happened and her entire summer holiday was ruined. As I was pregnant I found it very difficult to care for her whilst being run in and out of hospital myself.

“I was so shocked that a child could be so badly hurt in the care of professionals who you are led to believe you can trust - especially in a situation which could have been so easily avoided had more care and attention been paid.

“I was really outraged by the way the nursery handled the whole thing – I wasn’t even made aware of the full circumstances of what had happened until a few days later, when another parent who had witnessed the accident got in touch to tell me how unprofessionally they thought the staff had acted.”

Elaine Russell, partner and personal injury specialist at Irwin Mitchell in Glasgow, said: “When any parent leaves their child in the care of someone else there is the expectation that the care will be of a good standard. This was not the case here and as a result a child was badly injured.

“It is totally unacceptable - childcare providers should be aware of the consequences of negligent behaviour, even something as simple as a loss of concentration, and the impact this can have on a family.”