Posted on 12/02/2009 3:33:55 AM PST by greatdefender
It's a peril that only a crack team of health and safety experts could have uncovered.
After two years and £250,000, they found that ten-pin bowling alleys up and down the country could be a 'very dangerous' environment for families.
They concluded that it was too easy for children or teenagers to run down lanes and get trapped in machinery that sets up the pins - even though there was no record of any such accident having happened.
The bizarre Health and Safety Executive report found that members of the public would be at risk if they walked along the 60-foot lanes to knock over pins by hand.
Its authors even considered ordering every bowling alley to put barriers across lanes. But they were forced to admit defeat - after realising that bowlers must be able to see what they are aiming at.
Their report said: ' Because customers need to see the pins and bowling balls entering the machine, managing the risk of access into the machine from the lanes is more difficult.'
Instead they have told operators to fit photoelectric beams to lanes so that pin-setting machines will cut off automatically if anyone trespasses.
John Ashbridge, of The Ten-Pin Bowling Proprietors Association, said: 'I have been in this industry for 40 years and I have never known any member of the public injured by a bowling pinsetter. I have never heard of anybody going near the pins.'
Mr Ashbridge said he had watched HSE inspectors examining a bowling centre and he found their attempts to detect possible dangers 'hilarious'.
He added: 'Some operators have now fitted photoelectric beams. They don't cause any problems - they don't stop the machines because nobody ever goes near the pins.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
sorry... 144,650 USD
You missed the conversion rate. It’s 1 dollar=0.627 Pounds. 250,000 pounds=$398,000.
Micro-managed serfdom coming to a country near you!
Yes, I have nightmares of this happening to me every night of me sleepwalking down the lanes and waking up at the last moment, too late, and am caught up in the pinsetting machinery. I am guessing these morons are using gubmint (taxpayer) monies for this rubbish.
Therefore, we must install guard gates on all the access points to wings on all aircraft flying over the US and urge our partners in all other countries to do the same.
It's for the children.
Oh, spare me.
These scientists are real turkeys. Someone should strike them in the mouth.
“John Ashbridge, of The Ten-Pin Bowling Proprietors Association, said: ‘I have been in this industry for 40 years and I have never known any member of the public injured by a bowling pinsetter. I have never heard of anybody going near the pins.’”
I’ve been bowling since I was a kid (family Tradition) and that statement above just about sums it all up.
They concluded that it was too easy for children or teenagers to run down lanes and get trapped in machinery
I guess they should fence off the ocean as children and teenagers could run to it and drown.
What was the movie where the guy is found hiding behind the pins in a bowling alley? Or maybe it was a crime drama on TV, like “Without A Trace,” or something.
:rimshot:
pin heads
They aren't scientists.
..... The needlessness and stupidity of this report simply defy belief.
What would happen if such people were in charge of national health care? Oh, yes, sorry. We already know.
My senior year afterprom many many moons ago saw teens body sliding into the pins crocked out of their gourds and no one got hurt, Alley kicked us out at 4am though. heh.
One wonders if this report was secretly funded by the mini-golf industry.
It’s never happened and they have to fix it? Is this a joke?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.