In reply to Andy Say:
"But Tracy was horrified that staff didn't call an ambulance and instead took Katie to Southend hospital's A&E department herself where doctors were shocked to learn Katie had not been given a neck brace after suffering a neck injury."
Ugh! Ugh to the Daily-Mail-ness of the reporting there.
What actually happened there though? It seems to me that the child got into difficulties and a member of staff spotted it and rescued her quickly enough that there was no harm done. Doesn't mean it wasn't potentially dangerous, of course.
> .. and issue industrial safety helmets instead where the chin strap is designed to break away under tension.
Tension greater than the weight of a smallish child probably, if industrial helmets were available in child sizes which as far as I'm aware they're not.
(If I remember right, the EN standard test for an industrial helmet allows the chinstrap to take up to 50kg before letting go.)
Tricky innit. If they give the kids helmets this snagging thing is a possibility, don't give them helmets there'll be trouble when little Johnny bangs his head (besides which, kids generally like being given a special hat to wear, makes the whole thing feel more 'adventurous' to them somehow), and if they modify the helmets themselves they're on very dodgy ground indeed.
I guess the key is careful route setting to avoid 'snaggy' holds, volumes or whatever that may catch the shell of a lid. Bearing in mind that they might also catch other things, the hood of a hoody for example could be equally dangerous.
I see that Daily Hate report mentions that the company in question intend to publish something when they've looked into this, seems a bit unlikely somehow but if they do decide to do that it might make interesting reading.