Bowling health and safety concern

[Netmumnet]

Hi,

Random one but does anyone know how I can report an unsafe bowling alley and where?

We went to one in a brewery in Central London, who were running a promotion over half term.

It's a lot smaller than a normal bowling alley, like a mini bowling. The thing that sucks up the balls and brings them to where you take them from wasn't working in our alley. I was alone with my 5 year old and went 'There aren't any balls' and the family next to us said 'oh, it's not working, we've been taking them from here' and there was a line of balls that hadn't been sucked up yet (normal bowling alleys have this under the floor so you can't see or take them) as soon as they said this and I had a moment to think my son went to grab a ball, one came flying down and his hand was smashed between the two balls.

This bowling alley is aesthetically pleasing, and doesn't have any of the standard warning signs telling people not to put their hands there.

The alley is small and the woman at the desk was only a few metres away and didn't even notice this family bowling with the broken machine. I ran over with my crying son in my arms (she didn't even notice this commotion) and told her what happened and that the machine was broken....it was easily fixed by her. She was like like "oh" fiddled around a bit and got it started. Then asked if we wanted ice and took 5 mins to get it, no sense of urgency.

My son refused to bowl, just wanted to go home and is now traumatized.

Just feels like the brewery is in violation of healthy and safety procedures, not having any sort of warning signs and that the staff member on duty wasn't paying attention. (I obviously feel terrible and know it's my fault too)

Do you think a sign that tells you not to put your hand there would have stopped your 5 year old? Or that adults wouldn't know it was dangerous without a sign?

Also one member of staff can't watch everyone and everything going on.

This hasn't answered my question, but thanks for your input!

Yes, my son is currently obsessed with reading signs so I do believe it will make a difference.

This was a small bowling alley in a brewery and the person working there wasn't looking at anyone.

Your son’s obsession with reading signs doesn’t negate the need for a parent to supervise their child in a brewery.

Did you ask for an accident report to be filled out?

What are you hoping to achieve by reporting this business?

I wouldn't. I think it's pretty common sense to watch out for bowling balls coming into the space specifically for bowling balls, and if a child isn't old enough to know this then a parent should be supervising closely enough this doesn't happen.

Have you seen people playing darts in a pub? They put these little entertainments in for customers to enjoy, they will soon take them all out if people start saying it's too dangerous (for children). Pubs are designed for adults they don't have enough staff to watch children, and since no one had told them the machine wasn't working how would they know.

Feel like people aren't actually reading, so I'll be closing this thread!

To answer your question @Netmumnet the first step in any complaint process will be to complain to the venue itself and see if they can address your concerns. You don't mention if you've done it but I would expect the next step would be to escalate to a head office or owning company if it's part of a chain. I would say that only when you've exhausted those avenues you may be able to explain to the council who issued their license to operate or to the health and safety dept of that council. I don't think there'd be any other type of governing body that would be relevant.

So check out the website of Westminster council or whichever council covers that bit of central London. But they will expect you to have raised the complaint with the venue first.

Hi, sorry I don't think my initial post explained it well. I booked the bowling lane, my child wasn't loose in the pub.

I was right by him. The balls had all lined up on the left hand side (seen in pic where red ball is coming down) as they weren't being sucked up by the machine. The family next to us were taking the balls from here and because they said this to my son he went to grab one before I had the chance to stop him.

The other family were there for half an hour and the machine wasnt working the whole time, the person there was stationed at a desk a few metres away and should have noticed this. The incident happened as as we got to the lane just after taking our jackets off.

I'm not asking for compo or anything, just asking for advice on if this can be reported as they don't seem to have any adequate health and safety protocols.

My son's finger is broken. They were promoting "kids bowl free" half term events. I'd love to avoid this happening in the future.

To answer your question, you can report to the Health and Safety Executive via their online reporting tool.
But I think you're being ridiculous and I wouldn't.

I'm not asking for compo or anything, just asking for advice on if this can be reported as they don't seem to have any adequate health and safety protocols.

My son's finger is broken. They were promoting "kids bowl free" half term events. I'd love to avoid this happening in the future.

Thank you! Going to send an email to them now

My son's finger is broken sadly, just want to prevent this happening to others

Here is a picture of the exact place so you can get a better picture of the set up

I am sorry your sons finger is broken.
This is how all bowling alleys used to be until not that long ago. As kids we were watched closely as my parents knew bowling alleys are potentially dangerous. I would not complain, just see this as an unfortunate accident.

Thanks, I'm sure you would if you were in my position and had been there

I think you are getting a hard time here OP. I would report (was it correctly recorded in an accident book?) as the balls weren't coming out as they should. I don't ever remember having to collect the balls from a side lane, always from the little collection machine but I wouldn't be happy having to get them this way.

Sounds really painful for him.

Go through the motions with them:

• complain to manager, and ask for the accident report from the day (there probably won't be one)
• Escalate to head office
• IF you don't get assurance that they're doing anything, report to HSE.

Like I said though, DO give them a chance to put it right themselves. They may have handled it badly on the day BUT that doesn't mean they won't take action to ensure it doesn't happen again and you must give them that chance first. The HSE probably won't be massively interested in a complaint otherwise.

Thank you, appreciate the advice!

Doesn't work like that
people are reading ok, we just think you should supervise your son.

Please note when I said "the staff member on duty wasn't paying attention." I did not mean to my son. I meant to the lane as it was in their view and it was obvious the machine was malfunctioning and the family had been taking the balls from the wrong place right in their view for half an hour.

I'm an especially terrible mother, cos I was supervising him - he was right next to me! It happened before I could react and the ball shot out.

In normal bowling alleys, the ball collection happens underground.

I wanted to delete my post as I must have worded it badly seeing as people thought my child was running around unsupervised. This happened at 10AM the entire place was empty aside from the 6 small bowling lanes which were in their own section and my son was right next to me.

Thanks for you comment ❤️