Butlins bans bumping in bumper cars! Health and safety gone mad?
Kids will be left disappointed at Butlins resorts after a new rule imposed by bosses has banned bumping in bumper cars - in the name of 'health and safety'.
All three resorts - in Bognor Regis, Minehead, and Skegness - have decided that the point of dodgems is now to, well, dodge each othe.
Visitors to the resorts are now expected to carefully manoeuvre them around the course, instead.
They insist adults and children can still have 'great fun' overtaking other cars – but only while driving in an orderly fashion in the same direction.
However, disappointed visitors have described the experience as similar to navigating 'an exitless roundabout'.
Ironically, it was Sir Billy Butlin himself who brought the electric bumper car, equipped with its distinctive large bumpers, to British fairgrounds from the US in the 1920s.
The holiday camp confirmed that the rules for their 'experience dodgems' had been tightened to avoid customers injuring themselves or others. Staff have been ordered to ban any visitor who dares to flout the strict 'no bump' rule.
It is thought the company was concerned about potential legal claims for whiplash or other injuries suffered during a 'crash'.
But although there have been attempts to claim compensation for injuries sustained while on a bumper car, none has succeeded.
Solicitors say it would be very difficult to prove fault on the part of a dodgem driver, and many believe the level of impact would simply be too low for a compensation claim.
Jeremy Pardey, resort director at Butlins in Bognor Regis, said he could not allow the cars to bump for 'health and safety reasons'.
He told the Daily Mail: 'The point of our dodgems is to dodge people, not to run into people.'
Do you agree?
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