Vue Entertainment Ltd, one of the largest cinema operators, pled guilty to breaching health and safety laws under the Health and Safety at Work Act at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday.
The pleas follow the death of Mr. Ateeq Rafiq, 24, who attended Birmingham’s Star City cinema on the 9th of March 2018. It was heard at an inquest in 2019 that Mr. Rafiq was searching for his phone and keys underneath his seat at the end of the film.
His head and shoulders then became trapped in the reclining seat when the footrest began to come down during his search, which weighed around three-quarters of a tonne. Mr. Rafiq’s wife attempted to hold the footrest up and staff were alerted, who spent 10-15 minutes trying to rescue Mr. Rafiq but found that the button to release the footrest was faulty.
Mr. Rafiq was described by his wife as turning blue and he was rushed to Heartlands Hospital, where he unfortunately passed away on the 16th of March 2018 due to a hypoxic brain injury – a form of brain injury caused by a restriction of oxygen to the brain.
At the inquest, his death was held to be accidental and the recliner seat he was using was found to have been missing a bar which would have enabled Mr. Rafiq to have been released from the chair manually, and therefore it would have prevented his death.
It was also found that there had been ‘missed opportunities to undertake comprehensive safety checks of the chairs’ according to the BBC, and therefore if the chair had been fitted and maintained correctly Mr Rafiq’s death would have been prevented.
Vue Entertainment Ltd has now pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act for ‘failing to ensure that persons not in their employment are not exposed to risk to their health or safety’ covered under section 3(1) of the Act and for ‘failing to make a suitable and sufficient risk assessment’, with sentencing being adjourned until the 20th of July 2021.
It was found that a suitable risk assessment was not undertaken between the 1st of January 2007 and the 9th of March 2018. Breaches of the Act can lead to imprisonment, a fine, or both, and the injured party also has a right to seek to claim compensation from the responsible organisation and their insurers.
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