UK Paintball Ruling Has Implications for Australia

A court case resulting from an accident at a Scottish paintball centre has implication for Australia according to risk management expert Steve Dymond.

Calvin Blyth, a paintball centre worker, damaged the sight of a colleague while cleaning paintball guns when a gun he thought was empty fired at colleague Alan Weir's face. As a result of this "moment of madness" Blyth has recently been given 150 hours community service at Edinburgh Sheriff Court having been found guilty in March of culpable and reckless conduct.

The incident occurred at the Ape Paintball Centre in Ratho, Edinburgh, last September.

Sheriff Michael O'Grady said "there is enough evidence for me to conclude that the consequences for Mr Weir are serious."

Blyth and Weir were working without protective masks cleaning and carrying out safety checks on guns.

Witnesses told the trial Mr Weir pointed the gun at his own face and twice fired it into his own mouth.

He then fired an empty cylinder at Blyth, a senior paintball marshal who had worked at the centre for 14 months.

Irritated, Blyth picked up a weapon he believed was empty and fired it towards Mr Weir in retaliation, knocking him to the ground.

Mr Weir told the court: "He just picked up a weapon system and shot it at me without checking there was nothing in the barrel system.

"It felt like my eyeball just exploded."

Blyth said the gun he used had been in storage and should have been empty.

Steve Dymond of Worldwide Sports Insurance believes that "this incident highlights an important point for amusement and leisure operators in Australia. At Worldwide Sports Insurance we find that a lot of the risk management going on is geared towards the safety of the public. However, businesses really must focus just as much on training and safety of staff internally.

"Something like this could easily have happened in Australia and it wouldnât be far-fetched for there to be a lawsuit alleging that the business hadnât provided the right safety training which ultimately led to this event."

Dymond adds that Australian Paintball operators should "review their current risk management programs or get their insurance broker to assist them in doing so. It doesnât take a lot of effort and can be an invaluable process."

For more information contact Steve Dymond of Worldwide Sports Insurance on 02 9955 0544, E: steve.dymond@wwsi.com.au, wwsi.com.au