With more and more claims being made against establishments that are regularly frequented by children, leisure centres all over the United Kingdom are staying one step ahead of the game where accidents are concerned…

One such centre is Keyworth Leisure Centre in Nottingham. In September 2005, Senior Assistant Manager, Mr. Andrew Wykes, took it upon himself to protect the doors throughout the leisure centre with Fingershield devices to put an end to finger trapping as children throw themselves into a kaleidoscopic mix of sports and activities.

Sharp on the risk of finger trapping, Andrew said: “We’ve had Fingershields fitted on all the internal doors where customers and staff are likely to be and also on specific doors where we’ve had certain problems with finger trapping in the past, mostly involving children.”

Since it opened its doors in 1976, Keyworth Leisure Centre has grown to welcome some 12,000 visitors every month and the majority of these are children, including large school parties. The leisure centre caters for all ages, from toddlers right up to teenagers and adults. In fact, Andrew mentioned that the age range currently varies from 1 to 93 years of age!

From Monday to Friday, a wide range of clubs and courses are held, from football and swimming, through gymnastics and trampolining, to Kick-boxercise and Aquafit. And when the summer holidays come round, the programme of events gets even more exciting, with sports such as salsa dancing, golf and fencing to try out!

So with such a colourful array of activities going on, what made the centre turn its attention to anti-finger-trapping devices? Andrew enlightened us by saying: “We decided to get the Fingershield devices installed because of finger-trapping accidents we had experienced in the past. Our major problem was areas where we had younger children, as they don’t realise the risk involved in putting your fingers near a door, so those were the areas we covered first.”

Andrew went on to explain that the part of the leisure centre experiencing the most problems was the casual swimming area and the pool-side changing rooms, where several devices have since been fitted. What is more, the centre has a crèche facility for toddlers aged 2 and upwards. Andrew said that toddlers tend to be quite inquisitive and wander around, making them quite vulnerable to such risks.

However, there was one thing in particular that brought Keyworth Leisure Centre to Fingershield’s door, as Andrew pointed out: “Fingershield was actually recommended to us by a relief Duty Manager who worked at another leisure centre that had fitted the device to all of its doors. So we basically noted the cost of getting the devices installed and also the implications of the accidents we’d been having and then decided to go for it!”

Fitness, Fencing, Five-a-side Football… and Fingershield?

So is there really a place for the anti-finger-trapping device in a setting as diverse as a leisure centre? Andrew commented: “We have quite a lot of metallic door frames and they’re either cream or white in colour, so the devices blend in quite well with the colour of some of the frames, and, if not, they stand out as a deterrent to children putting their fingers in the door.”

Committed to ensuring the Health and Safety of his members, Andrew said: “You simply cannot put a price on the cost of human suffering. The Fingershields have taken away the worry, because we now know that children cannot get their fingers trapped in areas where we were experiencing problems, so the risk has gone and so has the worry.”

As a final point, Andrew commented on the simplicity of the device, saying: “Looking at the product, it’s safe, it’s simple and we haven’t had any maintenance worries as yet – having the devices has paid dividends so far.”

So with thousands of children making their way down to their local centre every day, it is not surprising that leisure centres are getting wise to the ‘commonplace door’ that is bringing many an exciting day out to an excruciating close.

Contact us today or buy online

Download Case Study

top of page