Butlin's fined for monorail crash

Butlin's, the holiday camp giant, was yesterday fined pounds 25,000 for "poor" safety standards following a monorail crash.

Seven holidaymakers were injured in a head-on collision between two trains at the company's Somerwest World in Minehead, Somerset, last August.The town's magistrates heard track signals had been disconnected and the monorail was being run by a 20-year-old worker on his first day in the job. Forty people were travelling in the trains, which did not have seat belts, when the accident happened.

Richard Barraclough, of the Health and Safety Executive, said that a senior Butlin's official interviewed by the HSE "was pretty scathing about local management practices at Butlin's".