£50,000 bill over raceway accident
The former boss of Hednesford Raceway will have to pay a £50,000 bill over a freak accident which seriously injured a spectator.
The former boss of Hednesford Raceway will have to pay a £50,000 bill over a freak accident which seriously injured a spectator.
Philip Bond was prosecuted after a Cannock woman was hit by a 14-stone lorry wheel which broke her pelvis and left her with lasting disabilities.
The wheel bounced across the track and flew into the crowd after being hit by an out-of-control banger racer.
Now a pensioner, Bond was fined a total of £27,000 after admitting three health and safety charges on behalf of his former company, Incarace Ltd.
The firm managed the circuit until it was bought in February. The 65-year-old has also already paid £25,000 in costs to Cannock Chase District Council, which brought the case.
Stafford magistrates heard the tyre which hit Chadsmoor mother-of-four Jackie Edwards was fully inflated and still on its rim, which, combined with it was not being tied down, caused it to bounce over a safety net into the stand.
An investigation also found other health and safety deficiencies.
However, the court, which heard witnesses including a Formula One expert, was told Bond was at the forefront of driving up safety standards on the UK banger and stock car racing scene.
He advised Silverstone bosses on safety for stock car events and was the "first port of call" for the Health and Safety Executive on safety at oval racing tracks.
Bond, who took over Hednesford Raceway in 1983, said he had never known anything like the accident in April 2006, despite presiding over 7,500 races watched by up to two million spectators.
The possibility of a tyre flying into the crowd at Hednesford had not been flagged up, despite regular health and safety inspections by different authorities.
Urging JPs to take the recent retirement of Bond, of Cruckton, Shrewsbury, into account before setting a fine, his solicitor John Cooper said: "Mr Bond is looking back on a lifetime of or working in a sport he loves but he has to accept he didn't get it right this time."
"Avid stock car fan" Mrs Edwards accepted two lifetime raceway passes as part of a six-figure out-of-court settlement for her injuries.
