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"Oh bliss for the
days when they used to be issues democratically
on the floor of the House of Commons, and the
Minister could be questioned."
The DTI finally released
the UK Firework Injury Figures. For some
reason they have changed their procedure for
issuing the figures.
No Information on their website.
No information on how the new procedure operated,
The figures should have been issued just before
the Easter Parliamentary Recess in a Written
Question. Oh bliss for the days when they
used to be issues democratically on the floor of
the House of Commons, and the Minister could be
questioned..
When we asked why they had not come out, we were
told the figures were to be delayed until after
the General Election, May 7.
Not only did two people die but over half the
total injuries were serious. Further the
DTI would not count injuries for the second sales
period in December. We have been promised a
meeting with the new Minister for Consumer
Affairs, Melanie Johnson MP. We will be
asking her why. If there is a sales period
there must be a counting period for injuries.
Now we have the figures and though they are
disgraceful, one wonders why the delay?
Because two people died?
Does the fact that although Bangers have been
illegal, 93 accidents still occurred. Does this
embarrass them?
Eight accidents, caused by Bangers, occurred at
Large Public Displays. Which firework
display operators use illegal Bangers?
For years we have supported the trend to have
large public firework displays, instead of
smaller family/back garden displays. We
would prefer to have properly trained licensed
firework display operators, who could prove their
efficiency. But now our members are telling
me they are beginning to have second thoughts,
and I can see why. Firstly one must assume
that more people visit Large Displays, and
therefore when accidents happen, it will happen
to a larger number of people, but this is not so,
because 'semi public party' and these are
considerable have less than half the accidents of
the 'large public display'. I can only
imagine that the in-built conscious of safety in
say a 'scout' or a 'golf club' display is greater
than in a paid/unpaid 'Large Public Display'.
I will give this more thought, because I assume
that with small 'semi-public party' they
acknowledge that their expertise is limited and
fire their display accordingly. I would
like to hear your thoughts, you can email me at
'ncfs@altavista.co.uk'.
The tendency of the past few years for bigger
fireworks shows up in the figures. Under
'Not known' in 'Type of Firework' the figure has
leapt from 27, in 1998, to become the largest
contributor of accidents at 336. Approximately 34%
of all accidents were caused by 'unknown
firework', in other words a firework that does
not come under the normal categories. I
assume unless otherwise informed the 'Not known'
firework to be category 3 and 4 type fireworks.
Fireworks, we have been campaigning for years to
be kept out of the hands of the general public.
These type of fireworks are dangerous unless
handled by trained professionals.
The trend in entertainment is for bigger, better,
but the reality is fireworks of today are not the
ones of the fifties and sixties. These
fireworks kill, as last years figures
unfortunately, tragically confirm.
Best
wishes
Noel
25 August 2001
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