A HOLIDAY park has been slapped with a six-figure fine for not having a lifeguard on duty when a six-year-old boy drowned in a swimming pool.
Loch Earn Caravan Parks admitted health and safety breaches considered "a significant factor" in the death of little Aidan Yule who was dragged lifeless from a pool.
The tot, also known as Aidan Sands, was playing at the Red Lion Holiday Park in Arbroath, Angus, in 2011 when his head slipped under the water.
CCTV footage showed that he was submerged for 51 seconds before being found unconscious.
Aidan, from Dundee, his mother, and three siblings had been playing at the park three hours before tragedy struck.
He had been in the toddler pool with his brother but left to join his mum and sisters in the main pool
Aidan was holding onto a foam float, but lost grip of it and was submerged.
Other daytrippers tried to revive the boy with CPR and Aidan was rushed by ambulance to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
He was pronounced dead four days later.
Loch Earn Caravan Parks Limited, which owns the Seafront Leisure Centre and the Red Lion Holiday Park, admitted contraventions of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 at Forfar Sheriff Court on today.
There were no lifeguards on duty and staff were not trained in CPR.
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A joint investigation by Angus Council and the former Tayside Police found no risk assessment was done, little consideration had been given to potential risks, there was inadequate supervision in the pool and staff received no adequate safety training.
Speaking outside court, Aidan's father Kevin Yule said it had "ripped our family apart."
Gary Aitken, head of health and safety division, said: "The measures that Loch Earn put in place were insufficient to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, the safety of members of the public using its pool.
"The presence of a lifeguard on duty at the poolside would have reduced the likelihood of the incident occurring and the failure to have lifeguards in place is a significant factor in the incident and the resulting tragic death of a six-year-old boy.
"Hopefully, this sad incident will remind other pool operators that failure to fulfil their obligations in law can have tragic consequences and that they will be held to account for their failings.
"Pool operators need to read the relevant guidance and ensure that their safety arrangements match legal requirements."
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