AT the risk of appearing a summer spoilsport, can I appeal to your readers to ensure that their children do not make local quarries a place for play during the coming holidays?
Worryingly, research amongst our members shows that it is a very real problem in Lancashire. Quarries can look like fun places to swim, climb, dig or ride, but they carry a variety of unseen hazards.
In June this year, a 14-year-old girl broke her arm and leg after falling over 50ft on to a quarry ledge in the West Midlands, and at a quarry in Lancashire, a 13-year-old girl became stuck waist-deep in a muddy pool.
Fortunately, both these teenagers survived. Sadly there have been a number of incidents in which youngsters have not been so lucky. Children have drowned in deep cold lakes, been buried while digging a cave in the sane, or been seriously hurt when struck by a falling rock. There is also a growing problem with teenage motorcyclists who don't recognise the potential hazards.
ELIZABETH CLEMENTS, Quarry Products Association, Gillingham Street, London.
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