EXTRA checks will take place on fairground and theme park rides after a Barrow woman was left with life-changing injuries.

Chloe Austin was seriously injured on a fairground ride at the Fudstock festival at Cavendish Park in 2021.

The incident is among those to have prompted the Health and Safety Executive to carry 100 inspections of various rides.

In August 2021, then 20-year-old care home worker Chloe was seriously injured alongside two others at the festival on Barrow Island.

Spending three weeks in a coma, she suffered two gashes to the head, a broken nose, two broken collar bones, a broken left elbow, three broken ribs, a shattered pelvis, a leg fracture as well as organ damage to her bladder, bowel, spleen and liver.

The Mail: Chloe Austin spent three months in hospital after she was involved in a major accident at Fudstock Chloe Austin spent three months in hospital after she was involved in a major accident at Fudstock (Image: Submitted)

HSE said it was continuing to investigate the incident, which involved a twist ride.

An incident involving a similar ride at Cardiff Winter Wonderland in November 2022 is also being probed.

Incidents cited as reasons for the increased checks involved people also being injured in Barnsley, Cardiff and London.

The HSE inspection campaign looks to promote the safe use of certain rides.

HSE inspector David Kivlin said: “When there is a failure or incorrect operation of a ride it can result in catastrophic consequences.

"HSE recognises that recent incidents, including the prosecution of operators following a fatal incident in March 2016 involving inflatable devices, have raised public awareness of the potential for injury and harm to users of such devices when they are not set up, maintained and operated in-line with manufacturer guidance or good practice standards.

“HSE’s overall strategy is to promote the safe use of fairground rides and inflatable devices and in doing so reduce the risk of such catastrophic incidents to as low as is reasonably practicable.”

HSE is carry out dozens of targeted inspections of specific fairground rides with the programme set to finish by September 2023.

The rides being targeted are Round-Ups, Crazy Frogs, Twists, high speed rides and Star Flyers used at travelling fairground and theme park sites.

Each of the rides will be inspected to ensure that they are safe for workers and passengers to use and are being correctly maintained and operated, the regulator said.

At Hull Fair in October 2019 a nursery nurse was 'flung 15ft in the air like a pinball' from a ride and received a five-figure payout from south Cumbria company Taylors Funfairs.

The regulator said should HSE inspectors from the National Fairground Inspection Team identify any ongoing risk of serious personal injury then enforcement action will be taken according to HSE’s Enforcement Management Model.

There are a range of enforcement options available to HSE, including providing information face-to-face or in writing, serving Improvement and Prohibition Notices, as well as prosecution.