BOSSES of a theme park where an East Lancashire teenager fell to her death from a ferris wheel have admitted breaching health and safety laws.

Salma Saleem, from Nelson, plunged 30ft from the ride at Gulliver's World in July 2002 and bosses of the park were yesterday fined £80,000 for safety failures.

The 15-year-old wanted to ride alongside her mother at the Warrington theme park, but the attendant felt she was too large and directed her to a different gondola, Chester Crown Court was told.

Her mother tried to protest, but neither she nor Salma spoke fluent English.

It is not clear how Salma, who suffered from Down's Syndrome, managed to fall from the gondola but the court heard that locks on the restraining lap bars had a history of breaking.

Gulliver's World managing director Julie Dalton entered guilty pleas to failing to ensure the safety of someone who was not an employee, and failure to carry out appropriate risk assessments.

Mark Harris, prosecuting on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive, said there was no evidence that Salma's death was caused directly by health and safety breaches - particularly as the lap bar was found to be securely locked after the accident.

However, he revealed a catalogue of safety failures which could have caused a similar accident including: l Fitting safety bar locking mechanisms which were intended for use on domestic doors, and were inevitably damaged during the fitting process; l Using a wrongly-shaped coach key to open the locks, which caused damage every time it was inserted; l Following a "replace when broken" policy on locks, rather than routinely checking for wear and tear; Dominic Nolan, defending, accepted there were some flaws in safety procedures and said the firm had invested about £400,000 into overhauling its health and safety culture since the tragedy.

He said: ""There could be no greater demonstration that the message has got home, and the wisdom it brings has been put to good use."

Judge Roger Dutton fined the company £70,000 for failing to ensure a person's safety and £10,000 for failure to carry out proper risk assessments.

He said: "There were serious failures. After all, the lives of the public are always inevitably at risk when such equipment is used and it must be completely safe, not only for their safety but for their confidence.

"Where the risk is not minimised, that in my view is a serious failure."

However, Judge Dutton praised the company for the "complete culture change towards dealing with safety standards" since the tragedy.