Work accident injury news -
07/09/2009

No claim for journalist mauled by lion

A Daily Telegraph journalist mauled by a lion in South Africa, as he made tourism videos, will be unable to make a compensation claim for the work accident as he entered the animal's enclosure "entirely at his own risk".

Charles Starmer Smith was warned by the wild animal sanctuary's lion expert that the year old lion called Mapimpan – "little baby" in the native tongue – had been raised with a view to being released back into the wild and that if he turned to run, the lion would instinctively think he was prey.

Of course, the inevitable happened and within minutes of being in the enclosure the journalist found the lion's jaws clamped around his calf. Even though the handler intervened and managed to get the lion off Mr Smith, the cub went in for a second attack inflicting a new wound to the writer's shoulder.

Smith said he did not blame the lion's handler for the personal injury and that it was completely his own choice to enter the enclosure.

He even said that he is looking forward to reporting on Mapimpan again in the future. However, to avoid further risk of work accident he would do it from the safety of a Land Rover.