Horrified dad watched girl die in flyaway bouncy castle
A DISTRAUGHT father told yesterday how he watched helplessly as his seven-year-old daughter was crushed to death, trapped in a bouncy castle that flew into the air and cartwheeled 300 yards across a park.
Lee Grant dashed after the huge inflatable, screaming “my daughter’s in there”, a court heard. But the bouncy castle was moving too fast for him. It finally smashed into a tree with his daughter Summer inside.
Summer was playing in the Circus Superdome at Thurstons Funfair in Harlow, Essex, when the inflatable was suddenly uprooted by a strong gust of wind on a cold, wet and windy Easter Saturday in 2016, Chelmsford Crown Court was told.
Mr Grant told the jury he heard a scream as the castle was lifted up and “flipped over”, before “cartwheeling in the air”.
“I heard my mum scream, ‘no’ and in seconds it [the bouncy castle] blew away,” he said.
“I saw some sort of cable flying in the air.
“I remember it blowing over a caravan and it kept on going over the field.
“I started running after the bouncy castle down the field.
“It was 30 to 50ft in the air. It was rolling down the field, just rolling and rolling.
“I think it hit a tree at the end of the field. It came to a halt when it hit the fence. I couldn’t find her. I couldn’t find the entrance to the bouncy castle as it had deflated by the time Summer, seven, was crushed to death it reached the end.” Summer, of Hellesdon, Norfolk, was taken to hospital with multiple injuries, but died later.
The court was told that health and safety guidelines stated inflatables should not be used in winds of more than 19mph.
But according to a meteorologist, the wind was gusting up to 40mph on the day Summer was killed.
Storm Katie was expected on Easter Monday, the court heard, and conditions were so bad, gates were blown over and some funfair staff allegedly left due to the weather.
One worker described the wind as “seven out of 10, if one is a still day and 10 is a howling gale”, Tracy Ayling QC, prosecuting, said.
But William Thurston, 29, and his wife Shelby, 26, kept the Circus Superdome open, charging £3 a go, the court heard.
The couple, from Wilburton, Cambridgeshire, deny gross negligence manslaughter and an offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Ms Ayling said the Thurstons failed to adequately anchor the Superdome or monitor the weather properly.
After the tragedy, the dome “was rolled up, placed in a trailer, attached to a silver pick up vehicle, and taken away”, she said.
Mrs Thurston told police it had been lifted into the air by a “gust, like a freak tornado type wind – a massive gust that came out of nowhere”.
Her husband refused to comment when police suggested he had ignored a weather warning, jurors were told.
The trial continues.