‘Safety failures’ led to Tasmania jumping castle tragedy, court told, but owner denies blame
An emotional court hearing has heard serious failings led to the 2021 Tasmanian jumping castle tragedy, in which young children saw their friends fall from the air. The castle’s owner, however, argued extra precautions would not have prevented the horror.
A jumping castle that became airborne, killing six children, in Tasmania in 2021 was only pegged at half its anchor points, with pegs that did not meet Australian standards, a court has heard.
The Devonport Magistrates Court on Tuesday heard the prosecution would argue these failures by Rosemary Gamble, owner of jumping castle company Taz-Zorb, amounted to a breach of her duty of care.
“The defendant owed a health and safety duty to others to ensure the jumping castle was securely tethered to the ground,” prosecutor Madeleine Wilson told the court.
Ms Gamble has pleaded not guilty to one count of failure to comply with a health and safety duty, relating to the tragedy at the Hillcrest Primary School in Devonport on December 16, 2021.
Ms Wilson told the court steel pegs were placed at only four of the inflatable jumping castle’s eight anchorage points, when the manufacturer instructions stated eight should have been used.
As well, Ms Wilson said the pegs, which the court heard were 10mm in diameter, were not compliant with the relevant Australian standard of 16mm diameter.
Ms Gamble had also failed to train her fellow staff to be aware of these requirements, she said.
In addition, the defendant, having departed from the relevant manufacturer’s instructions, had failed to ensure alternative practices were assessed and approved by a suitably qualified expert, she said.
“The crown case is that the defendant did not take all reasonable steps to ensure that others were not exposed to risk,” Ms Wilson told the court.
Ms Gamble is charged with a “category two” offence under Tasmania’s Work Health and Safety Act, carrying fines of up to $1.5m for a company and $300,000 for an individual acting as a business.
Her lawyer, Chris Dockray, told the court he would produce expert evidence that none of the measures the crown suggested should have been taken “would have prevented the jumping castle being sucked high into the air”.
He said this was because of the strength and unpredictable nature of the wind event – described by witnesses as a “mini-tornado” and by experts as a “dust devil” – that lifted the jumping castle high into the air.
“The outcome would still have been the same,” Mr Dockray told the small courtroom, where Ms Gamble sat only metres from the children’s families, with a security guard by her side.
Mr Dockray said his client had, when she purchased the jumping castle, sought and received written assurances from the manufacturer-supplier, East Inflatables, that it was compliant with Australian standards.
He said only four pegs had been provided with the jumping castle and it had not come with instructions, but that his client had downloaded a brief 1.5 page operating manual from East Inflatable’s website.
These were “misleading and incompetent instructions”, which evidence would show were after the tragedy replaced on the supplier’s website with much more comprehensive ones, he said.
“What Ms Gamble ought to have known will need to be closely examined,” he told Magistrate Robert Webster, adding that the jumping castle had been used “at least 100 times previously”.
Witness statements read to the court included those of children who witnessed their friends falling from the jumping castle as it was lifted and blown an estimated 75m.
They described the inflatable “spinning” and “swirling” and people screaming, with all witnesses saying the sudden wind event occurred on what was otherwise a calm, sunny, warm day.
Five of the schoolchildren died as a result of injuries sustained, while a sixth child is believed to have been fatally struck in the head by an attachment to the airborne inflatable. Other children suffered significant injuries, with inflatable Zorb balls also becoming airborne at the “big day in” school event.
The children who died are Chace Harrison, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones, Zane Mellor, Addison Stewart, Jye Sheehan and Peter Dodt.
Some members of their families present in court on Tuesday wept as the evidence was outlined, while others stared at Ms Gamble, who also at times cried.
There were several interjections from the public gallery directed at Ms Gamble.
The case continues.
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