A safety inspector had fears about an inflatable trampoline when he examined it just five days before it exploded and killed a three-year-old girl, an inquest heard today.
Amusement park engineer Henry Rundle allegedly raised concerns that the new trampoline appeared to be over-inflated and was not being properly tied down.
Norfolk Coroner’s Court heard how he inspected the inflatables at the Bounce About fun park on the beach at Gorleston-on-Sea in the county on June 26, 2018.
Ava-May Littleboy died five days later on July 1 when the trampoline exploded as she played on it, catapulting her up to 40ft in the air before she crashed down head first.
Ava-May Littleboy, who died of a head injury after being thrown from a bouncy castle on a beach in Gorleston-on-Sea in Norfolk on July 1, 2018
The inquest heard how Ava-May’s aunt Chloe Littleboy, 23, who had taken her to the fun park during a family day out on the beach, had noticed that the trampoline seemed highly inflated with its sides being ’rounded and full of air’.
Mr Rundle, from the amusement ride engineering firm Rundles, was asked by the operators of Bounce About to inspect their equipment under the Amusement Devices Inspection Procedure Scheme.
Norfolk Coroner Jacqueline Lake told the inquest jury that Mr Rundle submitted his report the day after Ava-May’s death outlining ‘issues’ about the trampoline which he believed needed to be addressed.
His report said that not all available ties were in use on the trampoline and that ‘the beds were found to be firm’. He added: ‘For all new devices including the trampoline, manufacture information must be supplied as required.’
Gisele Johnson, 43, a director of Johnsons Funfairs Ltd, which operated Bounce About, gave evidence today and insisted that Mr Rundle had not raised his concerns with her on the day of his inspection
Speaking about his inspection of the trampoline, she said: ‘He examined it. He looked around it and jumped on top of it after taking off his shoes. Then he got off and came to me.
A police cordon at Gorleston beach in Norfolk on July 1, 2018 after the shocking incident
‘He shook my hand and I asked him if everything was fine. He said everything was fine. I said he could send the invoice later and we would sort out the documents.’
She confirmed that Rundles had been inspecting Bounce About equipment for the ten years that she had been running the attraction on Gorleston beach.
Mrs Johnson who operated the attraction with her husband Curt Johnson, 49, refused to answer a series of questions from the coroner after being warned that she could incriminate herself by answering
Mrs Lake told her: ‘You may decide not to answer questions and you are entitled to do so, but if you do decide to answer, you must answer honestly.’
She added in a remark to the jury: ‘You are not to draw any inference from that. It is her lawful right.’
The coroner asked Mrs Johnson if she could say when the trampoline was ordered, who ordered it and whether new equipment was properly checked to ensure it was safe.
Ava-May died five on July 1, 2018 when the trampoline exploded as she played on it, catapulting her up to 40ft in the air before she crashed down head first
Mrs Johnson, who was speaking through a Portuguese interpreter, replied to each question: ‘Sorry, I’m not answering the question’.
She insisted that she checked the inflatables every day when they were pumped up and again when they were deflated at the end of the day.
Mrs Johnson said her staff would also carry out visual checks every 15 minutes when children finished a play session on an inflatable.
She added: ‘They would be looking around and checking everything was fine. If they saw anything weird, I would go over and check.’
Mrs Johnson admitted there had been a previous accident when a girl had fallen off a rodeo bull ride at Bounce About, landing awkwardly and breaking her arms.
As a result, a Great Yarmouth Borough Council environmental health inspector told her to keep a daily log with a check list of equipment checks.
Abbie Littleboy (right), aunt of Ava-May, and her friend Beth Jones (left) outside the inquest yesterday at Norfolk Coroner’s Court into the death of the girl
Mrs Lake asked her why there was a log for June 30, 2018, but not for the day of the Ava-May’s death on July 1. Once again, Mrs Johnson replied: ‘I prefer to not answer the question.’
Mrs Johnson said the trampoline differed to other inflatables as it was a sealed unit which had air pumped in and would then be sealed with a bung ‘like a lid on a jar’.
Asked how she would know when the trampoline was fully inflated or whether there was a gauge giving the air pressure inside, she refused to say.
Mrs Johnson confirmed that the trampoline had a manual, but said ‘it was not very detailed’.
The inquest heard that a boy aged 15 and an older girl aged under 18 were working for Bounce About at the time.
But she refused to comment when asked what training they had been given and whether they had been told not to allow children on any piece of equipment when it was being inflated or deflated.
Nathan Rowe (left) and Chloe Littleboy (right) arrive for the inquest into their daughter’s death at Norfolk Coroner’s Court yesterday
She also refused to say whether any risk assessments were in place for the inflatables, or for employing children under 18.
Mrs Johnson said that she managed the day to day running of the fun park at Gorleston while her husband did most of the paperwork.
She insisted that she believed the site was properly insured. Mrs Lake said the inquest would not be looking into the reasons why the trampoline exploded.
She told the jury: ‘You will see evidence later in the inquest concerning a visual inspection of the remains of the trampoline after it had exploded. That evidence is capable of confirming that it exploded, but not why it exploded.
Ava-May (left and right) was thrown from a bouncy castle on a beach in Norfolk on July 1, 2018
‘To try and establish why it exploded, some specialist expert examination of the remains was undertaken. Sometimes scientific expert examination is capable of proving why an event occurred.
‘Sometimes the available scientific evidence is such that no jury could properly draw reliable conclusions from it.
‘That is not because of any shortcoming on the part of the scientists, but simply because the work they have done has not established why the event in question occurred.
‘Unfortunately, the available scientific evidence were I to call it, would not be capable of assisting you with your conclusions, so I am not going to call that evidence when doing so could not be to any proper effect.
‘Further scientific examination of the remains of the trampoline could have been commissioned, but that would have involved a delay, would have carried a high cost and most pertinently of all, might well have not proved why this trampoline exploded the way it did, on the day it did and in the circumstances it did.
A pictured dated June 27, 2018 shows the inflatable trampoline (right, in front of the blue slide) on Gorleston Beach in Norfolk
‘That’s why I decided on balance this line of inquiry shouldn’t be pursued further.’
The inquest heard how Ava-May was on the beach with her parents Chloe Littleboy, 27, and Nathan Rowe, 36, her grandparents Ian and Angela Littleboy, as well as her aunt Abbie, and family friend Beth Jones.
Abbie told yesterday how the trampoline suddenly exploded with a sound like ‘a cannon’ as her niece was bouncing up and down on it.
She watched in horror as Ava-May ‘flipped five or six times’ while tumbling in the air before she crashed into the sand.
Members of the public including Miss Jones, who is a nurse, lifeguards and paramedics tried to revive her before she was taken by ambulance to the James Paget Hospital in the town where she was declared dead.
A post mortem revealed she had died from a severe traumatic head injury. The inquest continues.