THE SQUIZ
Five Tasmanian children are dead, and another 3 are in hospital after wind lifted a jumping castle high into the air before it crashed, leaving the kids to fall to the ground. Authorities confirmed that 2 girls and 2 boys from Grade 5/6 lost their lives, and last night it was confirmed that a 5th child had succumbed to their injuries. They were celebrating their final day of school at the Hillcrest Public School in Devonport in the state’s north. “The poor parents, I don’t know what they’re going to do,” said Bob Smith, a resident who lives nearby and saw it all unfold.

WHAT HAPPENED?
The details have not been confirmed, but reports say a strong gust took the castle 10m into the air – that’s the height of a 3-storey home. Police and ambulance crews arrived at about 10am, and the most critical cases were transported to hospital by helicopter. Frantic parents hurried to the scene to find out if their children were injured, and police officers comforted each other in the aftermath of the chaos. Police Commissioner Darren Hine described it as a “confronting and distressing” scene. An investigation is underway – it will look into the number of children in the jumping castle at the time and if/how it had been secured.

HAS SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENED BEFORE?
Yes, but not with such tragic consequences here in Australia. In November last year, 2 kids aged 10yo underwent surgery for multiple fractures to their arms and legs after a “freak gust of wind” blew a jumping castle 7m into the air near Griffith in regional NSW. And in 2019, a similar incident occurred in Western Sydney when 4 kids aged 3-8yo fell from a height of 8m when their jumping castle became airborne, but no one was critically injured. Under the Aussie regulations for using jumping castles, they must withstand wind speeds of up to 40 km/h, but 30km/h is the maximum in which they can safely operate. The Bureau of Meteorology’s data points to wind speeds in the Devonport area of 7-22km/h yesterday.