Three-Year-Old Girl Killed After Inflatable Trampoline Explodes

A three-year-old girl was killed when the inflatable trampoline she was jumping on exploded.

Ava-May Littleboy was playing on the Bounce About attraction on Gorleston Beach in the UK when it burst, throwing her "higher than a house", an inquest into her death heard.

Her 23-year-old aunt Abby watched her flip "five or six times" before landing on her face in the sand.

"There was a really loud bang, it was as if someone had set off a cannon. The loudest sound I have ever heard," she said, per The Mirror.

"In a second I looked up and saw Ava in the air, she was flipping. I saw her face, her eyes were closed and she didn't scream."

"I think the impact had knocked her out. She looked like she was asleep. Her head hit the sand first, it made a thud. How am I supposed to get that image out of my head?"

Ava was rushed to hospital but could not be saved. The coroner's report confirmed she died of traumatic head injury.

Tragic details emerged during the inquest, such as the fact Ava had initially wanted to go on a Minions bounce house, but the line was too long, so they made the ill-fated switch to the Bounce About instead.

It also heard that a staff member at the funfair had tried to catch the little girl, but failed.

"She went up higher than my house, about 20ft," a nurse, who attempted CPR, also recalled.

Another girl who was on the trampoline at the time luckily escaped uninjured, after being sent "skimming" across the sand.

Ava's mother Chloe told the inquest: "When I saw her lying there not breathing I just fell to my knees."

Her dad Nathan added: "My heart is scattered all over that beach. I will never go back there as long as I live."

After the July 2018 incident, two people were arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter; however police indicated last year that they would face no further action.

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