Children Die In Spanish Bounce Castle Tragedy
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BARCELONA (Worthy News) – Fresh questions have been raised about jumping castles after a four-year-old girl became the second child to die of injuries in last week’s incident with the inflatable structure near Valencia in Spain.
The bouncy castle was thrown into the air by a strong gust of wind at a Christmas fair in Mislata on January 4, investigators said. An eight-year-old child died from her injuries the following day.
Police have opened an investigation to determine if the bouncy castle complied with safety rules.
The four-year-old victim’s father, Ivan Perez, said in a video tribute to his daughter Vera’s that her donated organs have helped save the lives of five other children.
He said she had a smile that “will not disappear.” “I say goodbye to the world tragically and unfairly,” he wrote on social networking site Twitter, speaking for his daughter. “To the five little friends, I help to live with my organs, be as happy as I have been.”
Seven other children were injured after the inflatable structure became airborne, throwing several people to the ground. The council has declared a period of mourning, during which official events are canceled.
LEGAL CASE
The parents of the first girl to die, named Cayetana, reportedly launched legal proceedings saying their daughter’s death could have been prevented. The owner of the bouncy castle, a Spaniard nicknamed Toni ‘el Terremoto’, which translates into English as Toni the Earthquake, has already been questioned by police media reports.
Their son was also on the bouncy castle at the time but was not severely injured.
“As a father, I don’t know what to say about what happened. Just that life can be so unfair sometimes, and no father or mother is prepared for this kind of situation or for coping with this enormous pain,” said Cayetana’s father, in a letter published in a Valencian newspaper.
He described her as the “joy of the house” and admitted that they had not yet dared to go into her bedroom.
The local council said his paperwork was in order. It did not comment on the anchorage system, which Cayetana’s family described as ‘inadequate’ or decided not to close the attraction when the wind became strong.
Mislata’s mayor Carlos Fernandez Bielsa said: ‘It will be up to the police to determine what has happened.’
Last month, six children died in Australia after a gust of wind lifted a sizeable inflatable castle off the ground at an end-of-term school party in the country’s island state of Tasmania. British government officials warned that serious incidents could occur with bouncy castles in windy conditions and offered safety advice on supplying, buying, or hiring them.
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