The Sunday Mail
A British girl died in a freak accident when her father fell off a piece of playground equipment and landed on her in New Zealand.
Amberlie Pennington-Foley (3) died of brain and spinal cord injuries following the accident at a park in Upper Hutt, a city near Wellington.
The girl had been playing with dad Robert — who moved from the United Kingdom (UK) to New Zealand with wife Emma in 2011 — in a park around 10am when tragedy struck.
A coroner’s report issued recently said the pair had been playing on a piece of equipment known as the Supernova Ring — a rotating plastic ring suspended off the ground — when the accident happened.
Robert had been standing on one side of the ring close to the ground while Amberlie was sitting on the other side of the ring which was raised up higher. The report said Robert began stepping from one side to another, causing the disc to spin gently, which moved Amberlie towards him and away from him again.
“After repeating this sequence of sideways steps one way and then the other a few times, Mr Foley started to lose his balance,” the report said.
He tried to jump off of the ring, but this caused it to rotate suddenly, moving Amberlie towards him as he toppled over. When he fell, he landed with his full weight on his daughter’s head and neck, the coroner reported.
Amberlie initially survived the impact but was noticeably ‘wobbly’ on her feet afterwards, the report says.
Robert noticed that she had blood around her nose and on her top and decided to take her to a medical clinic a three minute drive away, believing it would be quicker than calling an ambulance.
By the time he arrived, Amberlie was pale and unresponsive. Staff at the clinic immediately called an ambulance, but medics were unable to revive the girl.
Coroner Peter Ryan concluded that the girl’s death was not due to a fault with the equipment or negligence on the part of her father.
“(Her) death was a tragic accident in the true sense of the word,” he wrote.
“I would not be surprised to learn that many other parents had previously operated the Supernova in a similar manner without serious incident.”
At the time of the death, Amberlie’s mother Emma said the entire town had been left devastated by what she called the “sudden death”.
“Words alone will never be enough to convey our heartfelt thanks to everybody who has donated or delivered food and flowers to us,” she told Stuff (a news organisation) at the time.
“The love and support of everybody around us — and indeed the world — has literally got us through the last few days. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
Nude sunbathers fined
Authorities in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, are struggling to get ahead of a recent outbreak of coronavirus cases driven by the delta variant, despite the country’s stringent virus restrictions.
But there was one incident they could not have prepared for, NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller told reporters recently during a news conference: the case of two naked sunbathers who were startled by a deer and ran into a forest, where they became lost and required a helicopter rescue.
The rendezvous cost each $1 000 Australian dollars (US$750) in fines for breaking public health orders prohibiting residents of greater Sydney from traveling beyond the city.
Police said in a statement that they had located one naked 30-year-old man with a backpack in the Royal national park, about 40,2 kilometres from the centre of Sydney.
The second man, age 49, was found partially clothed nearby. It is “difficult to legislate against idiots,” Fuller said of the incident.
It was not immediately clear how the deer scared the men and why they decided to escape into the bushland.
“Clearly putting people at risk by leaving home without a proper reason, and I think then on top of that, getting lost in the national park and diverting important resources away from the health operation, I think they should be embarrassed,” Fuller continued.
“But, again, they both received a $1 000 fine. Now, it’s only a small percentage of the New South Wales people that are not following the health guidelines, but I can assure you, if you breach the health orders or the guidelines, you will be punished,” he added.
The incident, however, did provide a collective moment of laughs for many Australians, who have watched the recent rise in coronavirus cases and resulting lockdowns with renewed trepidation.
“Let those among us who have not been startled by a deer while sunbaking naked and then run into a forest before getting lost requiring police to render assistance cast the first stone,” tweeted Malaysian Australian chef Adam Liaw.
“In the interests of public morale, I demand one story like this every day for the duration of lockdown,” he added.
Beginning Saturday, around five million residents of Sydney have been ordered to stay at home until at least July 9. People can leave homes only for essential work, small exercise groups and for medical care, grocery shopping and other essential services. — Wires.
