An eight-year-old girl fell to her death at the Royal Adelaide Show after ride operators ignored safety instructions, a coroner has found.
Malaysian Adelene Leong had been visiting the show in Australia with her Mum while on holiday in 2014.
While on the Airmaxx 360 ride, she slipped out of restraints and was flung into the air before landing on the ground headfirst in front of her mother and multiple witnesses. She then died from the multiple injuries sustained during the fall.
An inquest into Adelene’s death heard that the ride was the first of its kind to be imported into Australia in 2013 but did not undergo a required design registration process, instead, they used the certification for a similar ride.
The ride was bought by Jenny-Lee Sullivan and her husband Clinton Watkins, who borrowed more than a million dollars for the purchase and soon found themselves in debt because of it, often breaching the terms of their loan.
The pair imposed a minimum height requirement of 120cm for unaccompanied riders despite the Spanish manufacturer recommending 140cm.
Adelene was 137cm tall when she fell to her death.
Deputy State Coroner Ian White told the court on Wednesday that Adelene’s death was preventable, had the operators not ignored the manufacturer’s height requirement.
“I am satisfied that the owners deliberately concealed this information from all the relevant authorities for the purpose of expanding the eligibility of patrons to ride on the Airmaxx,” he said.
When Adelene went on the ride it was operating at maximum force and a speed of at least 100km/h when she was flung out.
Just before she was ejected she was hanging from her seat upside down by her left ankle.
Watkins had mostly assembled the ride himself, with some clarification on certain aspects in emails to the manufacturer.
The coroner found that staff were not properly trained.
Adelene’s mother spoke of her devastation, relayed by her lawyer: "(It) has made my life almost unliveable so that I have to live in a parallel world where I believe this did not happen."
Two weeks after Adelene died, Ms Sullivan applied for the Airmaxx to operate at the Royal Sydney Show, still with the incorrect minimum height of 120cm.
In an application that was later withdrawn, she referred to an incident at the Adelaide show but claimed: "there has been no fault on the ride or operators' behalf."
The Director of Public Prosecutions in 2016 opted not to pursue criminal charges regarding Adelene's death.
But Sullivan and her company were later convicted in 2017 of breaching workplace health and safety laws.
The coroner recommended urgent reforms of amusement rides in Australia, including the implementation of a nationwide regulatory process, a database of design registration numbers and better vetting of ride inspectors.
Mr White said: "There needs to be a meaningful response to honour Adelene's short life.
“Her death must be a cause for fundamental change in the operation and governance of high energy rides in Australia.”
