There have been heated exchanges between the prosecutor and a defence witness at the hearing into the Hillcrest jumping castle tragedy in Tasmania. In 2021 six children died when a gust of wind blew the jumping castle 10 metres into the air at a primary school end of year event.
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00:00It's been a tense day in court as the prosecution has grilled an expert witness called by the
00:07defence for Jumping Castle operator Rosemary Gamble. David Eager is a professor of mechanical
00:12engineering at the University of Technology Sydney who gave his main evidence yesterday.
00:17Professor Eager said there were no reasonable steps Ms Gamble could have taken to prevent
00:21the inflatable from becoming airborne in chaotic winds. That contradicted the prosecution's
00:26expert witness who said the Jumping Castle most likely would have remained on the ground
00:31if Ms Gamble had used eight pegs to secure it rather than four. Professor Eager also
00:36said Ms Gamble acted reasonably using the supplied pegs and by downloading instructions
00:41from the manufacturer's website, given she says she wasn't supplied with any when she
00:46bought it. Today the prosecutor asked Professor Eager if it was correct to say Ms Gamble didn't
00:52correctly follow those instructions on the day of the incident and he eventually agreed.
00:58At several points throughout the cross-examination the magistrate intervened to direct Professor
01:02Eager to answer the prosecutor's questions. Professor Eager conceded that had the Jumping
01:07Castle been professionally inspected, as Australian standards require, the deficiencies with the
01:13anchorage system would have been picked up. But he also said that would not have changed
01:17the outcome. Ms Gamble has pleaded not guilty to failing to comply with her health and safety
01:23duty. A final hearing day has been added for Monday so there's enough time for the remaining
01:28defence expert witnesses to give evidence. The magistrate is expected to deliver a verdict
01:33next year.