The three-year-old girl who was critically injured after an inflatable play structure was swept away by the wind in LaSalle on Sunday has died.
Quebec’s coroner’s office confirmed the death to CityNews on Tuesday morning. Coroner Martine Lachance has been tasked with investigating the circumstances surrounding her death.
“We wish to offer our deepest condolences to the family and all those affected,” a spokesperson for the coroner’s office wrote in an email.
The child and five others — a total of two children and five adults — needed to be hospitalized after the bouncy castle was swept away by powerful wind gusts at Ouellette Park in LaSalle around 4:30 p.m.
Children were playing inside the structure when it was blown in the air. A witness told CityNews it was “30 to 40 feet” off the ground.
“Then all of a sudden, like after maybe seconds, it was thrown in a distance all the way down there on the floor, on the ground, and there were children inside and these children were all hurt, injured,” Rosella Peluzzo said.
First responders arrived to find multiple people suffering from traumatic impact injuries. Urgences-santé deployed five ambulances and an advanced life support unit to the park.
The family gathering was organized by the Madre Dei Cristiani Church.
“We have to be careful in terms of using those types of equipment under big winds like we had yesterday,” said Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada on Monday. “It came really fast. And hopefully it’s a good advisement to people to be careful when they use this kind of equipment.”