A young girl has broken her leg going down a children’s slide just days after the brand new playground opened.
Two-year-old Tailah Smith was heading down the slide at Shellharbour’s brand new Reddall Reserve Playground in Wollongong, south of Sydney, on Sunday when her stunned family heard a ‘crack’.
Tailah, who was going down the playground’s second largest slide when she broke her leg, then screamed the rest of the way before her family was able to rush her to help.
Her father Jason Smith told her Illawarra Mercuryy she had been on slides all day.
“We don’t know how it happened, but I think maybe her shoe got stuck and kind of grabbed the plastic because her leg was up behind her bottom,” he said.
‘I could actually hear a crack inside the slide and then she just started screaming. When she got to the bottom where her mother and brother were waiting, I started flying down behind her. We tried to get her up and she couldn’t carry anything.’
Two-year-old Tailah Smith broke her leg on a slide at Shellharbour’s brand new Reddall Reserve Playground (pictured)
Her father Jason Smith said he heard his daughter’s legs snap inside the slide before she started screaming (stock image)
The family rushed her to Shellharbour Hospital where scans showed she had broken her tibia.
Smith warned others to be careful with the slide and admitted he hit the sides of his head going down it himself.
He said if he didn’t speak up about the danger, he wouldn’t forgive himself if another child were to be seriously injured at the park.
The slide’s controversial speed divided people on Facebook.
Some shrugged off accidents at the playground, while others said the new park looked ‘fantastic’, while one branded the slide ‘wickedly steep’ and dangerous.
‘Let children be children! This park looks amazing! Unfortunately, accidents can happen anywhere,’ commented one user.
‘Yes no, that slide is brutally steep,’ wrote another.
A woman posted a photo of her bruised legs on Facebook after going down the slide.
‘This slide is wild, I can say with certainty that this will not be the last injury from it. I have been on it and it was completely unexpected. Both my legs were destroyed by the swings,’ she wrote.
‘Definitely wouldn’t recommend small to go on or double up.’
A spokesperson for Shellharbour Council told the Illawarra Mercury they would review the incident and inspect the slide
A Shellharbour Council spokesman told the Illawarra Mercury they would review the incident and inspect the slide.
Since the opening, there have been no other reports of serious incidents at the playground.
The council describes Reddall Reserve as a space to ‘challenge’ children and has been designed to cater for children of different ages and abilities with a flying fox, nature play and numerous slides and tunnels.
Others compared the park to the infamous ones Boongaree Nature Play Park in Berry, which has gained a reputation for having Australia’s most dangerous slide since opening in January.
That playground has been the subject of heated debate for months after more than 40 young children were seriously injured on the slide alone since it opened.
Reports have emerged of several children suffering serious injuries while playing at Boongaree Nature Play Park in Berry, a playground located on Sydney’s south coast
ONE The petition was started by furious dad Mitch Liddicoat after his three-year-old daughter Harlow broke her leg on the playground’s infamous slide.
Sir. Liddicoat told Daily Mail Australia he and his wife Tayla were excited to take their children to the park for some fresh air and fun, before the day took a dramatic turn when Harlow asked to go on the ‘big slide’ .
“When we got to the top she waved down to mum and asked me to go down the slide with her,” he said.
“What we didn’t know is that there is a big crack in the slide that you can’t really see from the outside.
Sir. Liddicoat said the force of the slide was enough to scare him and he can’t imagine how the slide is considered safe for toddlers.
‘It was very, very fast when we went down and we were catapulted into all sides of the slide. It was like being in a tumble dryer,” he said.
‘Harlow hit her leg on the side of the slide and when we got down to the bottom she screamed blue murder, just blood curdling screams.
‘I still struggle to get the sound out of my head, I’ll never forget it.’
He said the family later saw a man walking down the slide and were stunned when he was sent flying and landed ‘flat on his back’.
“He stood up and said ‘wow, that’s really dangerous’,” Mr Liddicoat said.
‘If it’s not safe for a grown man, how is it safe for a three-year-old child?’
Little Harlow was rushed to hospital from the playground where specialists confirmed she had a ‘long break’ in her tibia.
Mitch Liddicoat started a petition against the Berry slide after his three-year-old daughter Harlow broke her leg on the playground’s infamous slide (pictured)
Currently 124 people have signed petition with many sharing their horror stories from the slide.
‘This slide is unnecessarily dangerous for a child’s playground. So many children have been seriously injured, it’s only a matter of time before someone gets a fatal concussion from it. Replace it with something more secure,’ one person wrote.
“My grandson broke both his legs on the same slide,” said another.
‘I have footage of my 6 year old going down this very slide and his foot got stuck in the bend causing his whole leg/knee to bend the opposite way! He was very lucky not to have broken his leg as well,’ wrote a third person.