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Kelowna  

Kids trapped on slide

Alanna Kelly

More than half a dozen kids were briefly trapped at a Kelowna play centre when an exercise ball became lodged on a slide, preventing the children from exiting.

One mother said a six-year-old girl got trapped under the ball and had a hard time breathing.

“Being at the bottom, she has the rest of the weight of the other kids pushing her under that ball, smooshing her face against the ball and the slide,” she said. 

The father of one of the kids piled up at the bottom of the slide used a knife to pop the ball and get the kids out.

No one was injured in the incident at Jump2It, but the mother said her five-year-old son has had nightmares about it.

Co-owner Robert Jabs says the ball should have never been near the slide.

“One of the exercise balls in a confined area had somehow been partially deflated enough to allow it to be removed from that area by kids and brought up to the corkscrew slide and pushed inside,” he said.

Jabs said the kids were too small to climb back out and unable to force the ball through the rest of the way.

“The entire episode was over in under three minutes,” he added.

“We are very proud of the fast action of our safety-conscious Jump2It staff ... and parents."

But the mother of the five-year-old says: “This should have been handled differently, by staff gathering everyone involved and just saying sorry to see if anyone needed help."



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