Family of 8-year-old Utah boy who died after he ‘flew’ off a playground slide sues school
The parents of a Utah boy are suing an elementary school district after the 8-year-old fell to his death from a playground slide.
Dallin Cunningham was riding a corkscrew slide at the Rose Springs Elementary School when he “flew out” on a turn and fell 7 feet to the ground on Feb. 6, according to a lawsuit obtained by the Sacramento Bee.
The boy collided with the “frozen rock-hard” mulch and suffered a traumatic brain injury, later dying at a hospital.
His parents, Timothy and Kathryn Cunningham, filed a wrongful death suit against the Tooele County School District on Monday, alleging it negligently failed to line the playground floor with an adequate layer of mulch padding.
They are seeking at least $90,000 to cover medical expenses, along with any damages determined at trial.
The family called the slide “unreasonably dangerous” in the suit, saying it was “excessively fast and steep” without having any safety railings to prevent riders from falling.
Beneath the slide, the bed of mulch was about “1 inch in depth before being frozen solid underneath,” the suit claimed — far less than the 12 inches of mulch considered safe by typical playground standards, according to the Sacramento Bee.
The amount of mulch “below the slide in freezing temperatures” was not enough to safely handle “the hard impact of Dallin’s fall,” the suit said.
The Tooele County School District also failed to provide adequate supervision of its playground equipment, according to the suit.
Dallin, “the perfect, imperfect eight-year-old little boy” who, according to his obituary, adored alternately teasing and playing with his sisters, died “peacefully” a day after his fall from the slide.
“We will miss his smiles, hugs, cuddles, jokes, playful spirit, and his amazing mind,” the obituary read.
The school declined to comment “due to the open and active litigation” when reached by The Post.
A GoFundMe was set up to help the family pay for expenses.
