5 year-old's climbing frame death was "accidental"

A five year-old schoolboy who died on a playground climbing frame died an accidental death, an inquest jury has decided. Samuel Orola, a pupil at Tolworth Infants and Nursery School in Surbiton, was killed on September 15th last year.

The inquest at West London Coroner's Court heard that Samuel had been playing on the climbing frame in the school's adventure playground. One of his friends, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Samuel had tried to do 'a roly-poly' on the climbing frame but appeared to bang his mouth.

Samuel collapsed and paramedics attempted to resucitate Samuel for 40 minutes. He was taken to Kingston Hospital but was pronounced dead at around 2pm. A pathologist suggested Samuel may have damaged a nerve in his neck while on the climbing frame, which triggered a cardiac arrest.