DA investigating bounce-slide accident

The Nassau County district attorney's office is investigating the accident at a soccer festival in Oceanside on Saturday that injured more than a dozen people, including one critically, when high winds sent an inflatable bounce slide tumbling end over end.

Meantime, the owner of the company that provided the inflatables said her staff had followed safety precautions and that the accident was caused by a freak act of nature -- an unpredictable burst of wind.

"It was a nice day and then all of a sudden there was a huge gust of wind," said Gina Michielini, owner of Affordable Inflatables and Party Rentals in Oceanside, in business for 10 years. She said all three rides at the Oceanside United Soccer Club's end-of-the-year festival and tournament, held at Oceanside School No.9E, were secured properly to the ground.

"We always adhere to our guidelines," Michielini said. "We've been in business a long time" without any incidents or injuries, she said.

District Attorney Kathleen Rice's office is asking for anyone with information about the accident to contact its Economic Crimes Bureau at 516-571-2149, said spokesman Chris Munzing. He said the probe is just beginning, and it was not immediately clear what laws, if any, may have been broken.

Leaders of the soccer club said they hired Michielini's company to bring the inflatables to the event, set them up and supervise them. Club president Steve Padaetz said the league has hired the same company in the past without problems, as have other local organizations, including some school districts.

He said that when the inflatables started to get tossed around and go airborne, "your first reaction is you don't believe what you're seeing -- perhaps it's a movie. Then you realize this is actually happening."

Still, he and Michielini said a video of an inflatable slide tumbling and going airborne that was getting wide exposure on the Internet Monday showed one that was empty. They said they were not certain how the 13 people were injured.

One person, Cathleen Hughes, 36, of Oceanside, sustained critical head and spinal injuries, according to her former mother-in-law, Barbara Hughes of Uniondale. She was in critical but stable condition on Sunday, but officials at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside Monday declined to discuss her status.

The National Weather Service said it clocked sustained winds of 12 mph in the area on Saturday around midday, with gusts up to 20 mph.