An inquest jury has ruled that the death of eight-year-old Freya James, who died after a playground collision at her school in Twickenham, was accidental. The girl suffered a fatal liver laceration after being knocked over by a boy playing the game Bulldog and falling onto a railway sleeper.
The incident occurred during the lunch break at Trafalgar Junior School on 14 February. Freya was playing a game called Jails when a boy running at speed in Bulldog collided with her, causing her to fall onto one of the wooden sleepers in the playground. Despite the presence of seven supervising staff, the accident happened at around 1.15pm.
A teaching assistant, Caroline Seabrook, found Freya sitting on the ground and complaining of stomach pain. She was taken to a first aid room, where she became sick and began losing consciousness. An ambulance was called, and paramedics arrived at 1.30pm. Freya was taken to West Middlesex University Hospital but died just before 4pm.
A postmortem examination revealed injuries to her liver and spleen consistent with blunt force trauma. Pathologist Dr Andreas Marnerides said the injuries could have been caused by the fall onto the sleeper or onto the flat ground. Police interviewed the boy involved and found no evidence of wrongdoing.
The coroner, Jeremy Chipperfield, expressed his condolences to Freya's parents, Nick and Anekke James. In a statement, her family described her as a 'beautiful little girl with a sparkle in her eye' who 'lived and loved life to the full.' They said they never got the chance to say goodbye after she went to sleep excited about a planned trip to Germany.
