Ottawa County Girl Who Died In Playground Incident Suffered Head Injury

By Joshua Brakhage, The News On 6

WYANDOTTE, OKLAHOMA -- A 9-year-old girl who died after an accident on a piece of playground equipment at a Wyandotte school in Ottawa County suffered a head injury.

The News On 6 has learned the child's name was Alyssa Avila.

"It's tragic," said Linda Eastwood, a Wyandotte resident. "It's the worst thing that can happen to a family to lose a child anyway but to lose them so suddenly and so tragic my heart goes out to them.

Wyandotte Tribal Police Chief Ken Murphy says the accident occurred about 2 p.m. Thursday as the 4th grader was playing with several other children on the X-Wave, which has plastic hinges and moves up and down. Murphy says Alyssa hurt her head as she was trying to get back on.

Beyond that, the school is not saying much about the accident.

"We will release more details and information as it becomes available," said Troy Gray, Wyandotte Superintendent. "Our sole focus at this moment is on the family, our students, faculty, and community at Wyandotte Public Schools."

Alyssa was taken by ambulance to a Miami hospital where she died just before 4 p.m Thursday.

A spokesman for Xccent, which makes the X-Wave, said the company had no comment.  The X-Wave in Wyandotte had only been use for two days.

The News On 6 talked to several districts about their playground safety policies.

Tulsa Public Schools has two certified playground inspectors check out every piece of equipment in the district at least once a year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report