Baby pinned beneath injured mother in Snowplanet accident

The accident occurred at Snowplanet, north of Auckland, when a woman's inflatable ring flipped, trapping her baby beneath her. Photo / Supplied

A woman has described pulling a screaming baby from beneath its injured mother after the pair's inflatable tube flipped on a Snowplanet ramp, pinning them against the ice.

The mother was taken to hospital with suspected spinal injuries after the accident at the Silverdale facility yesterday afternoon.

The tube had flipped at the bottom of a snow ramp, which the witness says was covered in ice.

"The way she hit it was like hitting a brick wall full of ice," Sheryl Castell told the Herald.

Castell pulled the screaming baby from underneath the woman, who said she couldn't move and begged for her child to be rescued.

"She said to me that she couldn't feel her arms or her legs and she couldn't move at all.

"She was begging me to take the baby out from underneath her because the baby was crushed underneath her stomach," she said.

Castell then hailed staff to assist and said it took at least five minutes for staff to respond to her and her husband's screams for help, as young children looked on.

She said her husband stopped a waiting child from tubing down the slope immediately after the accident.

Snowplanet's duty manager confirmed the incident took place but told the Herald CCTV footage showed staff were at the site within 90 seconds.

The injured woman was taken by stretcher to the first aid room and then by ambulance to North Shore Hospital. Her child was reportedly unharmed.

"We took it as the worst possible case scenario and followed all the procedures we had in place," the manager said.

While the woman was distressed, she remained responsive and alert, she said.

Snow and ice was routinely flipped off the mats at the bottom of the ramp every half hour for safety reasons, the manager said.

A spokesman for St John Ambulance said the victim suffered moderate injuries and was taken to hospital.

Castell - who had been attending a child's birthday party at Snowplanet - said she also suffered an injury yesterday, hurting her arm on the slope earlier in the afternoon.