Lucas, who made a miraculous recovery, was a passionate fan of the AFL and supported the Richmond Tigers, meeting captain Jack Riewoldt months after the tragedy.<\/p>\n
But he later changed his allegiance to the GWS Giants because of his love for the team\u2019s captain Toby Greene who he met in the change rooms in 2022.<\/p>\n
Lucas Reid was remembered for his resilience and optimism by GWS Giants captain Toby Greene. Photo \/ X<\/p>\n
Greene offered his condolences to Lucas\u2019 family.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is tragic news. Lucas was such a great young man and had overcome so much. His resilience and optimism really stood out,\u201d the forward told The Mercury.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe met many years ago, enjoyed staying in touch and the boys all loved seeing him at games. The Giants family extend our deepest sympathies to the Reid family and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giants CEO David Matthews described the 15-year-old\u2019s death as \u201cdevastating\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had this resilience and energy and the adversity that he got dealt was a massive blow in itself but I think he wasn\u2019t going to let anything stop him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why this is so devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tributes have poured in for the teen. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Lucas was one of three kids injured when a jumping castle was lifted 10m into the air by what witnesses have described in court as a \u201cmini tornado\u201d.<\/p>\n
The inflatable was thrown across the school\u2019s oval.<\/p>\n
Rosemary Anne Gamble, trading as Taz-Zorb, who set up the jumping castle, was found not guilty of a health and safety charge in June last year.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors accused Gamble of failing to properly anchor the inflatable, but her defence team argued the tragedy could not be prevented.<\/p>\n
Magistrate Robert Webster said the gust of wind that caused the deadly tragedy was \u201cunforeseeable\u201d and Gamble\u2019s actions \u201cmade no difference to the ultimate outcome\u201d.<\/p>\n
Families in court for the hearing were left shocked and angered by the decision.<\/p>\n
Investigations continue<\/p>\n
Tasmania Police are continuing to investigate the crash that killed Lucas.<\/p>\n
Describing the incident as \u201ctragic\u201d, Inspector Nick Clark urged parents to talk to their kids about riding safely on e-bikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre your children doing the right thing? Are you giving your child the right advice? Are they riding safely?\u201d he said on New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
Investigators found a helmet on the rural road where he crashed, but they have not determined if the teenager was wearing it or if it was properly secured.<\/p>\n
Lucas died when he struck a pole on a rural road. Photo \/ ABC<\/p>\n
Deaths and injuries involving e-devices have surged in recent years because of popularity.<\/p>\n
At least 41 Australians have been killed in e-bike-related incidents.<\/p>\n
The youngest reported death is 8-year-old Zeke Hondow, who died in a head-on crash with a teenage e-bike rider at Queensland\u2019s Mountain Creek in October 2025.<\/p>\n
Governments across the country are considering tighter restrictions on e-bikes.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lucas, who made a miraculous recovery, was a passionate fan of the AFL and supported the Richmond Tigers,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23968,682,12941,3549,634,14035,5504,2082,42,78,48746,3375,51211,43,29432,11789,15120,12879,9348,9997,4054,40,38,41,39,12628,10140],"class_list":["post-217095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-23968","tag-being","tag-castle","tag-crash","tag-death","tag-ebike","tag-following","tag-for","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-jumping","tag-killed","tag-lucas","tag-news","tag-optimism","tag-reid","tag-remembered","tag-resilience","tag-survived","tag-tasmania","tag-teenager","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-tragedy","tag-tributes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}