A Day at a Trampoline Park with Broken Bones and Head Trauma

Their floors and walls are made of trampolines that allow kids to jump freely while having fun and exercising. They are trampoline parks and for anywhere from $8 to $14 per hour, children can jump in a controlled and safe environment. Or can they?

The Chicago Tribune reported that in May a trampoline park in Carol Stream, Illinois, had 16 ambulance calls for injuries, including, head trauma, dislocated shoulders, broken arms and broken ankles. Injuries result from kids jumping into each other or attempting maneuvers that even a seasoned Cirque du Soleil member would not try.

Currently, no state or federal agency regulates trampoline parks because they do not contain a moving apparatus. Even with warnings and disclaimers, some think trampoline parks are a bad concept, all together. The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons does not recommend recreational use of trampolines, and the American Academy of Pediatrics says supervised gymnasts are the only people who should be jumping on trampolines.

If you search YouTube for trampoline parks, you can see video footage of kids jumping around in an environment that looks difficult to control. These are not inflatable castles where kids can get a little air between themselves and the surface. They are a field of trampolines connected with rubber padding where kids can jump and have little control over what they do to themselves, or to others, once in the air.

Colson Hicks Eidson – Florida injury attorneys