Is your child begging you to take him or her to the nearest trampoline park? Do not be quick to say yes, as there are a plethora of safety risks and health hazards that needed to be taken into consideration.
I know what you are thinking. “I cannot think of a better way of spending free time for my child than engaging in physical activity such as jumping on a trampoline.” We get it.
After all, kids are not exactly thrilled about physical activity and exercise nowadays. All they seem to want is to be lying down on the couch and eating junk food while playing around with their smartphone.
Jumping on a trampoline is a wonderful way to entertain your children, and it allows the kid to get the much-needed dose of physical activity. “But if you consider the risk of injury associated with jumping on a trampoline, the idea of allowing your child to go anywhere near a trampoline becomes less exciting,” says our Farmington trampoline accident attorney at Jardine Law Offices P.C., P.C.
Trampoline accident injuries: U.S. statistics
Although many trampoline accident injuries are minor and insignificant, others tend to be more serious and can even result in temporary or permanent disability. Dislocations, sprains, strains, and fractures are the most common types of trampoline accident injuries.
Statistics show that roughly 15 percent of all children are taken to emergency rooms with severe injuries after trampoline accidents. In fact, the vast majority of trampoline accident injuries are sustained by children aged 10 to 14 years.
Fact: Each year, nearly 100,000 Americans sustain injuries that must be treated in emergency rooms after trampoline accidents. Between 2000 and 2009, a total of 22 deaths on trampolines were reported to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
Most common causes of trampoline accident injuries
While many people tend to think that parents and their children are solely responsible for trampoline accident injuries, it is not entirely true. Our experienced trampoline accident attorney in Farmington explains that even though most trampoline parks adhere to the highest safety standards, others fail to ensure the safety of their visitors.
One of the most common violations of safety standards on the part of trampoline parks are allowing multiple people to use the trampoline at the same time, failure to inspect trampolines and replace worn-out or damaged ones, failure to eliminate slip and fall hazards such as wet surfaces on a trampoline.
That isn’t to say, however, that trampoline users are never responsible for their own injuries. The most common causes of trampoline accidents occur when the user is attempting to do a backflip, somersaults, or other flips, or lands awkwardly.
Trampoline park providers violating the law and signing a waiver of liability
Typically, before allowing you to use a trampoline, most trampoline park operators in Utah and all across the United States require entrants to sign a waiver of liability, in which the entrants assume the risk of personal injury and death.
Even though many people think the risk of injury while using a trampoline is low, signing the waiver of liability makes it extremely difficult to sue the trampoline park operator and recover damages.
More often than not, those injured while using a trampoline have to work with a Farmington trampoline accident attorney in order to file a personal injury lawsuit and seek compensation for their injuries. Even if you signed the waiver of liability, there might still be a chance to seek compensation.
Nowadays, just about anyone can start their own business by installing cheap trampolines, squeezing as many of them as possible into their property, and allowing multiple people to use one trampoline at the same time in violation of federal safety standards associated with the use of trampolines in the U.S.
If you want to determine whether or not a trampoline park provider violated federal or state laws in Utah related to the use, installation, inspection, and maintenance of trampolines consult with our lawyers at Jardine Law Offices P.C., P.C. Get a free consultation by calling at 801-350-3506.