No birthday party is complete without a bouncy house or bouncy castle. More and more parents actually install these at their homes for their children to frolic in. However, these cute looking inflatable rides are responsible for injuring tens of thousands of children every year. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 30,000 children are injured in these inflatable rides every year. Of these, about 85% involve children below 15 years old.
According to California ride inspectors, the biggest factors in inflatable ride injuries are poor installation of the ride. These rides are often found in local community-run carnivals, where the standards of safety may be lacking. For instance, inflatable rides are meant to be held down using sandbags and stakes. However, it’s not uncommon to find rides being held down by buckets of water. Improper inflation procedures can end with the bouncy house deflating, injuring children.
Inflatable ride injuries also often occur when children hurt themselves after other children fall while on them. This especially occurs when there are too many children on a single ride. A larger, heavier child can easily fall on smaller ones with serious injuries, including spinal cord injuries and head injuries. Children may fall off the inflatable ride on the surrounding concrete, and hurt themselves. These injuries can be prevented if the ground around the ride has been padded. However not every amusement park or carnival will take great care with safety precautions, especially when it comes to inflatable rides that look reasonably safe.
Los Angeles personal injury attorneys believe that it’s important for parents to inspect an inflatable ride before allowing their children on it. If the ride is crowded with far too many children, look for another ride. Also, avoid a ride that has several bigger children playing with smaller ones. The ground around the ride must preferably be padded, and not made of hard concrete. Also, look at the ride operator. If he seems preoccupied and least interested in the behavior of the children on the ride, you might be in for trouble.
