This blog discusses common trampoline-related injuries, how the risk of home trampoline use compares in terms of risk to other recreational activities such as biking, sledding and skiing, and the American Academy of Pediatrics' (AAP) recommendations to avoid the most common injuries.
Trampoline parks carry a high risk of injury, for both children and adults, but childhood injuries can result in serious, long term medical issues. A broken bone in an adult generally heals in a few months with proper immobilization and care, but a broken bone in a child is a different kind of injury altogether. If the injury occurs before the victim's growth plates harden into solid bone, the injury may require surgery and still result in long term damage.
As Florida trampoline accident attorneys, we have handled enough of these cases to know what to look for. A family leaves the trampoline park with a splint, a photocopied incident report, and an assurance that “kids bounce back.” Six months later, their child's ankle still hurts; one year later, one leg is measurably shorter than the other. By then, the park's insurer may have already offered a quick settlement and closed the file.
Fractures and growth plate injuries are “hidden injuries” that are often missed when companies and insurers fail to take a more careful look. In this blog we discuss what growth-plate damage actually is, why it is so easy to miss on the first set of X-rays, and why a child's fracture claim in Florida deserves to be evaluated on a longer horizon than an adult's.
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What is a Growth Plate?
Every long bone in a growing child has a physis, or growth plate. Growth plates are bands of cartilage near each end of the bone where new bone is generated. It is softer than the bone around it and softer than the ligaments attached to it. When a sudden force runs through a child's ankle or knee, the growth plate is frequently the first structure to fail.
What Problems Can Happen After a Growth Plate Injury?
In an adult, impact force may produce a sprain; in a child, that same force may produce a fracture through the physis. These childhood injuries are classified on the Salter-Harris scale', which orthopedists use to describe where the fracture line travels:
Physeal fractures account for approximately 15-30% of all bone injuries in children. They cluster at exactly the ages you see filling a trampoline park on a rainy Saturday: peak incidence is roughly 11-12 years old for girls and 12-14 years old for boys.
Salter-Haris fractures Types III, IV and V carry a real risk of growth disturbance, altered joint mechanics, and lasting functional impairment. When a physis is damaged badly enough, a bony bridge, also called a physeal bar, can form across the growth plate and shut down growth on one side while the other side continues to grow. This may force the limb to grow crooked, or stop growing entirely.
What To Do After a Trampoline Park Accident
If you are in the first few days after an injury and need practical next steps, start by reviewing our Trampoline Park Accident Checklist for Parents. If you are weighing whether you have a case at all, our Florida trampoline accident attorneys can walk you through it. Call (850) 438-4899 for a free case evaluation.
Exploring the Research: Why Trampoline Parks Are Dangerous
Trampoline parks concentrate the two mechanisms pediatric orthopedists worry about most: multiple jumpers of different sizes on the same surface, and repeated hard landings on a surface that stores and returns energy unpredictably.
“Trampoline ankle” study
The research on the first mechanism is striking. A study of severe fractures—an injury pattern the authors unambiguously named “trampoline ankle”—found that nine of eleven cases involved more than one person jumping at the moment of injury. Six children needed surgery, and two children went on to develop a physeal bar with growth arrest and ankle deformity.
Tibia fracture population study
Another large-population study of trampoline-related tibia fractures found similar outcomes:
The smallest bodies on the mat absorbed all the energy transferred from heavier jumpers. Over the study period, incidence in that population more than doubled.
Jumper density on a single trampoline, size-mixing between toddlers and teenagers, and enforcement of one-per-square rules are all things a park controls or fails to control. It is also why staffing levels and court-monitor placement are among the first things we investigate, along with maintenance logs, pad condition, and how the park's own written rules compare to what was actually happening on the floor that day.
Read More from TWWHB: Trampoline Park Safety Guide for Florida Parents
Florida Specifics Every Parent Should Know
The waiver you signed at the kiosk does not negate your claim.
Under Fla. Stat. § 744.301(3), you can waive claims for inherent risks, but only under specific circumstances. It doesn't authorize waiving a child's claim for provider negligence. Defective mats or toddlers on the same trampoline as teens are considered examples of negligence, not instances of inherent risk.
Florida does not regulate trampoline parks consistently.
There is no comprehensive Florida standard governing jumper density, court monitoring, or foam-pit depth at an indoor trampoline facility. The industry's own consensus document, ASTM F2970, is voluntary. In practice, the operative safety rules at a park in Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach, or Destin are the ones that park wrote for itself. This is exactly why proving what those rules were, and whether staff followed them, does so much work in these cases.
Your time to file a lawsuit is limited.
While Florida's limitations period for a negligence claim is two (2) years, Florida law makes narrow extension provisions if the seriousness of the injury is not known within that window. This matters for growth-plate injuries, as the full extent of the harm may not be apparent inside two years. If you wish to file a claim beyond the two-year statute of limitations, speak with a trampoline accident attorney about what will be needed to file a successful claim.
Trampoline park danger increases with user capacity.
Indoor jump parks in Florida are busiest when the outdoors is unusable: August afternoons, the stretch of summer thunderstorms, spring break weeks when Escambia and Santa Rosa County facilities are absorbing tourist traffic on top of local birthday parties. Peak crowding and peak jumper-mixing occur simultaneously, and so do the injuries.
Speak with A Trampoline Park Injury Attorney in Florida
How Dangerous are Trampoline Compared to Other Activities?
Home trampoline use carries a meaningful risk of injury, particularly for children. Common injuries include sprains and fractures, while falls, collisions between jumpers, and flips can cause serious head or neck injuries. Biking, sledding, and skiing also carry injury risks, but these activities can be made substantially safer through measures such as helmets and appropriate equipment.
Frequently Asked Questions
My child's X-ray was normal but his ankle still hurts. Could there still be a fracture?
Yes. Salter-Harris Type I fractures frequently show nothing on an initial X-ray, and Type V crush injuries can as well. The diagnosis in those cases rests on clinical findings like tenderness and swelling directly over the growth plate. If pain, swelling, or a limp persists beyond a few days, ask for pediatric orthopedic follow-up and repeat imaging rather than waiting it out.
What is a growth-plate injury?
A growth plate is an injury to the layer of cartilage near the end of a child's long bones, where new bone forms. Because it is softer than the surrounding bone, it often fails first under sudden force. If it is damaged badly enough, growth on that side of the bone can slow or stop, which can leave a limb shorter or angled, sometimes years after the original injury appeared to heal.
We signed a waiver before my child jumped. Do we still have a claim?
Possibly. Under Fla. Stat. § 744.301(3), a parent's pre-injury release can cover the inherent risks of the activity, and only when it contains the exact statutory notice in the required format. It does not give a park a pass on its own negligence: inadequate supervision, worn or missing padding, defective equipment, or failing to keep small children off a trampoline with much larger jumpers. TWWHB has secured several settlements for children injured at a Florida trampoline park with a signed waivers on file.
Should we settle now or wait to see how my child heals?
That depends on the injury, but it is one of the most consequential decisions you may make. A clean, well-healed fracture may be ready to resolve. A fracture that crosses a growth plate, particularly a Salter-Harris Type III, IV, or V, often should not be valued until a treating pediatric orthopedist can speak to growth prognosis. A settlement releases the claim permanently, including the surgery your child may need at age fifteen.
How long do we have to bring a claim in Florida?
Generally two (2) years from the date of injury for a negligence claim under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a). Do not assume your child's minority extends that deadline; Florida's tolling statute is narrow. If the two-year mark is anywhere in sight, talk to a lawyer now.
The park says we have speak with their insurance adjuster. Do we?
We would advise against doing so before you have talked to a lawyer. You are not required to give a recorded statement to a park's insurer; early recorded statements from parents, taken while the child's diagnosis is still incomplete, are routinely used later to argue the injury was minor, or that a parent was not watching.
Does it matter that other kids were jumping at the same time?
It matters a great deal. Multi-occupant jumping is the mechanism behind the majority of the severe pediatric physeal fractures in the published research, and jumper density is something a park controls through its rules and its staffing. Who was on the trampoline, how big they were, and whether an employee was watching are all facts worth preserving immediately.
What should we be collecting right now?
Our Trampoline Park Accident Checklist for Parents goes through this step by step. You should collect any evidence you can, including the internal incident report, names and contact information of any witnesses and employees, photographs of the specific trampoline or pit and its padding, every medical record and imaging study including the negative ones, and the waiver itself. Our trampoline accident attorneys will demand the release of this evidence if it is not forthcoming to you.
Injured on a Trampoline? Talk to TWWHB First.
If your child was hurt at a trampoline park in Pensacola, Miami, or anywhere in Florida, we will look at the medical picture, the park's rules and staffing, and the waiver, and tell you honestly what we see. There is no charge to find out where you stand. Call us today at (850) 438-4899, or contact us online to speak with a trampoline accident attorney in Florida.
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