Trampoline parks have grown in popularity in recent years, as fun places for kids and families to spend an afternoon or, perhaps, host a birthday party. However, these attractions can be dangerous if they are not properly designed, supervised, or maintained. As experienced personal injury attorneys, we have seen children and adults alike suffer catastrophic, life-changing injuries due to trampoline park negligence.  Many parents are often unaware of the dangers present when the trampoline park or equipment manufacturer(s) providing the jump equipment are negligent. This blog series will discuss the following different types of trampoline park negligence:

1. Trampoline Park Injury Caused by Improperly Trained Staff
2. Trampoline Park Injury Caused by Defective or Improperly Installed/Maintained Equipment
3. Trampoline Park Injury Caused by Insufficient Staff Supervision
4. Trampoline Park Injury Caused by Failure to Warn or Enforce Safety Rules

Ways in Which a Trampoline Park Can Be Negligent:

Although jumping at a trampoline park comes with its own known risks, trampoline parks can be held liable for an injury you or your family suffers at the park if the park, or its staff, were negligent.  As we have explained previously, when a person or corporation is negligent, it means they had a duty to you—to provide a safe jump environment, for example—that they breached, and their failure to fulfill that duty caused your injury.  It is also important to understand how Florida's new comparative negligence law works. In the context of a trampoline park injury, if the park or its staff fails to meet certain standards of care and safety, and that negligence causes injuries or accidents, they can be found liable.  Here are some ways in which we have found a trampoline park might be considered negligent:

1.    Inadequate Staff Training: If the trampoline park fails to provide its staff with proper training, instructions, drills, or rules to enable them to adequately supervise and instruct jumpers how to use the equipment safely and/or respond to a dangerous or emergency situation, the trampoline park could be considered negligent.

2.    Defective or Improperly Installed/Maintained Equipment: If the equipment provided to the trampoline park is defective—meaning, it is not properly designed, or does not perform properly, to prevent injuries—the equipment manufacturer/distributor may be held liable.  However, even if equipment is defective, the trampoline park can still be found jointly liable if equipment such as trampoline beds, springs, or safety netting is not properly installed, inspected, or maintained as trampoline parks have an independent responsibility to regularly inspect and maintain their equipment.

3.    Insufficient Staff Supervision: Trampoline parks are responsible for ensuring that an adequate number of trained staff members are present at all times to supervise jumpers and enforce safety rules. Inadequate supervision can lead to unsafe behavior or delayed response to accidents.

4.    Failure to Warn or Enforce Safety Rules: Trampoline parks typically have rules and guidelines in place to ensure the safety of participants (e.g., limits on the number of jumpers per trampoline, restrictions on certain maneuvers). Negligence can occur if these warnings/rules are not enforced or communicated clearly to patrons.

How Can Equipment Be Defective or Improperly Installed/Maintained and Who Makes That Determination?

When the equipment provided to a trampoline park is, itself, defective, the trampoline park lawsuit may include a claim against the equipment manufacturer or distributor for product liability.  A product liability claim may arise when the equipment suffers from a manufacturing flaw, design defect, or inadequate instructions/warnings, and those failures cause an injury.  However, defective equipment—even if proven—will not completely shield the trampoline park from liability.  If the evidence shows the trampoline park knew or should have known about the defects and failed to address them, or it failed to inspect, maintain, or properly manage its equipment so as to discover and remedy any equipment defects, the park can be found liable for any injuries resulting from this independent negligence.

What if the springs on a trampoline designed to handle 300 pounds of pressure break at 150 pounds and become unattached and fly at jumpers or create a dangerous, jagged landing spot?  What if an apparatus comes with a padded safety cover to prevent injuries but it is confusing or impossible to install or is often not provided with the product?  These situations point to a potential product liability claim against the equipment manufacturer or distributor.  However, trampoline parks have an independent responsibility to meticulously inspect their equipment to ensure it is properly installed and safe before allowing jumpers on it.  What if the trampoline park should have found that jagged, broken spring during a routine inspection but park employees did not and that resulted in an injury?  What if the padded safety cover was provided but the park employees did not install it properly and it slipped off during a jump session, causing an injury?

Whether a party—be it the equipment manufacturer or distributor and/or the trampoline park—is negligent in certain circumstances is always a tedious fact-intensive inquiry, but the beauty of our civil justice system is that the answer to that question is determined by people and parents just like you.  And people expect both the compan(ies) manufacturing/distributing equipment intended for children to jump and play on and the trampoline park that is accepting payment to invite members of the public in to safely use their trampolines and other apparatuses, to act reasonably when designing, manufacturing, and providing equipment as well as installing, maintaining, and inspecting that equipment.   

How a Trampoline Park's Failure to Install/Maintain Equipment Can Cause Injury

Here is one example.  Let's assume Kayla, a thirteen-year-old girl and budding tennis star, is jumping and landing into a big pit of foam blocks.  Kayla jumps properly.  She is being properly supervised by a trampoline park employee.  But, when she lands in the pit, due to a manufacturing defect, the bottom of the pit has been compromised and allows Kayla to land hard on a support beam, breaking her elbow.  Clearly, the pit has not performed as presumably designed in allowing Kayla's injury.  However, what if the trampoline park was required to empty the pit every morning before jumpers arrive to inspect the base and ensure it is safe—an inspection that would have easily revealed the defect and danger—and the park failed to do this? In this scenario, we would ask a jury to find both the pit manufacturer/distributor and the trampoline park negligent in failing to manufacture and produce safe equipment as well as failing to inspect and maintain that equipment, resulting in Kayla's injury and the impact on her tennis aspirations. 

If You've Been Injured at a Trampoline Park – Know Your Rights

Trampoline parks can appear to be fun, adventurous places to spend a few hours, particularly on rainy or bad weather days.  However, the dangers are quite real, and the injuries can be expensive and potentially life-changing.  If you or your child has sustained a trampoline park injury, you may be able to seek compensation.  You should contact an experienced personal injury attorney like our attorneys at Taylor, Warren, Weidner, Hancock & Barnes, to discuss your case, your rights, and understand what steps you should take to preserve your claim.  We never require any fee, cost, or obligation to talk about your case and answer your questions.  Contact us.