Several bounce-house accidents have recently made national news, reminding parents once again of the dangers posed by children’s inflatable play equipment. One of these recent accidents involved a bounce house that was reportedly disengaged from its moorings by a gust of wind and lifted more than 50 feet in the air with three children inside. Two of the children fell from the bounce house from a height of at least 15 feet and suffered serious injuries as a result. According to news reports, one of these children, a 5-year-old boy, was jettisoned more than 30 feet onto a nearby street, while the other child, a 6-year-old boy, was dropped onto a neighbor’s car.
Inflatable playpens and other inflatable play equipment have been reported to cause similar injuries. In many cases, these accidents are due to the negligence of homeowners or other individuals or entities responsible for the inflating and securing of the bounce house or other inflatable play equipment. In other cases, the accident may be the result of a product defect, or the combination of a product defect and someone’s negligence.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), more than 3500 people were injured in inflatable play-equipment accidents in 2006, alone. As made all too clear by the examples cited above, children may sustain injuries from such accidents ranging from minor cuts and scrapes to serious brain injuries or death.
An experienced child-injury lawyer, toy-injury lawyer, defective-toy lawyer, amusement-park-injury lawyer, or child-brain-injury lawyer can help you attain justice for injuries your child has suffered as a result of any toy or play-equipment accident. Nationally-recognized child-injury attorney Jeffrey Killino and his team of child-injury attorneys, toy-injury attorneys, defective-toy attorneys, amusement-park-injury attorneys, and child-brain-injury attorneys have extensive experience with cases involving injuries to children resulting from accidents caused by someone’s negligence or a defect in a toy or children’s play equipment. If your child has been injured or killed in such an accident, attorney Killino can provide you with compassionate and aggressive assistance in pursuing your legal rights.
Obtaining Justice through Legal Action for Your Child’s Inflatable Play Equipment Injuries
Liability for injuries sustained by children in bounce-house or other inflatable children’s equipment accidents may be attributed to many individuals or entities, depending on the circumstances of the particular accident and the location of the inflatable structure that was involved in the accident. Most of these accidents occur as a result of the inadequate installation and securing of bounce houses, which allows them to too easily blow away. As a result, the American Society for Testing and Materials International (ASTM International) has established voluntary guidelines for the safe set-up and operation of bounce houses, which have been made mandatory in at least 20 states.
Compensation under the Law of Premises Liability
The owner of property on which a bounce-house or other inflatable play equipment is located may be found liable, under certain circumstances, for a child’s injuries sustained in an inflatable-equipment accident. Under the premises-liability law of most states, a landowner’s liability will depend, in part, upon whether the injured person was an invitee, a licensee, or a trespasser at the time an accident resulting in injury occurred.
Generally, when a landowner has invited or given permission to someone to come onto the owner’s land, the landowner acquires a duty of care to keep that person safe from harm. Thus, an invitee (a guest on someone’s land) or a licensee (someone who comes onto a landowner’s property for the licensee’s own business purpose) may be entitled to damages for injuries caused by the landowner’s breach of the duty of care owed to the particular individual. If a person is injured while trespassing on someone’s land, however, most states will not hold the landowner liable for injuries sustained by the trespasser while on the landowner’s premises, though in some such states, an exception to this relief from liability is made when the trespasser is a child.
Homeowner Liability
Premises liability law may, thus, result in liability on the part of a homeowner who has invited a child onto the premises for the specific purpose of playing in a bounce house or other inflatable play equipment—or for any other purpose—if the child is injured while playing on the equipment as a result of the homeowner’s negligence. In some states, the homeowner may also be liable even if the child was trespassing when injured on inflatable equipment to which the child gained access while on the homeowner’s land if the landowner’s negligence is found to have been a cause of the child’s injuries.
Amusement-park Liability
Owners and operators of amusement parks, fair parks, and other land on which a bounce house or other child’s inflatable equipment may be located may also be found liable for injuries sustained by a child during the child’s use of such equipment if the negligence of the owner or operator is found to have been a cause of the child’s injuries.
In the case of both a homeowner and the owner or operator of an amusement park or other public recreation facility, the inadequate securing of inflatable equipment is often found to constitute the negligent action or inaction resulting in liability on the part of the landowner and anyone responsible for the installation, inflation, and/or securing of the equipment.
Compensation for Injuries Sustained by Defective Products
A bounce-house or other inflatable-play-equipment injury may also be caused by a defect in the inflatable equipment itself. If, for example, the equipment was designed or manufactured with inadequate securing devices, the manufacturer and others in the chain of the product’s distribution may be held liable for injuries sustained by a child through the use of the equipment if the product’s defect is determined to have been a cause of the child’s injuries.
Obtain Expert Assistance from Nationally-recognized Child-injury Attorney Jeffrey Killino
If your child has been injured or killed in an inflatable-play-equipment or other accident involving a toy or children’s product, nationally-recognized child-injury lawyer Jeffrey Killino and his team of child-injury lawyers, toy-injury lawyers, defective-toy lawyers, amusement-park-injury lawyers, and child-brain-injury lawyers will help you obtain justice through compensation from those responsible for your child’s injuries or death.
