Injury risk to children at ‘lax’ trampoline parks

TRAMPOLINE parks could face regulation following a dramatic rise in serious injuries to children.

Ambulances were called to nearly 1,200 incidents in English parks last year, with victims likely to suffer more serious harm than from playing on trampolines at home.

Doctors have called for tougher regulations for the parks, which have grown from just three in 2014 to an estimated 200 today.

They warn that the craze has seen a rapid rise in the number of children treated in hospital for broken bones.

An audit at sheffield Children’s hospital found that patients were more likely to have suffered a fracture if injured at a park rather than at home.

Nearly 200 patients were treated at the hospital for trampoline injuries in six months. Around 70 had been hurt at parks – but 44 per cent of these had suffered fractures, compared with 36 per cent injured on home trampolines.

Paediatric emergency medicine consultant Dr Catherine Rimmer said many centres do not follow basic rules on safety.

‘There are a lot of trampoline parks that seem to be popping up all over the place that are neither regulated nor abide by basic safety precautions,’ she told the BBC.

‘i think the bigger parks are far better, but i know anyone can open a trampoline park in any kind of big open space and they’re the ones parents need to be particularly careful of.’

A voluntary safety code was introduced in August by industry body the international Association of Trampoline Parks UK (IATP), British standards and the Royal society for the Prevention of Accidents.

This lays down minimum standards for design, construction and operation – but only around 80 parks are members. IATP UK chairman Peter Brown said he would welcome tougher regulation from government.

‘We would like to see these voluntary standards enforced by the health and safety Executive so that if places don’t comply, they are served with improvement notices or closed down,’ he said.

‘There’s probably around 20million who are coming through the doors and getting an hour of exercise, so there’s definitely a health benefit there.’ Many centres have foam pits or inflatables as well as trampolines. They make visitors sign a waiver in a bid to ensure they are not liable for any injuries.

But the rise in accidents has led to a spike in customers taking legal action against parks.

in January last year, dental nurse Lucy Jones, 19, became the fourth person to have a serious accident at Flip Out Chester, which is not a member of IATP.

she is suing after she suffered back injuries that left her housebound for four months.