Reducing Risks in Trampoline Parks
The trampoline park has become a popular spot for children and families due to the facilities equipped with wall-to-wall opportunities to jump. A trampoline park offers an accessible way to improve fitness, physical abilities and social skills, all in a highly fun package. The downside to all these benefits is that trampoline parks can be unsafe: trampoline park accidents often cause significant, even life-changing injuries. It is witnessed that, although garden trampolines are more dangerous statistically, the number of serious trampoline injuries rise significantly when a trampoline park opens its doors. And bouncing is a lot of fun, until you bounce into an emergency room.
A trampoline park offers a risk activity: it is impossible to 100% prevent accidents. However, by using risk assessment as the foundation for trampoline park risk management both frequency and severity of trampoline park accidents can be reduced. Some of the most common injuries that occur in a trampoline park accident include:
- Concussions
- Mainly by users colliding with each other due to running (tag!) or multiple users on one trampoline (double bouncing)
- Lower extremity injuries
- Mainly by unskilled users jumping too wild and/or high and by landing (partially) on padding.
- Sprains, fractures, and dislocations
- Neck and spinal injuries
- More serious injuries mostly occur while a person (fails to) do one or more flips, or when users with large weight difference end up on one trampoline.
A lot of these injuries can be prevented with operational procedures and trampoline park supervisor training.
Especially foam pits and airbags tend to give inexperienced users a false sense of safety, allowing them to grossly overestimate their own capabilities and underestimate the risks. High performance areas, which often offer Olympic-grade trampolines, also have an increased risk profile. Both user behaviour and supervisor training require additional attention to prevent the most serious types of trampoline park accidents.
The most effective Trampoline park safety guidelines that need to be focused at are:
Use the safest trampoline park design and layout, since it is always best to not rely on supervision.
- Provide training and procedures for the people doing inspection and maintenance.
- Ensure inexperienced users are actively protected against the risk of grossly overestimating their capabilities, by procedures, rues and well trained supervisors.
- Ensure users are always supervised when using the trampoline park.
Trampoline Park Safety
Trampoline Park Safety founder Eljoh Sneep has an unrivalled broad and deep insight in trampoline park user risks, as a former gymnast competing on the national level, KNGU-certified Gymnastics Coach and former Inaugural Inspector of trampoline parks for TUV Netherlands plus NEN- and CEN Standardization Committee for Trampoline Parks Member.
From design to operations and all steps in between, Trampoline Park Safety acts as a bridge between stakeholders. This allows designers, manufacturers, suppliers, financiers, operators, inspectors, insurers and legislators to excel in their expertise whilst incorporating and respecting the safety-related interests of other involved parties. We specialise in analysing your situation and helping where it is needed most. We anchor our knowledge in your organisation to durably add value, because:
The cheapest accident is always an accident that doesn’t happen.