Along with climbing walls and other types of healthy indoor activities, trampoline parks have increased hugely in popularity over the past few years. However, as with any such physical activity, the increase in popularity of trampoline parks has also seen an increase in the number of injuries suffered by their customers and visitors.
Based on figures provided by the International Association of Trampoline Parks (IATP), the number of parks has dramatically increased from 6 in 2014 to 144 by March 2017. Various ambulance trusts were also asked for call out statistics during a 12mth period in 2014/15, and these revealed that there were 315 call outs to parks, some of them to deal with pretty serious injuries.
The IATP is taking a pro-active approach to improving the health and safety at its member’s parks. In early 2017, IATP members launched a new set of guidelines, in conjunction with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the British Standards Authority. These Public Accessible Specification (PAS) guidelines help park managers and operators to identify the key risk areas, both when the parks are designed and constructed as well as when they are being operated. It has been an IATP requirement since last summer for park operators to comply with these guidelines.
Despite this, there has been an increase in injury claims made against trampoline parks, with typical compensation claims being made for broken limbs and severely injured ligaments as well as for more serious head and spinal injuries. As always, seek legal help if you have been injured, as unless the park is liable due to faulty equipment or lack of supervision, claims against injuries caused to you by other park visitors can be more complex to bring.
If you've been injured and it wasn't your fault, see if you can claim - to find out more, contact one of our friendly team for further advice on 0800 977 4852 or via email here.