Up until someone is harmed or killed, it’s all fun and games. A popular, readily rented party element may also be putting tens of thousands of kids in danger because to a lack of standards and control, according to recent University of Georgia research.
The analysis indicated that over 130 bounce house accidents caused by weather occurrences since 2000 resulted in at least 479 injuries and 28 fatalities worldwide. However, the researchers warn that it’s possible that these estimations are an underestimate.
These injuries are on top of the 10,000 emergency room visits that bounce house-related incidents generate annually in the United States, which frequently result in broken bones, muscle strains, and concussions.
“These bounce houses aren’t something to set up and then forget to stake them into the ground,” said John Knox, lead author of the study and a geography professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. “What could go wrong? The answer is that it could blow away in winds that are not anywhere near severe levels. Some of these cases were in purely clear skies.”
According to the research, many of the wind-related incidents occurred on days that appeared to have favorable weather, such as chilly, bright days following cold fronts with clear sky, hot, calm days that cause dust devils, or pleasant summer days with distant thunderstorms.
Cold fronts or post-cold front conditions, dust devils, and nearby or overhead thunderstorms contributed to the creation of more than 80 of the 132 incidents that the study documented.
Even minor wind speeds pose risk to playhouse safety
The portable playhouses, sometimes referred to as bouncy houses, magic castles, leaping balloons, or bounce houses, are typical features at birthday celebrations, carnivals, and even wedding receptions. In the United States, they typically cost less than $100 to rent and are a quick and enjoyable way to keep kids (and some adults) occupied for hours.
Ahead of a strong wind event, we encourage people to secure outdoor items and remove loose tree limbs to avoid damage or injury once the wind starts picking up. New information and research, such as this study, can help improve public awareness of wind-related risks.
Danielle Nagele
The investigation discovered that, frequently with occupants still inside, it didn’t take much wind to loft the inflatable playhouses into the air, send them bouncing down the ground for yards, or flip them over.
“There was a case in Southern California where one of the bounce houses got picked up by the wind and dropped in the middle of a highway with a boy still inside the playhouse,” said Thomas Gill, second author on the paper and a professor of environmental science at the University of Texas at El Paso. “When the winds get to be too much, these bounce houses need not only to be evacuated but also deflated. There have been cases where a bounce house was empty, but it blew away and struck a bystander.”
The researchers claimed that by employing simple safety measures like firmly anchoring bounce houses into the ground, fastening sandbags to weigh the structure down, and keeping an eye on wind speeds and other hazardous weather conditions, many, if not all, of the accidents would have been avoided.
Less than half of the states in the United States, however, have precise laws and rules governing the use of safe bounce houses, according to the report. 17 states either don’t have any regulations at all or specifically say that inflatables like bounce houses are not subject to regulation.
The majority of those that do have rules do not specifically indicate the weather and wind conditions that must exist for safe use.
“The regulatory landscape is all over the place from one state to another,” Knox said. “From our perspective, this isn’t good enough. Bounce houses need to be attended by someone who is weather-wise and can recognize when winds are at an unsafe level.”
The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) guidelines, which specify a maximum wind gust speed of 25 miles per hour unless the bounce house has been secured by a professional engineer, are only referenced in the regulations of 19 states. For commercial bounce house use, the regulations additionally call for the presence of a meteorologically knowledgeable attendant.
However, of the 132 bounce house occurrences, more than one in five actually took place at wind speeds that were below those that the ASTM standards judged dangerous. More than a third of the accidents happened when the wind speed was between 0 and 20 miles per hour, and more than half happened when the wind speed was at or below 25 miles per hour.
“Ahead of a strong wind event, we encourage people to secure outdoor items and remove loose tree limbs to avoid damage or injury once the wind starts picking up,” said Danielle Nagele, a public program coordinator at the National Weather Service who was not involved in the study. “New information and research, such as this study, can help improve public awareness of wind-related risks.”
Monitor weather, secure bounce house and monitor play to keep children safe
The current publication is the first academic investigation on incidents involving wind and bounce houses.
Tens of thousands of Google alerts and searches were conducted over the course of the researchers’ decade-long hunt for wind-related accidents in order to map the locations, dates, and meteorological conditions of each of the 132 recorded cases discovered worldwide.
To categorize the meteorological conditions, numerous writers carried out separate assessments using a number of sources, including National Weather Service observations and satellite imagery.
Additionally, the researchers independently analyzed and categorized state laws governing inflatable devices. Using this data, the researchers built a website that details their research and offers consumer safety advice.
Keep an eye on the weather, set up bounce houses correctly with pegs and/or sandbags, and always have an adult watching over the behavior of bounce house users are the three most crucial things people can do to enjoy bounce houses in safety.
“Make taking wind measurements part of the fun of the event,” Gill said. “Wind-related incidents and accidents are just a small part of the overall safety hazard of bounce houses. While they’re a lot of fun, there are dangers with them, and people need to take those seriously.”
The study was recently published online in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. It was co-authored by Castle Williams, a doctoral graduate from UGA’s Department of Geography and social scientist contractor supporting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Jada Smith, an undergraduate researcher in the Department of Geography; Lucas Boggs, a graduate of the UGA School of Law and practicing attorney; Alan Black, a doctoral graduate of the Department of Geography and assistant professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville; and Hope Skypek, a graduate of the Department of Geography and a student at the School of Law.
