14 DAY TRIAL // A children's bounce house got lifted 20 feet (6 meters) into the air by a strong wind gust and three kids who were playing inside were injured after they were tossed out of the inflatable toy.
The incident happened on Monday at around 3:30 p.m., in South Glens Falls, New York, when the children were playing at a small apartment complex on 22 Ferry Boulevard.
Two of the kids, two boys aged 5 and 6, suffered serious injuries in the incident and were hospitalized at Albany Medical Center Hospital. According to South Glens Falls Police officer David Gifford, one of them landed on a parked car while the other landed on the pavement.
It seems that the younger boy was admitted to hospital with broken arms and facial injuries, while the other suffered a traumatic head injury. A 10-year-old girl who was also airlifted was luckier, as she sustained only minor scrapes and bruises after falling from a much lower height.
Witnesses told police officers that the inflatable trampoline dome, a lightweight 8-ft-by-8-ft (2.5mx2.5m) Little Tikes brand toy, eventually went about 100 feet (30,5 meters) into the air after the children fell.
“Luckily, they were tossed before it reached that height. It was found hundreds of yards away. It came very close to power lines,” Gifford said, according to the Saratogian.
Residents said the inflatable structure was secured to the ground with stakes, but the wind pulled them out and the bounce house was caught up in the strong wind gust, lifted into the air and twisted like it was in a small tornado.
“It was like a horror movie,” a resident of the apartment building where the incident occurred said. “It just kept going up and up. It cleared our building and the trees.”
The bounce house was not enclosed at the top, but was surrounded by netting on the sides, and was estimated that it was about 15 feet (4.5 meters) off the ground when the boys fell. The structure was later recovered by police on the fields behind Oliver W. Winch Middle School.
Joseph Roland, owner of Jumping Bean Party Rental in Wilton, explained that the best thing parents can do to ensure their kids safety when installing a bounce house is to secure the structure to the ground.
“There are no (bounce house) regulations in New York state. There are best practices. The biggest thing is staking down the equipment. Most problems happen when they aren’t staked down or aren’t staked down correctly,” he said.
Police are treating the incident as a tragic accident and no charges will be filed.