this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2024
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One child was killed and another was injured after a wind gust blew a bounce house into the air at a baseball game in Maryland on Friday night, local officials said.

Local emergency personnel received a call in Waldorf, Maryland, at about 9:21 p.m. Friday from the Regency Furniture Stadium reporting that a moon bounce house became airborne because of a wind gust while children were inside.

At the time, the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs minor league baseball team was playing a game, and “the moon bounce was carried approximately 15 to 20 feet up in the air, causing children to fall before it landed on the playing field,” according to a news release from the Charles County government posted on its website.

A 5-year-old boy from La Plata, Maryland, was flown to Children’s National Hospital in Washington, where he was later pronounced dead, the release said. A second child also was flown out by Maryland State Police with non-life-threatening injuries.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Do folks not anchor these‽ this is so freakin’ sad.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 months ago (2 children)

They would have to drive the anchors deep into the ground to have any effect. The types of anchors I’ve seen on these things are little more than tent stakes to keep it stationary.

I think these need to be strapped to concrete barrels to be safe. Or banned if there is any wind over some limit.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago

We used to have our trampoline secured with the corkscrew type anchors. I wonder if those are strong enough. I know our trampoline never budged with those.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

They need to be banned. This happens almost every year.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (3 children)

One child almost every year is a staggeringly low incidence rate. If that's enough to get banned then children should also not be allowed near pet dogs, the beach, family members, heavy furniture, inside cars, or outside.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Ban outside!

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Yes, we must not sacrifice precious bounce houses just because one kid every so often dies /s

Just like when Kansas had that boy get decapitated by a water slide net due to their lack of regulations - why change safety regulations because 1 kid died?

And compare how ubiquitous bounce houses are versus dogs or others things. Because there aren't a ton of these, it's easier to regulate.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Easier to supervise, too.

If the design is inherently unsafe and regular use can result in injury, like the Verrückt water slide, then yes regulation and inspection is necessary. If the product is intended for children too young to understand basic safety precautions then strict design rules are important because we can't trust companies to be ethical on their own. But if the object in question poses an obvious minor-to-moderate risk, things like trampolines or skateboards or tire swings, it can be reasonably expected that the object not break from normal use but supervision and safety precautions are the responsibility of the consumer.

There's lots of room for argument about where the lines of acceptable risk are drawn. Personally I'm in favor of helmet and floatation-vest laws for children (and people accompanying children). I think bicycles are an acceptably risky thing for children to ride, but obviously tragic accidents do occur.

It's hard to find data pertaining to bounce houses specifically as there is no official governing body tracking them. It gets lumped into sports or recreation and without usage stats it's impossible to determine injury rate. They might not even be as dangerous as traditional playground structures.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

This is a great perspective.

I do actually think the design of bounce houses themselves is indeed what makes them dangerous. They are lightweight and filled with air by design, to be portable. They then can catch wind underneath them, again due to their design and how they are used with kids jumping on them, which makes them airborne. It is THIS specific situation that I take issue with and think they should be banned. Normal injuries from kids jumping into each other are acceptable imo, not a big deal. Even kids falling from a set height with most traditional playground equipment is acceptable risk as long as the structure itself is firmly in the ground as it is designed to be.

However, the design itself of bounce houses is the problem. They very thing that makes them bounce houses, is what makes them unacceptably dangerous imo.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm gonna defer to this guy John Knox, who has been studying bounce houses for two decades. https://accesswdun.com/article/2022/8/1123579/uga-study-discovers-132-dangerous-bounce-house-related-incidents

Airborn events are dramatic and awful but rare and preventable, and I think gut reaction legislation is bad practice. I would like to see widespread adoption of laws for securing and operating these things but I don't think they meet "ban outright" danger. Backyard pools are way deadlier and I don't even think those should go away.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

They aren't rare according to the article you linked:

Although cases of lofted bounce houses get the most media attention, Knox said that just as many injuries are associated with simply jumping inside inflatables.

So for every injury jumping inside, there is one related to a lofted bounce house. A 1:1 ratio. That's not that rare.

Knox spoke on WDUN’s Newsroom and said even a slight breeze in favorable weather conditions could be strong enough to topple a bounce house.

Honestly what you posted confirms what I have been writing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

We should ban drugs because they kill loads of peepo

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Yes let's give kids drugs, according to you

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Just like pool drownings right?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

They are supposed to be secured, in fairly sure

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I’m picturing ground stakes like a tent, right? I’ll settle for a rope to a nearby tree stump.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Yes. They have loops on the edges to be able to stake them in.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I recently saw one which had foot-long stakes driven at an angle. I wonder if that would be secure enough. I didn't consider wind as a major threat at the time.

It also had a big pocket on the front that said in big letters that it just always contain the manual — empty, obviously.

They often have mesh (not bouncy) sides, and even landing from 20' on your neck on the inflated surface seems like it could be deadly. How awful.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

That had to be the magic-bullet of wind gusts. Tragic.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They're supposed to be, yes.

I'm morbidly curious about how they were hurt from the fall. The article implies they fell out of the house, which I guess makes sense, because if they were still inside, it would have provided a soft landing.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

This happened in Australia when one just blew away with a heap of kids in it. Does no one learn any more?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

IKR. at this point I am angry this is still happening. There have been several in recent years. There is just no excuse for not knowing at this point. Andvthat includes the parents... extreme winds and storms were in the forecast.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I think these should just be banned unless operated by professionals. Something about them invites unsafe practices, people think it's a kids' toy so it'll be safe and foolproof.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, but I hate penalizing all the people who are responsible for the actions of those who aren't. And who would even determine what a professional is...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I mean, the penalty is less bounce houses. It's not that horrible lol

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

But it ends up as a race to the bottom. Everything is dangerous in some way to some irresponsible people. We can't ban everything cause someone could manage to accidentally kill someone with it. We would have nothing left.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

There are 2 issues.

  1. bounce houses aren't really a necessary thing for the risk. We aren't banning "everything" just bounce houses which are used only a lil. That's actually what bans are perfect for - small, niche items that aren't popular. Bans become ineffective if what you're banning is already popular, eg alcohol. Alcohol is also something you can make at home. You can't make a bounce house at home. A ban is an appropriate suggestion here.

  2. hierarchy of controls. The very things that make bounce houses appealing are what make them dangerous and we rely on people to make them safe, notoriously unsafe thing in the hierarchy of controls.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Bounce houses are super popular. If you have kids, it seems like they are everywhere. And people could make them at home if they wanted. Nothing requires complex manufacturing. But they are easier to buy. And people do. I had a small one that I only used indoors for my son that I got on Amazon. If they were banned, I wouldn't have been able to do that. And why, because others misused them. So I would be punished for other people irresponsibility.
That would set a legal precedent. And some judge would decide where to draw the line. It would end up being that politics would define what gets banned and what doesn't. Like stimulants. Some people rely on them to function. But others want them banned because people abuse them, and can die from overdoses and such. Right now we are in the middle ground, they aren't banned, but the barriers for people who need them mean many go without, and suffer because of it. Once we set the legal precedent with bounce houses, stimulants would be easy to ban.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

This is a laughable take to me. Agree to disagree. Bounce houses bathed in children's blood.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

So fucking sad