With warmer weather just around the corner, keeping children safe at outdoor parties and amusement parks is important. According to a study* from Ryerson University, children may be more likely to incur injuries from inflatable “bounce houses” than from mechanical amusement park rides.
Using 2010 data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, researchers examined amusement park injuries and found a total of 476 cases among a network of 100 hospitals, which translates to 13,770 such injuries across the U.S. Bounce houses and other inflatables accounted for 42 percent of amusement park injuries, followed by roller coasters and bumper cars. More than one half of bounce house injuries involved children 15 years-old or younger.
To learn more about keeping your family safe this spring and summer, click on the safety tips in the gallery below. Have any other safety tips for bounce houses? We encourage you to share them in the comments box below.
*The study was published in the February 2014 issue of the Journal Safety Science.