Safety concerns over 'bounce houses' grow

Accidents involving popular inflatable amusements, like the bounce houses lifted in the air by wind gusts at an Oceanside soccer festival earlier this month, have spurred calls around the nation for tighter regulation.

As the popularity of air-filled slides, castles and bounce houses has grown since the 1990s, so have accidents and safety concerns, amusement-industry experts said.

Inflatables have become fixtures at fairs and amusement centers, and they're increasingly rented and sold for private events -- from birthday bashes to block parties.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said 31,069 injuries leading to emergency-room visits were recorded between 2003 and 2007 involving inflatable amusements. The commission found four deaths among the incidents. The figures include inflatables set up in backyards and indoor gyms, as well as carnivals. It found that reported injuries had increased about 57 percent over those four years, from 5,311 in 2003 to 8,348 in 2007.

The commission, as well as the Nassau County district attorney's office, is reviewing the June 4 Oceanside incident that resulted in injuries to 13 people.

Local rules

In New York, operators must be insured and inspected by the Labor Department's Division of Safety and Health only for inflatables more than 20 feet high and that include slides, involve wall climbing or are part of an amusement park where mechanical rides have to be inspected anyway, said industry experts.

But inflatables commonly offered by rental companies, including those used in Oceanside, are not regulated by the state.

Nassau County Legis. Denise Ford, who saw the Oceanside accident, said more safeguards are needed.

"It was frightening," Ford (R-Long Beach) said last week. "They all should be inspected and regulations should be stricter . . . I have already put in a call to my counsel to look into it."

The growth of the rental industry without regulation troubles some experts.

"They just come in their vans, drop these things [off], plug them in and say, 'Call us when you are done,' " said James Barber, a former New York safety inspector for the state's Department of Labor, speaking in general about such rentals. He now represents the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials, a nonprofit that includes industry professionals, government inspectors, insurers and private consultants.

Experts say inflatables can be fun and safe, but they must be properly anchored with stakes or weights, need to be carefully maintained and should be supervised by trained operators. Their use is also not recommended in windy conditions, depending on the specifications for each brand and model.

The website Rideaccidents.com, which tracks news reports of serious amusement ride accidents, including inflatables, has posted 62 incidents going back 11 years.

In April, a boy and a girl were injured in Tucson, Ariz., when winds blew their bounce house across three lanes of traffic. In February, a 10-year-old girl landed on the roof of a neighbor's house after the wind uprooted a bounce house in Marana, Ariz.

Currently 19 states, including New York, regulate inflatables in some form, but in most cases it's up to the industry to self-regulate.

Call for stricter standards

Some operators are promoting better standards, said Bob Kramarik, owner of Bobby K Entertainment in upstate Elmira. He is a member of Responsible Operators of Amusement Rentals, which offers its 37 member companies safety training.

"Unfortunately . . . you have people who operate out of their garages because they bought some inflatables and they run their businesses without any training and insurance," Kramarik said.

There are dozens of bounce house rental companies on Long Island, based on an online search.

Dozens of parents and their children were at the Oceanside United Soccer Club festival when a wind gust lifted an inflatable slide, causing it to slam into people. Two other inflatables were also uprooted.

Twelve people suffered minor injuries. Cathleen Hughes, a 36-year-old mother who was there with her son, suffered critical head and spinal injuries. The hospital treating her is not providing updates on her condition; her family did not return calls for comment.

The soccer club said it hired Affordable Inflatables and Party Rentals, an Oceanside company it had used before without problems, to install and supervise the inflatables. Club officials have declined further comment.

Affordable Inflatables co-owner Gina Michielini said she couldn't go into specifics about how the inflatables at the festival were secured, citing the investigation.

"We always follow our safety guidelines; anchoring everything down and making sure it's all safe," she said. "I'm sad, and my heart is broken over this."