Secure Your Bouncy Castle
Recently, a seven years old girl, Summer Grant was killed because of a sudden strong wind blew away the bouncy castle she was playing on. It is really a tragedy not only to her family but also to all of us. Those things happen quite often, we saw the same news from time to time. Since those inflatable products are made that way and for kids to play, we adults should really pay much more attentions when we provide this type of entertainment.
A bouncy castle, also called inflatable castle, is an inflatable recreation toy made from nylon or PVC, majorly played by kids (but adults are also OK). It is air inflated by a blower through a long inlet tube and air pressure balanced with a short outlet tube. Due to its nature, an inflatable product, such as a bounce house, inflatable slide and others, should be carefully maintained and stored before, in time of playing and after.
Do you know the fact that averagely one kid die because of inflatable bounce house every year since 2000?
It is needless to say, very important to secure your bouncy castles before any kids jump on them. Well, there are dozens of do’s and don’ts a supervisor should definitely goes through to avoid any hazard to users.
Equipment
Sometimes, it’s not the weather to blame, it’s the inflatable equipment themselves.
- Check your units carefully every time you set up and store.
- If there are leaps, punctures, tears, please repair them immediately or keep them stay put until repaired.
- Tests before uses, especially new equipment.
- Blower fan may also work dysfunctionally, which will cause inflatable to be collapsed or unable to be inflated.
Weather
Most tragedies are due to unexpected gales, so it makes sense to know what is going on with the weather. Here are some advice.
- Never play inflatable castles in a windy day or rainy day.
- Check weather forecast with your smartphone regularly.
- If the weather is about changing, don’t hesitate to abort the fun.
- Avoid boiling hot summer days, if must, prefer open inflatable structure than enclosed ones, such like water slides.
Playground
A bouncy castle carries with tent stakes when you purchase it. In order to make full advantages of them, find a fine location for secure considerations. Here are some advice.
- Do not unroll an inflatable castle on a hard rock playground, because you can not nail the stakes into it.
- So anchor the bouncers on ground like lawn
- The ground should be flat, and remove all little rocks and sticks.
- Cover a waterproof cloth on the ground to avoid wetting and smudging the castle.
- Nail all of tent pegs firmly into the ground.
- The pegs might not safe enough, so use real cumbersome stuff to anchor the bouncy castle from winds, like sand bags, big rocks or even cars.
Supervision
Do not think you have done everything to protect kids and secure inflatables, always double check and supervise consistently while kids are playing on bouncy castles. Here are some advice.
- Always have one adult stand next to the castle and supervise everything.
- Make another person double checks whether all security measures are well done.
- Make sure no keys, jewelry, shoes and other stuff could possibly hurt people allowed on moonwalks.
- Maintain fine orders among children, limit the number of players at the same time.
- Teach kids to play the inflatables safely and nicely.
A question was asked recently, “should bouncy castles be banned?”. As a reasonable man, my answer is no. Here’s why, first of all, accidents happen, but nevertheless they are still in a pretty small probability; Secondly, those bouncy castles bring so much fun to kids in their childhood. Thirdly, we are competent to do things that can prevent such incidents.
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