Two guilty over girl's bouncy castle death

[timsabre]

I've had my kids on one of those sealed bouncing pillows and it is possible to launch someone into the air if others are bouncing on it too. I can see that a large bounce by other users could have caused a small child to become airborne and also make the inflatable burst.

[sunray]

My experience with inflatables is relatively limited, but I'm curious how it is possible for one to 'explode' like this. They're not like balloons, and typically the blower is running full pelt just to keep the thing up.

 

This one was a sealed unit, just like a balloon. We have stopped our youngsters using them as they work just like a seesaw, when someone jumps on them the increase in pressure will launch another person. Especially if the jumper is heavy and the launchee is small.

 

Edit: I'll swear Tims reply was not there...

[bigclive]

Suddenly this video seems inappropriate, but could actually be similar to what happened.

 

[paulears]

I wonder if Clive's video is closer to the mark than we think. One of the people interviewed on TV is one of my old college students - now in her 30s. I would rate her as likely to tell it as she heard and saw. She, along with others describes seeing the young child "high in the air" and clearly describes a Big Bang - she called it an explosion, so not a pop, but a more violent event. Clive video features the kind off thing we see on youtube quite often for real - somebody dropping on a lower pressure inflatable, that then fires somebody on it up in the air - often by design. A smallish device like the one in question operates with a higher internal pressure to act as a trampoline, which begs the question of how did she get thrown upwards violently? A simple split would be the other way - a sudden collapse. The only way I can see even a small person being propelled upwards in a manner described by witnesses is a sudden increase in internal pressure - if my science is solid? Some external force must be involved. I know speculation on these kinds of incident is often pointless, but there is science involved in this one from a detective point of view. ~The facts in this case seem pretty solid, based on the witnesses, and I'd rate Zoe's as something I would believe of her. The child clearly went up, with the fall causing her injuries. There was a bang. My thinking is that there is an unknown factor nobody has discovered, at least publicly. External forces? This one really is a bit of a detective game - something unusual occurred. Where did the new energy to propel a weight upwards in a violent manner come from? Certainly not a split. I've had an inflatable split under me with my grandson in a garden, and I went DOWN very smartly, not up.

[Owain]

Perhaps the heavy jumper landed, creating an increase in pressure which launched the launchee.

 

The increased pressure then split the inflatable causing pressure to reduce, meaning that the launchee on landing landed on a partially deflated inflatable. Landing from higher than expected on a firmer than expected surface could cause injuries more than expected.

 

 

[Stuart91]

I suppose, as well, it doesn't take much of a fall to cause catastrophic injuries, if the different factors combine in the unluckiest fashion.

[ImagineerTom]

You're all making assumptions based on erroneous assumptions about what the inflatable was. The particular unit in question has an inflatable structure (essentially replacing the metal frame of old-school trampolines) but the bouncy bit is a traditional trampoline bed fixed to the frame with bungees or springs held over open empty space - its based on a well established design for floating trampolines though this is a relatively new variation on the design used for land and marketed as "safer" precisely because its a soft inflatable frame not a solid metal one.

 

A 3 yr old surprised by the noise of a sudden popping sound and disorientated by the trampoline they are bouncing on suddenly twisting/turning/moving is much more likely to loose control and bounce off the structure and on to the (surprising hard) ground than some magical combination of gravity defying acrobatics and major explosions.

[timsabre]

Ah right, I've looked closer at the photos and I see what you mean.

[sandall]

I wonder if the Rt Hon Member will call for motor cars to be banned the next time a boy racer causes carnage.

Why not? It's how we ended up with Part P.

[paulears]

Yes - Tom, but the witness was clear the little girl was "High in the air" - this is what doesn't seem quite right does it? How did she get up in the air, where people could see her? There would seem to either be witness confusion over what they saw and heard or an unknown factor. I realise we just have to wait, but it's strange?

[ImagineerTom]

They also talk about lots of people trying to catch her... if she reall was 20ft in the air as is being claimed (and that’s almost the height of a house) then the entire trip up and down would have taken less than 2 seconds which doesn’t square with People having time to notice and run towards her. Witness statements are notoriously poor records of actual events.

 

Also as someone who spends a good chunk of the year deliberately trying to throw people in the air I can tell you there’s just not enough force in compressed air to do that - 3 Acrobat’s and a teater board or Russian swing can just about make 10ft high.

[bigclive]

I wonder what gas the inflatable was filled with....

[paulears]

A friend sent me this picture of the accident site a couple of days before the incident which shows the site a little better.

[bigclive]

I wonder if the trampoline tensioning system failed and caused the loud noise, perforated the vinyl and launched the child.

 

Pure speculation though.