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.

  • Soggy@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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.

    • LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world
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      3 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.