SALT LAKE CITY — Trampoline park injuries have increased in Utah and across the country, according to both The American Academy of Pediatrics and Dr. Troy Madsen, an emergency room physician at University of Utah Hospital.
“What we've seen, just in the last six years or so, trampoline injuries have increased tenfold coming from trampoline parks,” Madsen said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics released a study that found trampoline park injuries across the country increased from about 600 in 2010 to nearly 7,000 in 2014. In that same time period, the number of trampoline parks in the United States grew from about 40 to around 300.
In the last few years Salt Lake County has three new jump gyms:
- Airborne opened in 2011 in Draper.
- Wairhouse opened 2012 in South Salt Lake.
- Get Air opened 2014 in Murray.
Some trampoline parks show videos to their patrons to educate them on safety, but Madsen's own observations suggest safety guidelines at some trampoline parks are not well-enforced, if at all.
“I've been in there sometimes seeing, you know, 15-year-olds jumping with two-year-olds on the same trampoline. Fifteen kids on one big trampoline at a time,” Madsen said.
