Two recent accidents involving bounce houses have brought attention to safety issues surrounding the inflatable lawn toys.
On Saturday, a bounce house in Colorado flipped over and rolled nearly 200 feet with a child still inside. A few weeks ago, another bounce house in New York took flight, sending three children to the ground. Two suffered serious injuries.
Party Plus, a party supply store in Wolcott, has rented out bounce houses for over twenty years. Proper installment is the best way to protect children from danger, owner Bill Maisto said Monday.
“Someone’s not doing it right. Someone’s, you know, putting kids in jeopardy because they’re doing half the job instead of doing the full job,” Maisto said.
Maisto’s business uses 17 inch stakes to pin down its bounce houses. It also attaches the houses to sand bags. Maisto questioned whether other companies are as vigilant, saying he has seen 8 inch stakes used. Maisto also provides customers with a list of safety rules and points to the rules on his equipment, which says that bounce houses should not be used in winds exceeding 15 mph.
For now, Connecticut has no state regulations governing bounce houses rented for residential use. Maisto has liability insurance, but even that is not required, he said.
“Just make sure it’s installed and make sure that the company that’s installing it has insurance. That’s important,” Maisto said.