Bouncy castles have been hitting the headlines lately for all the wrong reasons. A three year old girl named as Ava-May Littleboy was killed on an air trampoline on Gorelston beach after the device exploded. This was a horrific tragedy and in my opinion will have been highly preventable.

First reports by the national press was, that it appeared to be a bouncy castle. However, we now know that it wasn’t in fact a bouncy castle but a sealed-air trampoline.

So what’s the difference?

Sealed-air unit is just that, no air can escape once inflated. If you continue to inflate the device with air, it will expand until it ultimately explodes.

Bouncy castles on the other hand are nothing similar in any way at all. Bouncy castles use a fan to continuously blow air into it and keep the pressure, whilst the air escapes through its seams.

As we can see there’s no possibility of a bouncy castle exploding and provided safety procedures set by en14960 are followed, they’re possibly one of the most safest play equipment invented.

Firstly, let’s look at some statistics for bouncy castle deaths in the UK. The bouncy castle network reported over 500,000 hires annually without incident. This is only their database and is not a definitive figure by any means.

Over the last 12 years there has been only 5 reported deaths arising from the use of bouncy castles in the whole of the UK. This statistic is very low and again I believe 100% of those deaths would have been avoidable by following good health and safety procedures.

I am as devastated by the awful news of the death of Ava-May as anyone else. This was a horrific tragedy and one I firmly believe could have been prevented.

The intention of this article is to create awareness of safety and what you should be looking for when hiring a bouncy castle. Play apparatus isn’t without danger or risk but used correctly most accidents are preventable.

So what should we be looking for from bouncy castle hirers / operators?

Below is a check list you should ask any bouncy castle hirer.

1) Does your inflatables have a current valid safety test certificate?

Any inflatable hirer should be able to produce an inflatable test certificate for all of their units. There are a number of ways to obtain a test certificate and these can be RPII, ADIPS or PIPA. This signifies the unit is built to en14960 standards and is fit for its intended use.

2) Do you have public liability insurance?

Again any reputable bouncy castle hirer will be able to produce a public liability insurance certificate.

3) Do you carry out a risk assessment?

Risk assessments are carried out to identify risks and put in place, procedures to prevent harm arising from the risks identified.

This is by no means a definitive list and reputable bouncy castle hirers will go above and beyond to ensure your children’s safety at all times.

Again I would like to reiterate that the sealed-air unit that caused the death of Ava-May was not a bouncy castle. I would also like to ensure all our customers that bouncy castles are perfectly safe.

Should you have any questions or would like any information on our safety procedures. Please give us a call on 07895 549539.