Released
3 March 2006
Local
club signs up to stop garden trampoline accidents!
Top
Swindon club The Esprit Academy of Gymnastics and Trampoline
have been recruited by one of the country’s leading
Garden Trampoline manufacturers to help combat injuries
to the children who use them.
The
garden trampoline craze has hit the headlines over the
last year because of the amount of injuries caused to
young children, this led to a press release last summer
from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
(RoSPA) on the subject of hospital admissions caused by
trampoline injuries.
The
report stated how an 18 year old boy was left paralysed
after falling from a toy trampoline. The fall resulted
in the boy breaking his neck and severing the spinal cord.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA)
warned that such injuries could be easily sustained and
said that their use should always be supervised and that
soft zones should be placed around them. One hospital
reported that they see 16 people each day with injuries
caused by falls from trampolines.
Accident
& Emergency units are seeing more and more fractured
bones, cracked heads and dislocated limbs. RoSPA has also
warned that trampolines are often too big for the gardens
for which they are bought and people are injuring themselves
falling off and landing badly. Up to 75% of accidents
occur when more than 1 person is using a trampoline. Children
can easily sustain very serious injuries whilst trampolining
and parents need to be aware of this. Latest figures show
that in 2002 4,200 children under 15 sought hospital treatment
for injuries sustained while trampolining at home, a 4-fold
increase in the previous 5 years.
“Naturally
enough this concerned us and we started to think: What
more can we do?” said a spokesperson from trampoline
manufacturer SuperTramp.
The
answer was sign up the experts and direct those who purchase
garden trampolines to clubs that can help instruct children
and parents on the safe way to use them.
Esprit
spokesperson Mark Hows said, “Esprit does not condone
the use of Garden trampolines, but unfortunately they
are legal and anyone who fancies a go can purchase one
and try out any move they feel brave enough to have a
go at. Therefore we welcome this move by the industry
to try and reduce the staggering growth in preventable
accidents”.
Anyone
purchasing a SuperTramp trampoline will be given money
off vouchers for trampoline lessons at a list of registered,
professional clubs. The clubs, of which Esprit is one
will then provide lessons in how to use trampolines safely.
“We
can’t stop people buying these trampolines, but
the least we can do is try and teach parents and children
alike on how to use them safely”, we can only hope
people who buy one make sure they receive the proper training
available before using them, concluded Hows”.
