Keeping your children safe on trampolines and in pools

By: Darrell Castle

If your kid’s been injured on a trampoline or in a pool due to someone else’s negligence, after seeking medical attention, you should speak to an experienced attorney as you may be entitled to compensation. You can set up a free consultation at Darrell Castle & Associates by calling (901) 327-1212 or filling out one of the contact forms on this page.

Video Transcript

Hello this is Darrell Castle. I’m an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of Tennessee and on this video today, I’m talking about trampolines and swimming pools the kind that you might have in your backyard. And we’re talking about injuries that might occur in one of those things.

First, trampolines. If you have a trampoline in your backyard, be sure that you have a fence around it. Never have a trampoline or something like that without a fence. It could be said to be an attractive nuisance so even if children are technically trespassing when they’re on your trampoline, if they’re injured, you could still be liable.

There are things you can do to reduce liability – to reduce exposure.

One of those things is never let anyone jump on your trampoline unsupervised, especially children.

Number two, no one takes summersaults on the trampolines.

Number three, only one person on it at a time.

Number four, always cover the springs and foundational support – things like that – with a thick pad.

Also, never put the trampoline where a person jumping can hit a tree limb or other housing support. In other words, anything that might be fun on a trampoline you can’t do because you might be liable for injuries. That is just the way it is sometimes folks – you pay your money and you take your chances with it sometimes, folks.

You have to be careful and you have to excerise due care if you have one of those things.

Now, swimming pools. A very similar situation exists except worse because no one drowns on a trampoline but many people do in swimming pools every year. It is unthinkable that you’d have a swimming pool in your backyard without a fence to keep unwanted or uninvited children out of your pool when you’re not home.

What about right now? What’s happening to your pool right now if you’re at work and not home? Maybe you have children sneaking into the pool. Well, if you have a proper fence, that probably won’t happen. But, if you don’t have a proper fence, you’re probably liable anyway under the doctrine of attracted nuisance.

Now, there are a lot of pools out there. There are pools in public parks, fitness centers and things like that, but 80% of accidents happen in backyards, neighbors backyards and things like that and of that 80%, two thirds of those injuries happen to children ages 1-2 years old – that’s a lot. Most of them are drownings or near-drownings of these 1-2 year old children.

That’s one type of injury. Another type of injury is a drain-related injury. The drain at the bottom of that pool is so powerful it sucks a person into it and they can’t escape and they drown or it pulls an arm and a leg into the drain; and that’s why pools have to have drain covers.

Never get in a pool that doesn’t have a drain cover. That drain can be left on by accident or it can be turned on while the pool is being used by accident. That drain switch is far far away from where the pool is so that you can’t see it when you turn it on and sometimes it can be turned on by one person while another person is swimming in the pool so that is another issue.

But the main thing is when you are swimming in a pool, or you own a pool in your backyard, you have to exercise due care and just common-sense caution. And don’t let children swim in it unsupervised, folks.

Be careful out there.