“His feet hit the mat, and almost instantly his knees buckled down, and he just let out the worst scream that you could ever have heard from a child.”
That is Kaitlin “Kati” Hill telling ABC News what happened when a trampoline park broke her three-year-old son’s femur. Her warning to other mothers was shared 240,000 times on social media. We have read those words. We have seen the photos of little Colton in a body cast. And we have heard the same story from families in Cibolo, across Guadalupe County, and throughout Texas.
One bounce. One bad landing. One life changed forever.
If your child was injured at a trampoline park near Cibolo—perhaps during a weekend outing to the Urban Air in New Braunfels or a birthday party at an Altitude in San Antonio—you are likely sitting at a hospital bedside right now. You are exhausted. You are angry. And you are likely feeling a heavy weight of guilt.
We are here to tell you that this is not your fault. You signed a waiver at a kiosk because the line was long and you wanted your child to have fun. You trusted that the park was following the rules. The truth we have uncovered over 25 years of catastrophic injury practice is that trampoline injuries are rarely “accidents.” They are the predictable output of business decisions made by corporate giants like Sky Zone, Inc. and Unleashed Brands.
At Attorney911, led by our managing partner Ralph Manginello, we don’t just “handle” personal injury cases. Since 1998, we have built a practice around holding Fortune 500 companies accountable. We litigated against BP after the Texas City refinery explosion. We currently lead a $10 million lawsuit against the University of Houston for rhabdomyolysis—the same muscle-wasting condition that affects children who jump too long in heated parks. Our team includes attorney Lupe Peña, who used to defend insurance companies and recreational businesses. He knows the playbook they are using against you right now because he helped write it. Now, he uses that insider knowledge to dismantle their defenses.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. Hablamos Español. Our firm operates on a contingency fee basis, meaning you pay us nothing unless we win. Your child’s recovery fund stays intact while we advance every cost for biomechanical engineers, pediatric orthopedic consultants, and ASTM-compliance specialists.
Why Cibolo Families Face Unique Risks at Trampoline Parks
Guadalupe County is a high-growth area for young families. On any given Saturday, hundreds of children from Cibolo neighborhoods are airborne. Most parents believe these facilities are regulated by the state of Texas. They are not.
Texas has no statewide statute specific to trampoline park safety. While the Texas Department of Insurance regulates “Class B” inflatable rides under Texas Occupations Code Chapter 2151—including the bungee trampolines and Sky Rider ziplines you see at Urban Air—the main trampoline decks are statutorily excluded. This regulatory vacuum means that in Cibolo, the only thing standing between your child and a shattered growth plate is the park’s willingness to follow voluntary industry standards like ASTM F2970.
The parent conglomerates behind national chains like Sky Zone (formerly CircusTrix, backed by Palladium Equity Partners) and Urban Air (parented by Unleashed Brands, backed by Seidler Equity Partners) are well-funded machines. They operate on tight margins. When throughput peaks on a hot Texas afternoon, the first thing to slip is the attendant-to-jumper ratio.
The Myth of the Ironclad Waiver in Texas
The insurance adjuster will call you within 48 hours. She will be friendly. She will ask how your child is doing. Then, she will remind you that you signed a waiver at the kiosk. She wants you to believe your case is over before it begins.
In Texas, she is wrong.
Waivers are not a wall; they are noise. Our firm attacks them on five distinct vectors that Texas courts recognize. First, under the Dresser Industries v. Page Petroleum doctrine, a waiver must meet the “fair notice” test. It must be conspicuous, and it must express negligence in clear, bold language. A waiver buried in a 20-screen iPad click-through loop often fails this test in Guadalupe County courts.
Second, the landmark case of Munoz v. II Jaz, Inc. established that a parent in Texas cannot sign away a minor child’s personal injury claim. The signature you gave might affect your right to recover medical bills, but it does not extinguish your child’s right to sue for their own pain, suffering, and permanent impairment.
Third, in the Harris County case of Cosmic Jump, a jury awarded $11.485 million—including $6 million in punitive damages—after a teen fell through a torn trampoline mat onto concrete. The waiver was signed. It didn’t matter. The jury found gross negligence because the park had subjective awareness of the risk and showed conscious indifference.
If the park near Cibolo knew a foam pit was compacted below the ASTM Spec of eight inches and let children jump anyway, the waiver is a legal nullity. Ralph Manginello and his team have spent over two decades proving exactly these kinds of knowing violations.
The Physics of the Catastrophe: Why “Just Jumping” Shatters Bones
Trampoline park injuries are defined by energy math. According to research by Dr. David Eager (2012), a trampoline serves as a mechanical energy-storage device. When an adult lands while a child is pushing off the same bed, the energy transfer multiplies the child’s launch force by up to 400%.
This is the “Double-Bounce.” The child isn’t jumping anymore; they are being catapulted.
Children’s bones are biomechanically distinct from adults. A child’s ligaments are often stronger than their bones, and the growth plates (physes) are the weakest point of the musculoskeletal system. A “simple” landing for an adult results in a Salter-Harris fracture for a child.
We represent children who have suffered:
- Proximal Tibial Metaphyseal Buckle Fractures: Known in medical literature as the “trampoline fracture,” occurring most often in children under six.
- Comminuted Femoral Shaft Fractures: Requiring surgery with intramedullary nails or plates.
- SCIWORA (Spinal Cord Injury Without Radiographic Abnormality): A terrifying condition where a child’s spinal cord is damaged even when X-rays look normal.
- Vertebral Artery Dissection: Leading to pediatric stroke, as seen in the viral Elle Yona case that has garnered over 27 million views.
If your child arrived at a Level 1 trauma center like University Hospital in San Antonio with a diagnosis of a growth plate injury at age eight, they are facing a decade of orthopedic monitoring. The damage they are measuring at age 14—limb-length discrepancy or crooked growth—is the damage we litigate for today.
Rhabdomyolysis: The Hidden Medical Emergency
If your child spent 90 minutes jumping in a stuffy indoor park in 100-degree Cibolo heat and arrives home with muscle pain, vomiting, or cola-colored urine, you are facing a medical emergency called rhabdomyolysis.
Muscles are breaking down. Myoglobin is flooding the kidneys. This leads to acute kidney failure. Our firm currently litigates a $10 million university hazing suit involving rhabdomyolysis. We have the expert nephrologists and the discovery protocols to prove that the park’s failure to provide hydration and rest breaks was the direct cause of your child’s renal crash.
The Evidence Clock: Why Guadalupe County Families Must Act This Week
Before the ambulance even left the parking lot of the trampoline park, the corporate risk team was already working. They have a system for making evidence disappear.
- DVR Overwrite: Most park surveillance systems overwrite in as little as 7 to 30 days. If we don’t send a spoliation letter immediately, the footage of the double-bounce is gone forever.
- Incident Report “Revisions”: Reports filed the night of the injury are often “sanitized” later by management. We use digital forensics to pull the metadata and find the original version.
- The 72-Hour Purge: Many kiosk databases purge version history on a rolling cycle. We need to know which version of the waiver you actually saw.
When you retain Attorney911, our spoliation demand goes out within 24 hours. We don’t just “gather evidence”—we use write-blocked forensic acquisition tools like Magnet AXIOM to freeze the park’s digital record. Most firms don’t know the difference between a DVR and an NVR. We do.
The Insurance Tower: Finding the Deep Pockets
The park’s adjuster will tell you “The policy is only $1 million.” This is the Policy Limit Shell Game.
The operator LLC is often undercapitalized, but the money is always upstream. In the Damion Collins case against Urban Air, an arbitrator awarded $15.6 million. The franchisor, UATP Management LLC, was found 40% liable.
We investigate every layer:
- Operator LLC Primary GL: The $1M floor.
- Franchisee Umbrella: Often $5M to $10M.
- Franchisor Additional-Insured: Where the deep money lives.
- Manufacturer Product Liability: If the mat tore or a bolt failed.
- PE-Sponsor D&O: For cost-cutting decisions approved in corporate boardrooms.
Ralph Manginello’s experience at the Southern District of Texas federal court level ensures we don’t let corporate defendants hide behind LLC shells or franchise agreements.
Frequently Asked Questions for Cibolo Parents
Can I sue if the attendant was just a teenager?
Yes. In Cibolo trampoline parks, the person keeping your child safe is often a 16-year-old making minimum wage with four hours of training and no CPR certification. Under the doctrine of respondeat superior, the park is fully liable for the negligence of its staff. We also sue for negligent hiring and training, using the park’s own training manuals as evidence that they failed to meet even their own internal standards.
How much is my child’s case worth?
For a serious pediatric injury involving a growth plate or spinal compromise, national industry data anchors settlements in the $500,000 to $2.5 million range. For catastrophic SCI or TBI cases, nuclear verdicts can exceed $10 million. We build a Pediatric Life-Care Plan to project the cost of every surgery, therapy session, and specialized educational aide your child will need until adulthood.
What if I was the one who was jumping with them?
Texas follows the modified-51% comparative negligence rule. Even if the park argues you were partially at fault for the landing, you can still recover as long as the park’s negligence was the primary cause. Furthermore, in Cibolo, a seven-year-old child is rebuttably presumed incapable of contributory negligence under the law.
Should I take the medical-payment check the park offered?
No. This is a “Med-Pay” Trojan Horse. The park offers $3,000 to pay your ER bill in exchange for a release on the back of the check. If you deposit it, your case is likely over. Never sign anything before we review it.
Your Cibolo Trampoline Injury Team
We represent families in Cibolo who are facing a bridge they never expected to cross. Our associate attorney, Lupe Peña, speaks Spanish natively and represents our Hispanic clients directly—without interpreters.
As client Chad Harris said about our firm: “You are NOT just some client… You are FAMILY to them.” That is the Attorney911 promise. We treat the parent at the trauma-bay bedside with the same tenacity we would bring to our own children’s cases.
Most personal injury firms can’t quote ASTM F2970 Section 10 from memory. We can. Most firms haven’t litigated against BP or high-profile universities. We have.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911 Today
The clock is running. Every minute the park stays quiet is a minute the surveillance video is closer to overwriting.
Do not let a signature on an iPad stop you from getting the justice your child deserves. We are the firm that knows the medicine, knows the corporate structure, and knows how to win the fight.
1-888-ATTY-911 | Hablamos Español | No Fee Unless We Win
Understanding the Guadalupe County Court System
If we file a lawsuit for an injury at a park serving Cibolo, the venue will likely be the Guadalupe County District Court in Seguin. Local juries are hardworking and value family safety. They do not appreciate multi-million dollar corporations cutting corners on child supervision. We know these courtrooms. We know the local rules. And we know how to present a case that Guanadulpe County residents will understand.
The Problem with “Toddler Time”
Many parks near Cibolo market special hours for small children. Yet, discovery often reveals that staff permit older siblings on the court during these sessions. When a 12-year-old lands next to a 3-year-old, the energy transfer is violent. We have subpoenaed incident reports from parks that show “Toddler Time” has higher injury frequencies than regular sessions precisely because parents have a false sense of security and monitors are less vigilant.
Backyard Trampolines in Cibolo Neighborhoods
While parks receive the most attention, the backyard trampoline in Cibolo suburbs is America’s most-warned-against product. The AAP has advised against home trampoline use since 1999. If your child was injured at a neighbor’s house, the Attractive Nuisance doctrine may apply. Texas law holds homeowners liable when a hazardous condition attracts a child who cannot appreciate the danger. We also investigate manufacturers like Jumpking and Skywalker—many of whom have documented CPSC recall histories for frame welds and netting failures.
The Role of Corporate Outsourcing
Many chains now outsource their laundry, their food service inside Launch FECs, and even their court-monitor training programs. This creates more defendants for us to target. If the third-party training vendor failed to teach a Cibolo attendant how to recognize a neck injury, that vendor is on the hook alongside the park.
The Manginello Law Firm Difference
We are based in Texas but our practice is sought nationwide. We advance all costs for your Cibolo case—the biomechanist, the pediatric neurologist, the ASTM expert. Most firms ask you to pay out of your settlement for these experts; we handle the burden from day one.
We represent the child in the body cast. We represent the parent who just wants to know who is responsible. We represent families who refuse to be ignored by an insurance carrier.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. The case starts today.
