“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, a mother whose son Colton, age three, suffered a broken femur at a trampoline park. Her warning post was shared over 240,000 times, and she ended her account with words that every parent in Combine needs to hear: “We had no idea. We would have never put our baby boy on a trampoline if we would have known.”
In Combine, and across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, we see families every weekend walking into facilities like Urban Air, Sky Zone, and Altitude. You sign a waiver at a flickering kiosk, pay for a wristband, and assume that “industry standards” are keeping your child safe. But the truth is, a trampoline injury is never just a “freak accident.” It is almost always the predictable output of a business decision. Whether it is a park operating at half the required attendant ratio to save on labor costs, or a manufacturer selling a backyard trampoline that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has warned against since 1999, the responsibility belongs upstream.
We are Attorney911. Our managing partner, Ralph Manginello, has spent over 25 years holding corporate defendants accountable, from multinational oil companies in the BP Texas City litigation to institutional defendants in our active $10 million University of Houston rhabdomyolysis lawsuit. Our team includes Lupe Peña, a former insurance defense attorney who used to sit on the other side of the table—representing recreational businesses and drafting the very waivers they now use to try to silence families. He knows where the holes are because he helped dig them. Now, we use that insider knowledge to fight for the families of Combine.
If your child has been injured on a trampoline, the evidence clock is already running. Surveillance footage in these parks is often overwritten in as little as 7 to 30 days. We send spoliation letters within 24 hours of being retained. We don’t just “handle cases”— we build architectures of accountability.
The Reality of Trampoline Park Safety in Texas
When you take your family to a park serving the Combine area, you are entering a regulatory vacuum. Texas is one of 39 states with no mandatory statewide trampoline park safety law. There is no state licensing, no mandatory injury reporting, and no state-led inspections of the trampoline decks themselves.
While the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) regulates “Class B” inflatable rides—like bungee trampolines, zip coasters, or inflatable obstacle courses—under Texas Occupations Code Chapter 2151, the core trampoline courts remain entirely unregulated by the state. This means the only thing standing between your child and a catastrophic injury is the park’s voluntary compliance with ASTM F2970, a safety standard written by the trampoline industry itself.
When a park chooses to operate below that floor—when they disregard attendant-to-jumper ratios or ignore age-separation rules—they aren’t just being “careless.” They are making a choice to accept a known risk to hit a profit target. We know this because our firm has studied the corporate archeology of these chains. Urban Air is headquartered in Grapevine; Altitude is based in Fort Worth. These are local corporate defendants, and we know exactly how their insurance towers are structured.
In Harris County, a jury awarded $11.485 million—including $6 million in punitive damages—against the operator of Cosmic Jump after a teenager fell through a torn trampoline slide onto concrete and suffered a traumatic brain injury. The waiver was signed. The park argued the family assumed the risk. The jury found gross negligence anyway. That is the Texas anchor for our practice. Whether your case is in Dallas County or anywhere in the state, the principle remains: a piece of paper is not a license to maim children.
Why the Waiver is Noise, Not a Wall
The first thing an insurance adjuster will tell a Translate family is, “You signed a waiver, so you have no case.” This is a scripted tactic designed to make you walk away. Here is what they are not telling you:
1. In Texas, Parental Waivers are Often Void
The landmark case Munoz v. II Jaz, Inc. (1993) established that a parent in Texas cannot sign away a minor child’s personal injury claim against a commercial park. While the law around arbitration is shifting—including the 2025 Cerna v. Pearland Urban Air ruling on delegation clauses—your child’s substantive right to compensation for their injuries is fiercely protected in Texas courts.
2. The Gross Negligence Carve-Out
Under Texas law, specifically Transportation Insurance Co. v. Moriel, no waiver can release a defendant from “gross negligence.” If the park had subjective awareness of an extreme risk—like a torn mat, an understaffed foam pit, or a history of prior injuries on the same attraction—and proceeded with conscious indifference, the waiver fails.
3. The “Inherent Risk” Fallacy
A waiver purports to cover risks “inherent” to the activity. It is inherent to get a minor bruise or a sore muscle. It is NOT inherent for an attendant to be on their phone while a 200-pound adult double-bounces a 60-pound child. It is NOT inherent for a foam pit to be compacted to 4 inches of depth when industry standards require 8. When the park violates ASTM F2970, they have stepped outside the realm of inherent risk and into the realm of negligence.
Our associate, Lupe Peña, speaks Spanish natively and represents our Combine clients directly. If a waiver was presented to you only in English and you didn’t have a meaningful chance to understand it, we employ the Delfingen doctrine. Texas courts have refused to enforce agreements where a language barrier was used as a weapon. We don’t let them use your signature as a shield.
The Physics of a Catastrophe: The Double-Bounce
The most common mechanism of injury we see in Combine area parks is the double-bounce. The physics are brutal and undeniable. When a heavier jumper lands on a trampoline bed at the same instant a smaller child is pushing off, the energy transfer acts as a catapult. The child’s launch force can be multiplied by up to 4x.
This produces what pediatricians call the “trampoline fracture”—a proximal tibial metaphysis buckle fracture. Because children’s bones are still developing, they often fail under loads that wouldn’t mark an adult. We work with biomechanical engineers to reconstruct these impacts, proving that when a park allows an adult and a child on the same court, they have violated the “one jumper per bed” rule that the industry’s own standards (ASTM F2970) mandate.
We represent families, we represent children, and we represent the parent standing at a hospital bedside in Dallas watching a surgeon explain what happens when a growth plate is destroyed at age nine. We have recovered multi-million dollar settlements for traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury victims—the same catastrophic injuries a trampoline park or a defective backyard trampoline can cause in a single bad landing.
Catastrophic Pediatric Injuries: Beyond the ER Bill
Most law firms handle a trampoline case like a slip-and-fall. They look at the ER bill and the first cast, and they try to settle. At Attorney911, we know that a pediatric fracture is not just a “broken bone.”
Salter-Harris Growth Plate Injuries
Growth plates are areas of developing cartilage at the ends of children’s bones. A Salter-Harris fracture can disrupt bone growth entirely. The resulting limb-length discrepancy or angular deformity might not even manifest until the child hits a growth spurt years later. If you settle for “ER bills plus $10,000,” you are leaving your child bare for a decade of future orthopedic monitoring and potential corrective surgeries.
SCIWORA: The Silent Threat
Spinal Cord Injury Without Radiographic Abnormality (SCIWORA) is a pediatric phenomenon where the spinal cord is stretched or crushed even though the bones look normal on an X-ray or CT scan. A child at a foam pit in Combine might land on their head, be told they are “fine” by an untrained attendant, and go home only to lose feeling in their legs six hours later.
Rhabdomyolysis and the High-Heat Risk
Many indoor jump facilities in the Texas heat struggle with climate control. Extended jumping for 90 minutes in a hot building without adequate hydration can cause the muscles to break down, releasing myoglobin into the blood. This is called rhabdomyolysis. If your child has dark, “cola-colored” urine or listlessness after a park visit, go to the emergency room immediately. We are currently litigating a $10 million lawsuit for this exact pathology—we know the medicine, we know the experts, and we know how to prove institutional accountability.
The Under-Staffing Problem at DFW Parks
The person assigned to keep your child alive at the park is usually a sixteen-to-nineteen-year-old making minimum wage. In many cases, they have received only two to four hours of training. ASTM F2970 requires specific attendant-to-jumper ratios, yet on a Saturday afternoon at a park near Combine, these ratios often collapse to 1:60 or worse.
We investigate the staff training logs. We look for “pro forma” inspections—where a teenager signs off on a safety check that was never actually performed. In Washington, Sky Zone locations were recently fined nearly $90,000 for labor violations involving their teenage employees. We find that a park that ignores labor laws for its staff is the same park that ignores safety rules for its patrons.
48-Hour Evidence Preservation: Why Speed is Everything
The moment an ambulance is called to a trampoline park near Combine, the park’s risk management team is already at work. They aren’t working to help your family; they are working to protect the franchisor.
Our firm’s forensic discovery protocol is designed to stop them. We demand:
- Surveillance DVR Imaging: We don’t accept a “clip” provided by the park. We demand a forensic image of the hard drive to prevent “convenient” glitches (like the Georgia case where four cameras glitched at the exact moment of injury, leading to a $3.5M verdict).
- Waiver Kiosk Metadata: We pull the audit trails to see exactly when and how the waiver was presented.
- Incident Report Version History: We use forensic tools to see if the report was “sanitized” in the hours after the accident.
- Attendant Cell Phone Records: To see if the person who was supposed to be watching the court was actually texting or on social media.
By Day 10, much of this evidence is gone unless a lawyer has intervened. By Day 30, the witnesses—minimum-wage staff who saw what happened—have often quit or been transferred. We file fast. We investigate faster.
The 5-Layer Defendant Stack: Going Upstream for Recovery
When we say “we sue Urban Air” or “we sue Sky Zone,” we are actually piercing a five-layer corporate stack designed to hide the money:
- The Operator LLC: Often undercapitalized with a $1M primary policy.
- The Franchisee: The local owner who controls daily staffing and maintenance.
- The Franchisor: (UATP Management LLC, Sky Zone Franchising LLC) who dictates the rules and safety manuals.
- The Parent Company: (Unleashed Brands, Sky Zone Inc. f/k/a CircusTrix) backed by private equity sponsors like Seidler or Palladium.
- The Component Manufacturer: Who made the torn mat or the failing harness.
In the Damion Collins case, an Urban Air franchisor was hit with 40% of a $15.6M award. The “franchisor isn’t liable” defense is a myth we dismantle in every case we file. We’ve gone toe-to-toe with BP, Walmart, and Amazon. The parent conglomerates behind the big trampoline park chains don’t scare us.
Backyard Trampoline Injuries: The Homeowner-Manufacturer Triad
While parks get the headlines, the backyard trampoline is America’s most warned-against consumer product. The AAP has said since 1999 that they do not belong in homes. If your child was hurt on a neighbor’s trampoline in Combine, we look at the homeowner’s insurance—but we also look at the manufacturer.
Jumpking, Skywalker, and Bouncepro (Walmart’s private label) have documented recall histories. From frame welds breaking to netting failing under UV exposure, these products often contain latent defects. We apply strict product liability: if the product failed while being used as intended, the manufacturer is on the hook.
We also navigate the “Attractive Nuisance” doctrine. In Texas, a homeowner has a duty to secure a trampoline if they know children in the neighborhood might be tempted to use it. A trampoline with a ladder left in place in an unfenced yard is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Adjacent Attractions: Dangerous Bolt-Ons
Urban Air and other Combine area attractions have evolved into Family Entertainment Centers (FECs). They are bolting on high-risk attractions like go-karts, zip-coasters (Sky Rider), and climbing walls.
The harness failure that killed Matthew Lu (12) at an Altitude park or the go-kart surge that killed Emma Riddle (6) at an Urban Air in 2025 are part of a pattern. When these attractions fail, we don’t just sue the park—we sue companies like Ropes Courses, Inc. (climbing wall manufacturer) and the pedal/throttle system designers. The “trampoline waiver” you signed rarely covers a mechanical failure on a motorized go-kart.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue if I signed the waiver?
Yes. In Texas, parents generally cannot waive a minor’s right to sue (Munoz v. II Jaz). Even for adults, no state allows a waiver to release “gross negligence.” If the park violated safety standards or ignored a known danger, the waiver is often legally irrelevant.
How much is my trampoline injury case worth?
It depends on the injury. National benchmarks range from $500,000 for severe pediatric fractures to $15 million or more for permanent paralysis. We build a Life-Care Plan that forecasts every medically necessary cost your child will have over the next 70 years.
The park only has $1 million in insurance. Is that the cap?
No. That is the primary policy. We discover the umbrella layers, the franchisor’s additional-insured coverage, and the corporate parent’s excess tower. For national chains, the available insurance can exceed $50 million.
My child’s injury was three months ago. Is it too late?
In Texas, the statute of limitations is 2 years, and it is “tolled” for minors until they turn 18. You have time to file, but you are running out of time to preserve evidence. Surveillance video is likely already gone, but we can still subpoena maintenance logs and prior-injury patterns.
What should I not say to the insurance adjuster?
Do not give a recorded statement. Do not talk through the “details” of the jump. Do not accept a Med-Pay check without showing it to us first. The adjuster’s goal is to find one mistake your child made so they can apply “comparative negligence” and bar your recovery.
Will I be blamed for taking my kid to the park?
No. Every parent who walks into a trampoline park does what you did. You trusted the “Best Gym in America” marketing. The duty of care belongs to the operator who took your money and accepted the risk. We help parents move past the guilt and focus on the accountability the park owes them.
Why Choose Attorney911?
Most personal injury firms treat a trampoline case like any other settlement. We don’t. We built our firm around exactly this fight. Ralph Manginello brings federal court experience and a track record against Fortune 500 companies. Lupe Peña brings the insider playbook of how these companies defend themselves.
We represent families in Combine who are watching their children struggle with the long tail of a catastrophic injury. We represent the parents who were told by a manager to “just put some ice on it” while their child’s bone was protruding through the skin. We represent the families who were told the waiver meant they were on their own.
You pay nothing unless we win. Zero upfront costs. We advance every expense—the expert biomechanist who reconstructs the launch force, the pediatric orthopedic consultant who explains the growth plate damage, the digital forensic expert who interrogates the DVR. Your child’s recovery fund stays intact.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. Hablamos Español. Our line is answered 24/7 because we know these injuries happen on Saturday afternoons and holiday weekends. Every minute you wait is a minute the park’s surveillance system gets closer to overwriting the truth.
What happened to your child wasn’t an accident—it was the output of a system that prioritizes margin over safety. We were built for exactly this fight. A case starts with one phone call.
1-888-ATTY-911. The case starts today.
