“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.” Those are the words of Kaitlin “Kati” Hill, a mother who watched her three-year-old son Colton suffer a broken femur at a trampoline park. Her story, shared hundreds of thousands of times, echoes the silent nightmare currently unfolding for families across the Coastal Bend. In Aransas Pass, the backyard trampoline and the commercial jump park are staples of childhood, but they are also the primary sources of life-altering pediatric trauma.
At Attorney911, we have spent more than 25 years standing at the bedside of families whose lives changed in a single bounce. Founded in 1998 by Ralph Manginello, our firm was built on the principle that catastrophic injuries are not just “accidents”—they are the predictable outcomes of business decisions made by multi-million dollar corporations that chose margin over your child’s safety.
Whether your child was injured at an Urban Air location in the Corpus Christi metro area or on a weather-worn backyard trampoline in an Aransas Pass neighborhood, we know the physics of the impact, the biology of the injury, and the corporate architecture designed to shield the negligent parties from accountability. We are not just a personal injury firm; we are a dedicated trampoline injury practice that brings federal-court experience and a deep understanding of industry safety standards to every case we handle.
The Reality of Trampoline Injuries in Aransas Pass
Aransas Pass sits in a unique environmental corridor. Our proximity to the Gulf, the relentless salt air, and the humidity of Nueces County create specific hazards for backyard equipment that families in other parts of Texas never have to worry about. A trampoline that has sat in an Aransas Pass backyard for three years has faced more structural stress from corrosion and UV degradation than a trampoline in Dallas would face in a decade.
When the netting fails or a rusted spring snaps, the result is often a trip to a Level 1 pediatric trauma center like Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi. Nationally, more than 300,000 trampoline-related emergency room visits occur every year. According to a 2024 report in the American Journal of Roentgenology, up to 1.6% of all pediatric emergency department trauma visits are now trampoline-related. These are not minor bruises; these are shattered growth plates, traumatic brain injuries, and cervical spinal cord infarctions.
If your family is dealing with the fallout of a catastrophic jump, we are here to help you navigate the process. We answer our lines 24/7 at 1-888-ATTY-911. Hablamos Español. Our associate attorney, Lupe Peña, is a native Spanish speaker who represents our clients directly, ensuring that language is never a barrier to justice.
Why a Trampoline Injury is Never Just an Accident
The trampoline park industry wants you to believe that your child’s injury was an “unfortunate mishap” or a “risk you assumed.” They are wrong. Every injury we litigate typically traces back to a violation of a safety standard the industry wrote for itself.
Since 2013, the industry has operated under ASTM F2970, a voluntary standard that covers everything from attendant-to-jumper ratios to foam pit depth. When a park in the Aransas Pass area ignores these rules—by understaffing a court on a busy Saturday or failing to separate jumpers by weight—they aren’t just being clumsy. They are being negligent.
We bring an insider’s advantage to these fights. Our team includes a former insurance defense attorney who used to sit on the other side of the table. He spent years defending the very same recreational businesses and insurance carriers we now sue. He knows exactly which waiver clauses hold up in Texas courts and which ones are full of holes. He recognizes the “friendly adjuster call” for what it is: a trap to secure a recorded statement and close your file as cheaply as possible.
We don’t just know the law; we know the architecture of the corporations behind these parks. Whether it is Sky Zone, Inc. (renamed from CircusTrix and backed by Palladium Equity Partners) or Unleashed Brands (the parent of Urban Air, recently acquired by Seidler Equity Partners), we understand that these are layered corporate structures designed to hide the money upstream. We go upstream to the franchisor, the parent company, and the private-eqity sponsors to ensure your child’s recovery fund is fully funded.
The Aransas Pass Evidence Preservation Protocol: Why the First 48 Hours Matter
In Aransas Pass, the clock isn’t just running on the statute of limitations; it is running on the evidence. Commercial trampoline parks typically overwrite their surveillance footage on a 7- to 30-day cycle. If you wait even two weeks to hire a lawyer, the video of your child’s injury may be gone forever.
Incident reports get “revised” with metadata showing edits days after the fact. Kiosk waiver versions are purged. Attendants quit or are transferred to other locations. Foam pits are refilled, hiding the compaction that caused a head-first injury.
The moment you retain us, our spoliation letter goes out within 24 hours. We demand the preservation of:
- Multi-angle surveillance footage
- Original, unedited incident reports
- Attendant training files and shift logs
- Daily pre-opening inspection records
- Waiver system audit trails showing exactly what was signed and by whom
We have handled litigation against Fortune 500 companies like BP, Walmart, and Amazon. We know that in high-stakes litigation, you don’t get what you deserve—you get what you can prove. In a case like Mathew Knight v. Georgia Trampoline Park, a $3.5 million verdict was secured partly because the defense surveillance video conveniently “glitched” on four different cameras at the moment of injury. Jurors do not like it when evidence goes missing, and we know how to use that to your advantage.
Learn more about protecting your rights in our video guide: “I’ve Had an Accident — What Should I Do First?” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCox4Lq7zBM.
Understanding the Physics of Catastrophe: The Double-Bounce
The most common mechanism of injury in multi-user trampoline settings is the double-bounce. This isn’t just “bouncing together”; it’s a transfer of kinetic energy. When an adult or a larger child lands on the trampoline bed just as a smaller child is pushing off, the energy transfer multiplies the smaller child’s launch force by up to four times.
The child isn’t jumping anymore—they are being catapulted. Because their skeletal system cannot control the descent from that height or absorb the landing force, we see comminuted femoral shaft fractures and Salter-Harris growth plate injuries. ASTM F2970 requires parks to separate jumpers by size and age specifically to prevent this. When they don’t, and a child is catapulted into a lifetime of orthopedic monitoring, the park must be held accountable.
The Waiver is Not a Wall: Texas Law and Your Child’s Rights
The number one question we hear from parents in Aransas Pass is: “I signed the waiver at the kiosk, so I don’t have a case, right?”
The answer, under Texas law, is often a resounding “No.”
Texas courts, including a long line of cases like Munoz v. II Jaz Inc., have held that a parent’s pre-injury signature generally cannot waive a minor child’s own direct tort claim. While the waiver might attempt to bar the parent’s claim for medical bills, the child’s right to compensation for pain, suffering, impairment, and future medical needs usually survives.
Furthermore, no waiver in Texas can release a defendant from gross negligence. In the Harris County case of Cosmic Jump, a jury awarded $11.485 million—including $6 million in punitive damages—because the park knew about a tear in a trampoline slide and did nothing. The waiver was signed. The jury found gross negligence anyway.
If your family’s primary language is Spanish, and you were presented with an English-only iPad waiver at a busy kiosk without a translation or explanation, the Delfingen doctrine may invalidate that agreement entirely. Lupe Peña can review your case at natively fluent speeds to find these gaps.
Catastrophic Pediatric Injuries: Beyond the Emergency Room
A trampoline injury at age seven is not like an injury at age forty. Children’s bones are still growing. Their growth plates (physes) are made of cartilage, which is biomechanically weaker than adult bone. A Salter-Harris Type II fracture of the distal tibia may not look like a “nuclear” injury in the ER, but it can lead to limb-length discrepancy or angular deformity that requires multiple corrective surgeries until the child reaches skeletal maturity.
We also focus on under-recognized emergencies like exertional rhabdomyolysis. If your child spent two hours jumping in a hot Aransas Pass-area park without proper hydration and arrives at the doctor 48 hours later with cola-colored urine and rock-hard muscles, they are in a state of acute kidney failure. We are currently litigating a $10 million lawsuit against the University of Houston involving these exact medical issues. We know the experts, we know the science, and we know how to hold the facility accountable for failing to monitor heat and hydration.
Designing Your Child’s Recovery: The Life-Care Plan
When we build a case for a child in Aransas Pass, we don’t just look at today’s bills. We look at the next seventy years. For catastrophic injuries like a cervical spinal cord injury or a severe traumatic brain injury, we retain certified life-care planners to forecast every need:
- Future corrective surgeries and hardware removals
- Physical, occupational, and cognitive rehabilitation
- Home and vehicle modifications for accessibility
- Educational accommodations and specialized tutoring
- Diminished future earning capacity
For a pediatric C1-C4 complete tetraplegia case, national data shows life-care plan costs can range from $15 million to $30 million. We advanced these costs. We pay for the biomechanist, the pediatric orthopedic surgeon, and the forensic economist. You pay nothing unless we win.
The Aransas Pass Backyard Hazard: Attractive Nuisance and Recalls
In more rural or suburban parts of Aransas Pass, the neighborhood trampoline is the primary focus. If a neighbor’s child wanders onto your property and is injured because the trampoline was accessible (no fence, ladder left in place), Texas’s attractive nuisance doctrine may apply.
We also investigate manufacturer liability. Manufacturers like Jumpking, Skywalker, and the Walmart-exclusive Bouncepro have documented histories of CPSC recalls for frame weld breakage and netting failures. If your child was hurt because a product deviated from its safety specifications, the manufacturer—and the retailer that sold it—are on the hook. Recent case law like Bolger v. Amazon has expanded the ability to sue online marketplace operators when they act as the seller of record for defective products.
Why Experience Against Corporate Giants Matters
The parent companies behind national trampoline park chains hire the same high-priced corporate defense firms that BP hired after the Texas City refinery explosion. Those lawyers do not intimidate us. Ralph Manginello has gone head-to-head with some of the largest corporations on the planet and made them pay.
We understand the private equity pressure that leads to understaffing. We know that when Palladium Equity Partners (owners of Sky Zone) or Seidler Equity Partners (owners of Urban Air) push for 27% year-over-year sales growth, the first things to get cut are attendant training and safety maintenance. We make that connection for the jury.
Frequently Asked Questions for Aransas Pass Families
Can I sue if my child was hurt at a friend’s birthday party in Aransas Pass?
Yes. In fact, if the birthday party host signed the “master” agreement but you never signed an individual waiver for your child, the park may have no waiver defense at all against you. Furthermore, as discussed, Munoz prevents parents from waiving a child’s direct claim in most Texas contexts.
How long do I have to file a claim in Nueces County?
Texas law generally provides a two-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims. For minors, the clock is “tolled” (paused) until they turn eighteen, meaning they have until their twentieth birthday to file. However, waiting is dangerous because the surveillance video—your best piece of evidence—is usually destroyed by the park within 30 to 90 days.
The park said it was a “freak accident.” Does that mean they aren’t liable?
Parks call everything a “freak accident.” We call it a breach of ASTM F2970. If an attendant was on their phone, if a foam pit was too shallow, or if they allowed age-mixing, it wasn’t an accident. It was negligence.
What if the park refuses to give us the incident report?
This is a standard tactic. They want to control the narrative. Once we are retained, we issue a formal legal demand for that report and all associated metadata. If they have already “revised” it, our forensic experts can often find the original version on their servers.
Take Action for Your Child’s Future Today
If your child has been injured at a trampoline park or on a defective home trampoline in Aransas Pass, you are likely feeling a mix of fear, anger, and perhaps guilt. You need to know that this isn’t your fault. You trusted the park to follow industry standards. You trusted the manufacturer to sell a safe product. They failed you.
Your child’s case depends on what gets preserved this week. Our firm is ready to step in, send the spoliation letters, and begin thecorporate archeology required to find the deep pockets upstream. We have recovered multi-million dollar settlements for victims of traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord trauma, and we will fight just as hard for your family.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. Our lines are open 24/7. Ralph Manginello and Lupe Peña are here to listen. We offer free consultations and work on a contingency basis—meaning we never send you a bill unless we recover money for you.
Your journey toward accountability and recovery begins with one phone call. Don’t let the insurance carrier or the park’s “paper shield” delay your justice.
1-888-ATTY-911. Hablamos Español. Three Texas offices to serve you. National knowledge. Proven results.
