One bounce. One bad landing. One broken neck. That is all it takes for a family in City of Cool to find their lives permanently altered at a trampoline park.
At the Urban Air or Sky Zone locations serving City of Cool and Parker County, a three-year-old can come off a “Toddler Time” court on a stretcher in less than thirty minutes. His parents likely signed a waiver at a kiosk twenty minutes earlier, believing the marketing that promised “safe family fun.” Then the double-bounce happened. In two seconds, the child was airborne—then he wasn’t.
We have seen this story unfold across Texas. We have heard what Kaitlin “Kati” Hill told ABC News after her son Colton’s femur was shattered at a park: it was “the worst scream that you could ever have heard from a child.” Kati, like so many parents in City of Cool, said, “We had no idea. We would have never put our baby boy on a trampoline if we would have known.”
If your child was injured at a trampoline park in City of Cool, or on a backyard trampoline in Parker County, the most important thing you need to know is this: it was not an accident. It was the predictable result of a system that puts profit ahead of pediatric safety. At Attorney911, led by managing partner Ralph Manginello with over 25 years of experience, we don’t just “handle” personal injury cases. We dismantle the corporate structures that allow these parks to operate below the safety floor.
Our team includes associate attorney Lupe Peña, who used to sit on the other side of the table. He spent years defending insurance companies and recreational businesses against the exact kind of claims we now bring. He knows which waiver clauses are airtight and which ones—under Texas law—are full of holes. He is also a native Spanish speaker, representing our families directly: Hablamos Español. Llame al 1-888-ATTY-911. Lupe Peña habla con usted directamente—sin intérpretes.
The clock is currently running against your case. Park surveillance video in many Texas facilities is overwritten in as little as 7 to 30 days. Incident reports are “finalized” (and often sanitized) within 48 hours. We send our spoliation letters within 24 hours of being retained. We don’t wait for the legal deadline; we fight the evidence clock from Day 1.
What Happened: The Physics and Rules of Trampoline Injuries
In City of Cool, whether the injury happened at a major chain like Urban Air, Sky Zone, or Altitude, or on a Jumpking or Skywalker trampoline in a backyard near FM 113, the physics of the trauma are the same. Impact forces and rebound energy don’t negotiate with a child’s developing skeleton.
The Double-Bounce: A Catapult in City of Cool
The most common mechanism of injury we see in Parker County is the double-bounce. When a 200-pound adult lands on a trampoline bed at the same instant a 50-pound child is pushing off, the kinetic energy transfer multiplies the child’s launch force by up to 4x. The child isn’t jumping anymore; the child has been converted into a projectile.
This is precisely why ASTM F2970—the safety standard written by the trampoline park industry itself—requires parks to operationalize age and weight separation. When an Urban Air or Sky Zone allows a City of Cool teenager to jump in the same zone as a five-year-old, they aren’t just being “loose” with the rules. They are violating their own industry’s safety floor.
Foam Pits: The Illusion of Safety
Foam pits at parks serving City of Cool look like soft, safe landing zones. They are often anything but. If a foam pit is compacted below the 8-inch specification required by ASTM F2970, or if the foam hasn’t been rotated according to the maintenance log, a jumper can strike the hard concrete subfloor.
We cite the medical consensus established by Teague et al. in Pediatrics (January 2024): foam-pit and inflatable-bag injury rates are statistically higher than open jumping, at 1.91 per 1,000 jumper-hours. When your child enters that pit head-first, they are at risk for SCIWORA (Spinal Cord Injury Without Radiographic Abnormality)—a pediatric phenomenon where the cord is injured even when the X-rays look normal.
Backyard Dangers in Parker County
City of Cool’s master-planned neighborhoods and rural lots often have high backyard trampoline density. While these lack the industrial throughput of a Sky Zone, they carry decades of warnings. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has advised against home trampoline use since 1999, a position reaffirmed in 2012 and 2019.
When a neighbor’s child wanders onto your property in City of Cool and gets hurt, Texas law applies the Attractive Nuisance Doctrine. If the trampoline was accessible and enticing to a child of “tender years” who couldn’t appreciate the risk, the homeowner may be liable. Furthermore, manufacturers like Jumpking and Skywalker are often on the hook for design defects when nets fail or frame welds break. We look at the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) recall database on Day 1 to see if your specific model was already known to be dangerous.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. Your child’s surveillance video is being overwritten as we speak. Our spoliation letter goes out within 24 hours of your call—every time, no exceptions.
Who Is Responsible? Piercing the corporate Shield in Texas
When a family in City of Cool calls us about a shattered tibia or a traumatic brain injury sustained at a park, the park’s manager will often try to imply they are just a small local business. They might even say, “We’re just a franchise.”
We don’t accept that. “Sky Zone” or “Urban Air” isn’t one company; it’s a 5-layer defendant stack designed to hide the money upstream. We trace the accountability from the Operator LLC in Parker County or Fort Worth, through the Franchisee, up to the Franchisor (like Sky Zone Franchising LLC or UATP Management LLC), then to the Corporate Parent (Sky Zone, Inc., formerly CircusTrix LLC; or Unleashed Brands), and finally to the Private Equity Sponsor (Palladium Equity Partners or Seidler Equity).
The franchisor’s defense of “we just license the brand” was dismantled in the Damion Collins $15.6 million arbitration award (September 2023). In that case, the franchisor, UATP Management LLC, absorbed 40% of the award because there was a “systemic failure” to implement safety changes. We also look at the insurance tower. The $1 million primary policy the adjuster mentions is just the floor. Above that sits the umbrella, the excess layers, and the franchisor’s additional-insured coverage. We’ve gone toe-to-toe with Fortune 500 corporations like BP, Walmart, and Amazon. The parent conglomerates behind trampoline parks don’t intimidate us.
Learn more in our video guide: “The Ultimate Guide to Settlements” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=subYAvjsgk4
The Waiver: Why It Doesn’t End Your Case in City of Cool
The absolute first thing an insurance adjuster will say to a City of Cool parent is, “But you signed the waiver.” They want you to believe that a piece of paper ends your child’s right to recovery.
They are wrong.
The Munoz Rule for Minors
In Texas, there is a bedrock principle: a parent cannot sign away a minor child’s personal injury cause of action in advance. This comes from the landmark case Munoz v. II Jaz, Inc. (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1993). While your signature might affect your derivative claims for medical bills, it does not bar your child from seeking justice for their own pain, suffering, and permanent impairment.
Gross Negligence and the $11.485M Cosmic Jump Verdict
No waiver in Texas can release a defendant from Gross Negligence. If a park in City of Cool had actual, subjective awareness of a risk and showed a conscious indifference to the safety of your child—such as ignoring a torn mat or understaffing a court to save on labor costs—the waiver is void.
Look at the Cosmic Jump verdict in Harris County. A 16-year-old fell through a rip in a trampoline slide onto concrete. The park knew about the tear. The jury awarded $11.485 million, including $6 million in punitive damages, even though a waiver was signed. That is the kind of case we build.
The Delfingen Spanish-Formation Attack
If your family’s primary language is Spanish, and the park in City of Cool or Weatherford only provided an English-only kiosk waiver, you may not have formed a valid contract at all. Under Delfingen US-Texas, L.P. v. Valenzuela (2013), Texas courts can refuse to enforce agreements where there was a language barrier and no translation was offered. We attack the waiver on the front end so we can fight the case on the merits.
Hablamos Español. Llame al 1-888-ATTY-911. Lupe Peña habla con usted directamente—sin intérpretes, sin traductores, sin demoras.
Catastrophic Injuries: The Medicine of Trampoline Trauma
A trampoline injury in City of Cool isn’t just a “broken bone.” It is often a trajectory of medical needs that will span decades.
Pediatric Growth Plate Destruction
Children’s bones are not just smaller adult bones. They have an open physis (growth plate). A Salter-Harris Type II fracture of the distal tibia—the most common pediatric trampoline fracture configuration—can cause the bone to stop growing correctly or grow at an angle. An injury at age eight might not show its full impact until age fourteen, when one leg is measurably shorter than the other. We don’t just look at today’s ER bill; we project the corrective osteotomies your child may need years from now.
SCIWORA and Cervical Trauma
The pediatric cervical spine is uniquely mobile. SCIWORA (Spinal Cord Injury Without Radiographic Abnormality) means your child can suffer a permanent cord injury even when a CT scan at a Weatherford hospital looks “normal.” If your teen was told they had a “panic attack” after a backflip but symptoms persisted, they may be suffering from Vertebral Artery Dissection or a spinal-cord stroke—a mechanism documented in the viral Elle Yona TikTok case (June 2024, 27M+ views).
The Rhabdo Bridge: A $10M Case Study
We currently litigate a $10 million lawsuit against the University of Houston involving rhabdomyolysis and acute kidney failure. The injury physiology is identical to what happens to a child who jumps for 90 minutes straight in a hot park without water. Rhabdomyolysis—where muscle tissue ruptures and releases myoglobin that shards the kidneys—is a medical emergency. If your child has “cola-colored” urine after a park visit, go to the ER immediately and ask for a manual Creatine Kinase (CK) test. We know the medicine, we know the experts, and we know how to hold the institution accountable.
You pay nothing unless we win. Zero upfront costs. We advance every expense—the expert biomechanist, the pediatric orthopedic consultant, the ASTM compliance specialist. Your child’s recovery fund stays intact. Call 1-888-ATTY-911.
Evidence: The 48-Hour Preservation Protocol
If you are reading this in a City of Cool living room or a Parker County hospital, the park’s risk management team is already working. They are securing their version of the story. You must secure yours.
We deploy a Paralegal-Grade Operational Scaffold the moment you hire us. This includes:
- Immediate Spoliation Letter: We demand the preservation of all surveillance DVR footage. We know these systems often overwrite in 7 to 30 days.
- Kiosk Metadata Pull: We capture the exact version of the waiver your family signed. Waiver kiosks often “update” their text on a 72-hour rolling cycle.
- Audit Trail Discovery: We demand the daily pre-opening inspection logs. If the log shows the same checkbox for 60 straight days, it’s evidence of a “pro-forma” inspection—meaning they never actually looked at the springs.
- Forensic DVR Extraction: If the park claims the video “glitched,” we retain digital forensic examiners to image the hard drive. In the Mathew Knight case in Georgia, a $3.5 million jury verdict was secured after four cameras conveniently “glitched” at the moment of injury.
Learn more in our video guide: “I’ve Had an Accident — What Should I Do First?” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCox4Lq7zBM
Frequently Asked Questions for City of Cool Families
Can I sue if I signed the waiver at an Urban Air or Sky Zone?
Yes. In City of Cool and throughout Texas, waivers often fail to meet the “Fair Notice” doctrine required by the Supreme Court of Texas in Dresser Industries. They also cannot release “Gross Negligence” or a minor’s personal claim under the Munoz rule. We analyze the specific version of the waiver used at your location to find the holes corporate lawyers left behind.
How long do I have to do something—is there a deadline?
For an adult in Parker County, the statute of limitations is generally two years for personal injury (CPRC § 16.003). For a minor, the debt is “tolled” until their 18th birthday, meaning they have until age 20 to file. However, waiting is catastrophic for your evidence. The video is gone in 30 days. The witnesses scatter in 60. You should call us within the first week.
What is a “double bounce” and why is it so dangerous?
Double-bouncing is when a larger person lands while a smaller person is launching. It is a violation of ASTM F2970. The energy transfer can multiply the force hitting your child’s legs by up to four times, which is why femurs—the strongest bones in the body—snap on trampoline mats.
Does it matter which brand—is Sky Zone safer than Urban Air?
Every facility is only as safe as its court monitors. We look at the corporate parentage, such as Sky Zone, Inc. (renamed from CircusTrix effective Jan 1, 2023) or Unleashed Brands for Urban Air. We subpoena chain-wide patterns. For example, Urban Air has a documented Sky Rider zipline strangulation pattern recurring in multiple states. The brand name matters less than the corporate decision to cut staffing ratios to hit margin targets.
Is an iPad / kiosk waiver even enforceable?
Many are not. If you were pressured to “sign quickly” at a crowded counter in City of Cool, or if the language wasn’t conspicuous, we attack the “formation” of the contract. Under the Federal E-SIGN Act, specific audit trails must exist to prove you actually intended to sign away those rights.
How much does a trampoline-park lawyer cost?
With Attorney911, it costs zero dollars out of pocket. We work on a contingency fee. We also pay the $10,000 to $50,000 it costs to hire biomechanical engineers and pediatric spine experts. We only get paid if we win your case. As client Donald Wilcox said, “One company said they would not accept my case. Then I got a call from Manginello… I got a call to come pick up this handsome check.”
Why did no staff stop the bigger kids from jumping with my little one?
This is a systemic failure. Parks often hire 16-to-19-year-olds at minimum wage and give them less than four hours of training. With annual turnover rates of 150%, the person watching your child may have been hired last week. If the park didn’t enforce its own rules, that is Negligent Supervision.
Is my homeowner’s or health insurance going to cover this?
Your health insurance will cover the acute treatment, but they will often file a “subrogation lien” to take a portion of your settlement. Most homeowners’ insurance policies in Parker County specifically exclude trampoline injuries. This is why we pursue the deep pockets: the manufacturer and the multi-million dollar corporate park chains.
Learn more in our video guide: “What Should You Not Say to an Insurance Adjuster?” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UKRbFprB0E
Adjacent Attractions: Beyond the Trampoline
Modern “Adventure Parks” serving City of Cool have expanded into high-risk mechanical attractions. These often fall under Texas Occupations Code § 2151 as Class B inflatable rides, requiring annual TDI inspection.
- Sky Rider Ziplines: We track the strangulation pattern across the Urban Air chain, including the Newnan, GA event where no employee intervened.
- Climbing Walls over Concrete: The Ispahani family in Sugar Land showed what happens when a harness isn’t attached. Matthew Lu’s fatality in Gastonia showed that Altitude knew their walls were dangerous enough to permanently remove them after a death.
- Go-Karts: The Emma Riddle fatality in December 2025 at Port St. Lucie shows that mechanical failures in e-karts are a catastrophic new risk for FEC-model parks.
The Manginello Law Firm: Why We Are the Choice for City of Cool Families
Most personal injury firms treat a trampoline case like a slip-and-fall. We don’t. We know that a Salter-Harris fracture at age nine is a life-altering event. We know that the parent standing at a hospital bed in Weatherford or Fort Worth feels a weight of guilt that belongs to the corporate park operator, not them.
Ralph Manginello brings federal court experience and a track record against multinational corporations. Lupe Peña brings the insider playbook of a former insurance defense attorney. We currently litigate a $10 million lawsuit for rhabdomyolysis—the same muscle failure seen in Parker County trampoline cases. We know which waiver clauses in Texas are unenforceable, and we know exactly where the surveillance “glitches” hide.
We represent families. We represent children. We represent the parent at the trauma-bay bedside. From our offices in Houston, Austin, and Beaumont, we serve City of Cool families with national-standard expertise and Texas-tough litigation.
The clock isn’t running tomorrow. It’s running right now.
What happened to your child at City of Cool wasn’t an accident—it was the predictable output of a system. The AAP has been warning about trampolines since 1999. ASTM F2970 was written by the trampoline industry itself to establish a safety floor, and the park operated below that floor to hit a margin target. The waiver was drafted by corporate counsel who knew it wouldn’t hold in most Texas cases. The surveillance is engineered to overwrite before you have a lawyer.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. Hablamos Español. No fee unless we win. Our spoliation letter goes out within 24 hours of your retention. The case starts today.
