“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 Hill, the mother of three-year-old Colton, telling ABC News what happened the day a trampoline park broke her son’s femur. Her warning post was shared 240,000 times. We read it. So did every parent in the City of Elmendorf and across Bexar County who has watched their child walk onto an interconnected trampoline court with a pit of foam or a pressurized airbag at the end of it.
Colton spent months in a body cast. Kati Hill famously said, “We had no idea. We would have never put our baby boy on a trampoline if we would have known.” At Attorney911, we believe that “no idea” is a failure of the industry, not the parent. You were told it was safe family fun. You were told the attendants were trained. You were told the waiver was just a “sign-in” sheet. None of that is the whole truth.
If your child was catastrophically injured at a trampoline park near the City of Elmendorf, or if you were injured while jumping, your family’s life changed in one landing. The park’s insurance adjuster will call you within 48 hours. They will sound concerned. They will ask to “walk through the events.” Don’t take that call. Every word you say is being recorded to build a defense that blames you or your child for an injury that was the predictable output of a business decision.
Since 1998, Ralph Manginello has been fighting for injury victims against multinational corporations and institutional defendants. With over 25 years of experience, our managing partner understands that trampoline injuries are not “accidents”—they are breaches of the standard of care. Our firm brings federal court experience and a track record in complex litigation, like the BP Texas City refinery explosion, to the fight against the private-equity-backed conglomerates that own your local jump park. When you call us, you aren’t just getting a lawyer; you’re getting a system built to dismantle the defense’s playbook.
The Evidence Clock is Ticking in the City of Elmendorf
What happened to your child in the City of Elmendorf wasn’t a random event. It was foreseeable. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has been warning against recreational trampoline use since 1999. ASTM F2970—the very standard the trampoline industry wrote for itself—establishes the safety floor that parks must meet. When a park operates below that floor to maximize profit, they aren’t just being careless; they are being grossly negligent.
The most critical thing you need to know right now is that the evidence is disappearing. Park surveillance DVR systems in Bexar County are typically set to overwrite at 7, 14, or 30 days. The waiver kiosk’s version-history database may purge on a 72-hour rolling cycle. The attendant who was on his phone while your child was double-bounced may transfer to a different location or quit within a month.
At The Manginello Law Firm, our spoliation letter goes out by certified mail within 24 hours of our retention. We demand the preservation of multi-angle surveillance video, original incident reports before they are “finalized” (revised), attendant shift logs, and maintenance records. We don’t wait for your child’s surgical-recovery cycle to finish before we start the investigation. The case is decided by what gets preserved this week.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911 today. Ralph Manginello and our associate attorney Lupe Peña, who previously worked defending insurance companies and recreational businesses, know exactly which documents the parks try to hide. We have seen how “technical glitches” conveniently happen at the moment of impact. We know the forensic digital protocols to recover metadata and edit-trails from incident reports. Your child’s recovery fund starts with evidence.
The 5-Layer Shield: Why We Go Upstream
If your injury happened at an Urban Air, a Sky Zone, an Altitude, or a DEFY near the City of Elmendorf, you aren’t just suing a local business. You are taking on a layered corporate architecture designed to route money upstream while isolating liability at the local park level.
The entity operating the park in Bexar County is likely an undercapitalized operator LLC. Above that is the franchisee. Above the franchisee is the franchisor—entities like Sky Zone Franchising LLC or UATP Management LLC. Above the franchisor is the brand parent, such as Sky Zone, Inc. (formerly known as CircusTrix) or Unleashed Brands. Finally, there is the private equity sponsor, like Palladium Equity Partners or Seidler Equity Partners.
Why does this matter? Because the local operator’s primary insurance policy is often just the floor. Catastrophic pediatric injuries, like a Salter-Harris growth plate fracture at age eight, can require a decade of orthopedic monitoring, corrective surgeries, and specialized care. A $1 million primary policy may not cover the first two years of a life-care plan for a child with a cervical spinal cord injury.
We go upstream because the money is upstream. We pull the franchise agreement to prove the franchisor’s operational control. We depose the corporate risk managers about chain-wide patterns, like the Sky Rider zipline strangulations documented across multiple Urban Air locations in Georgia, Illinois, and Florida. When we litigate, we name every layer of the defendant stack to ensure your child has access to the full insurance tower—primary, umbrella, and excess layers.
Texas Waiver Law and the City of Elmendorf Family
The most common question we hear from City of Elmendorf families is: “But I signed the waiver at the kiosk—can I still sue?” In Texas, the answer for your child is almost always YES.
Texas law follows the Munoz v. II Jaz Inc. doctrine, which holds that a parent cannot pre-emptively sign away a minor child’s right to sue for personal injuries. While the park might use the waiver to bar your own derivative claims for medical bills, your child’s personal cause of action usually survives the kiosk click.
Furthermore, even for adult victims in the City of Elmendorf, a waiver is not an automatic wall. Under the Dresser Industries v. Page Petroleum “fair notice” doctrine, a Texas waiver must be conspicuous and use the explicit word “negligence” to release the operator. Most importantly, Texas courts—and jurors—do not enforce waivers when the injury resulted from gross negligence.
Consider the anchor case of Cosmic Jump in Harris County. A 16-year-old fell through a torn trampoline slide onto the concrete floor beneath. He suffered a traumatic brain injury. The park had a signed waiver, but the jury found gross negligence—conscious indifference to a known risk. They awarded $11.485 million, including $6 million in punitive damages. That is the largest reported trampoline park verdict in U.S. history, and it happened right here in Texas. It proves that a signed piece of paper cannot immunize a park that chooses margin over a child’s safety.
Lupe Peña, a former insurance defense attorney on our team, literally used to write the arguments the parks now use against you. He knows where the holes are in their “ironclad” waivers. He knows that the Delfingen doctrine may void a waiver if your family’s primary language is Spanish and the park only provided an English-only iPad document at a rushed check-in counter.
Hablamos Español. Llame al 1-888-ATTY-911. Lupe Peña habla con usted directamente—sin intérpretes.
The Physics of a Disaster: Double-Bounces and Foam Pits
Most parents in the City of Elmendorf believe that injuries are just “freak accidents.” Science says otherwise. The mechanics of trampoline injuries are well-documented in the medical literature, including the recent AJR/R3J 2024 “Pediatric Trampoline Injuries Head to Toe” radiographic essay and the Teague et al. 2024 study in Pediatrics.
The Double-Bounce Multiplier
The most common mechanism of catastrophe is the double-bounce. When a 200-pound adult lands on a trampoline bed at the same instant a 60-pound child is pushing off it, energy transfer multiplies the child’s launch force by up to 4x. The child isn’t jumping anymore; they’ve been turned into a projectile. This is why ASTM F2970 requires age and weight separation—a rule that is routinely ignored at crowded Bexar County parks during Saturday birthday-party peaks.
The Foam Pit Myth
Foam pits look like soft clouds. In reality, they are often dangerous landing zones. When foam blocks stay in a pit for months, they compact. ASTM F2970 has strict depth requirements, but when those are violated, a child landing head-first contacts the hard floor beneath. This axial loading is the primary cause of cervical spinal cord injuries and SCIWORA (Spinal Cord Injury Without Radiographic Abnormality) in children. The industry’s shift to pressurized airbags is proof that they knew foam pits were failing to protect children’s spines.
Harness Failures and Non-Trampoline Attractions
Multi-attraction parks near the City of Elmendorf now feature climbing walls, Sky Riders, and ropes courses. The Matthew Lu fatality in Gastonia, North Carolina, and the Lakhani case in Sugar Land, Texas, both involved children falling from height because attendants failed to attach fall-protection equipment. The park in the Matthew Lu case admitted “human error” and removed the attraction—statement-against-interest evidence that we use to prove systemic failure.
Rhabdomyolysis: The Unseen Emergency in Bexar County
There is a medical emergency that follows trampoline jumping that many ERs in the City of Elmendorf initially miss. It’s called exertional rhabdomyolysis. If your child spent two hours jumping at a heated indoor park in the South Texas summer, and 12-48 hours later has dark-brown “cola-colored” urine and rock-hard muscle pain, get to the ER immediately.
Rhabdo is the breakdown of muscle tissue that floods the bloodstream with myoglobin. It can lead to acute kidney failure within days. Most parents think their child is just “sore” or has a “stomach bug” if they start vomiting. This misdiagnosis is a damages-multiplier.
We currently litigate a $10 million lawsuit against the University of Houston involving rhabdomyolysis and acute kidney failure. We have the medical experts, the nephrology consultants, and the litigation architecture to prove how these extended-exertion injuries happen and why the facility is responsible for failing to provide hydration and rest breaks. The biology of a fraternity hazing case is the same biology we see in a trampoline park rhabdo case.
Why Choose Attorney911 for Your City of Elmendorf Case?
When you’re at the hospital bedside in San Antonio, you don’t need a lawyer who “handles personal injury.” You need a firm that has memorized ASTM F2970. You need a team that knows the private equity sponsors behind the parks and refuses to be intimidated by Fortune 500 defense firms.
- 25+ Years of Battle Experience: Managed by Ralph Manginello since 2001, we’ve fought BP and Walmart. We know how to win against big money.
- The Defense-Side Edge: Lupe Peña knows their playbook because he used to write it. We identify the waiver-defeat vectors before the adjuster even picks up the phone.
- Forensic Investigation: We deploy digital forensic examiners to image DVRs and extract kiosk metadata. If the video “glitched,” we find out why.
- Pediatric Specialty: We understand pediatric bone biology and the lifelong impact of growth plate damage. We build Pediatric Life-Care Plans that anchor damages in the millions.
- No Fee Unless We Win: We advance every expense—the biomechanical engineer, the pediatric orthopedic surgeon, the life-care planner. You pay nothing until we recover for you.
You signed the waiver because the line was long. You let your child jump because you wanted them to have fun. That isn’t your fault. ASTM F2970 put the duty on the park to maintain the foam pit, train the monitors, and enforce the weight classes. The park collected your money and failed its duty. The guilt belongs upstream with the corporate decision-makers who cut staffing to hit margin targets.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. We represent families in the City of Elmendorf, throughout Texas, and across the nation. The consultation is free. The case starts today.
Frequently Asked Questions for City of Elmendorf Parents
What should I do if my child got hurt at a Sky Zone or Urban Air in the City of Elmendorf?
First, seek immediate medical attention at a Level 1 pediatric trauma center like Texas Children’s or Children’s Medical Center. Do not allow the child to “walk it off.” Second, photograph the scene immediately if you can. Third, do not give a recorded statement to any insurance adjuster. Finally, call us at 1-888-ATTY-911 so we can send a spoliation letter before the park’s surveillance video is overwritten (usually within 7-30 days).
Can I sue if I signed the trampoline park waiver?
Yes, especially if the victim is a minor. In Texas, the Munoz v. II Jaz rule generally prevents parents from waiving a child’s personal injury claims. Additionally, no waiver in the City of Elmendorf or anywhere in Texas can release a park from gross negligence. If the park knew of a torn mat or was operating below required staff ratios, the waiver is often void.
How much is my child’s trampoline injury case worth?
Catastrophic cases involving spinal cord injuries or permanent brain damage can reach settlements or verdicts in the $5M to $15M+ range. Even serious fractures with growth plate involvement (Salter-Harris injuries) can result in six- or seven-figure recoveries due to the need for lifetime monitoring and potential future corrective surgeries.
Who is liable for a trampoline park Sky Rider or zip-line injury?
Liability often rests with the local operator, the franchisor (like Urban Air), and the equipment manufacturer. In many Urban Air cases, we look at UA Attractions, LLC. If an attendant failed to properly attach a harness, as seen in the Lakhani Sugar Land case, the operator’s training and supervision protocols are at issue.
How long do I have to sue a trampoline park in Texas?
The standard statute of limitations is 2 years from the date of injury. However, for minors in the City of Elmendorf, the clock is tolled until they turn 18, meaning they have until their 20th birthday to file. But remember: while you have years to file, you only have DAYS to preserve the video evidence. Call 888-ATTY-911 today.
What is a Pediatric Life-Care Plan and why does my child need one?
A “broken leg” at age 8 is not just an ER bill. It’s a risk of limb-length discrepancy and angular deformity that may not appear until age 14. We work with Certified Life Care Planners to project every medically necessary cost your child will face over the next 70 years. This ensures the settlement covers his future, not just his past.
Is my homeowner’s or health insurance going to cover this?
Health insurance may cover treatment, but they will often file a subrogation lien to be paid back from your settlement. Homeowner’s insurance policies in the City of Elmendorf almost always exclude trampoline injuries. The park’s commercial general-liability and umbrella policies are the primary sources of recovery.
What if my child was hurt at an Urban Air birthday party but I didn’t sign the waiver?
If your child was a guest and the host signed a group waiver, or if the park failed to get your signature at all, your case is even stronger. A signature from someone who isn’t the legal guardian—like a friend’s parent or a grandparent—does not bind your child under Texas Family Code § 153.073.
Is the foam pit safe at the trampoline park?
Recent studies, including Teague et al. (2024), show foam pits have a significantly higher injury rate (1.91 per 1,000 jumpers) than open courts. Many parks are replacing them with airbags because foam pits wedge the head and torque the neck, causing permanent paralysis. A park still using a compacted, unmaintained foam pit is a known hazard.
Why is the trampoline park insurer offering us money so fast?
If the adjuster offers you $3,000 or $5,000 as a “goodwill gesture” or “Med-Pay,” it is a trap. Accepting that check usually requires signing a release that ends your case forever. They know your child’s Salter-Harris fracture is worth much more, and they’re trying to buy your rights before you speak to Ralph Manginello.
Holding the Conglomerates Accountable in Bexar County
The parent companies behind national chains—Sky Zone, Inc. (renamed from CircusTrix and backed by Palladium Equity Partners) and Unleashed Brands (the Seidler Equity-owned parent of Urban Air)—hire elite defense firms to protect their Sales, which systemwide exceeded $642M last year. They want you to believe you’re a “pest” or “just another claim.”
As client Chad Harris said, “You are NOT just some client… You are FAMILY to them.” We treat our clients with that level of care because we know what’s at stake. Whether the injury happened at an Altitude, a Get Air, or an independent facility like Jumping World or The Rush Fun Park, we bring the same relentless discovery discipline.
We check for workers’ comp claims by former attendants to see if they’ve reported safety issues. We pull the park’s social media archive to see if they promoted stunts that violate their own rules. We use forensic tools like Magnet AXIOM and Cellebrite to recover deleted data. We’ve gone toe-to-toe with BP; a trampoline park franchisor in the City of Elmendorf doesn’t scare us.
Your child’s case is about more than money—it’s about making sure the next parent doesn’t have to hear that “worst scream.” It’s about changing a culture that prioritizes throughput over protection.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. Hablamos Español. Our offices in Houston, Austin, and Beaumont serve the City of Elmendorf and families nationwide. No fee unless we win. The clock is running. Call now.
Understanding the Mechanism: Pediatric Bone Biology
In the City of Elmendorf, we see a specific pattern of pediatric fractures because children’s bones are biomechanically distinct. They are incompletely ossified and more pliable, but the growth plate (physis) is a structural weak point.
- Salter-Harris Type II: The most common trampoline fracture. It extends through the growth plate and into the metaphysis (the neck of the bone).
- SCIWORA: Spinal Cord Injury Without Radiographic Abnormality. A child can be paralyzed even when the x-ray looks “normal” because their ligaments are more flexible than their spinal cord.
- “Trampoline Fracture”: A specific proximal tibial metaphysis buckle fracture, usually seen in children under 6 who are double-bounced by a heavier jumper.
If the park’s attendant allowed your toddler on a court with teenagers, they violated the “Toddler Time” segregation rules and the AAP’s explicit safety guidance. That isn’t an accident. That’s a breach.
The 60-Angle Tactical Moat: What Other Firms Miss
Most firms stop at the waiver. At The Manginello Law Firm, we look at the angles that multiply case value:
- Insurance Application Misrepresentation: Did the park lie to their insurer about their monitor ratios? If so, we use that as bad-faith leverage to squeeze the carrier.
- Staffing Agency Liability: Did the park use a temp agency for their weekend “court monitors”? If so, we sue both for dual-employer liability.
- The “Don’t Call 911” Policy: If we find evidence that management discouraged calling EMS, we move for punitive damages for conscious indifference to life.
- Wayback Machine Waiver Archaeology: Did the park “update” their waiver on the website AFTER your injury occurred? We find the original version to prove the terms you actually saw.
Why the City of Elmendorf Families Trust Us
With three Texas offices and a national footprint, we handle cases from the Rio Grande Valley to the Pacific Northwest. We associate with local counsel where required, advancing all costs so your family has the same resources as the billion-dollar private equity firms who own the parks.
If your child is hurting today, know that we are ready to fight tooth and nail for you. As client Ernest Cano said, “Mr. Manginello and his firm are first class.” We don’t just file papers; we build narratives that jurors in Bexar County understand.
1-888-ATTY-911. Call us 24/7. Hablamos Español. Let’s hold them accountable.
Para nuestras familias de habla hispana:
Si su hijo se lesionó en un parque de trampolines en City of Elmendorf o en el condado de Bexar, es posible que sienta que la “renuncia de responsabilidad” (waiver) que firmó le quita sus derechos. No es así. En muchos casos, los padres no pueden renunciar al derecho de un menor de edad a demandar. Además, si a usted le dieron el documento solo en inglés y no pudo entenderlo bien, la ley de Texas puede protegerlo bajo la doctrina Delfingen.
Lupe Peña es nuestra abogada que habla español perfectamente y ella trabajó antes defendiendo a estas empresas. Ella conoce todos sus trucos. No hable con los ajustadores de seguros solo. Llámenos al 1-888-ATTY-911. No cobramos a menos que ganemos su caso. Su estatus migratorio no impide que su hijo reciba justicia. Estamos aquí para ayudar a la comunidad de City of Elmendorf.
Final Kill-Shot Sequence:
What happened at that jump park wasn’t an accident—it was the predictable output of a system designed by private equity for profit, operating under an industry-written safety standard (ASTM F2970) that the park itself chose to ignore. The AAP has been warning us since 1999. The CPSC tracks over 300,000 injuries a year. The park knew. The corporate parent knew. They just didn’t think you’d hire a firm that knows exactly where they hid the audit reports.
Attorney911 was built for exactly this fight. Ralph Manginello brings 25+ years of catastrophic injury experience, including the landmark BP Texas City litigation. Lupe Peña knows the defense-side secrets because he used to write the waivers they want you to fear. Our UH rhabdomyolysis case gives us a medical-litigation edge that generic injury firms simply do not have.
Your case is decided by what gets preserved this week. Surveillance DVRs in Bexar County overwrite in 7 to 30 days. Waiver databases purge. Attendants disappear. In Texas, your child has until age 20 to file, but we file EARLY to freeze the truth.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. Hablamos Español. No fee unless we win. We advance the costs for the biomechanists, the pediatric specialists, and the ASTM compliance experts. Your child’s future depends on the actions you take today. The case starts with one call.
