Another freak wind event turned a festive party into a tragedy as a gust of wind tossed children playing in an inflatable bounce house high into the sky on April 27, killing one and injuring another in central Arizona.
“This appears to have been a tragic accident,” Pinal County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Lauren Reimer said in a statement. “We would like to extend our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the grieving family.”
According to the Sheriff’s Office, multiple children were in the bounce house when a gust of wind lifted it into the air. Weather readings in the area showed winds were gusting up to 20 mph at the time of the incident. A two year old toddler died from injuries from the accident while another child required hospitalization too; the other children were able to escape harm.
According to a study published in 2022 by the American Meteorological Society, bounce houses are responsible for more than two dozen deaths and nearly 500 injuries during the years 2000–2021. The study stated that bounce houses “are safety hazards when they are dragged, blown over, or lofted by winds.”
This latest event was similar to a situation that occurred at the Devonport Primary School in north central Tasmania in December 2021. Nine 5th and 6th grade students fell from a height of roughly 33 feet in the air after a significant local wind event lifted a bouncy castle and inflatable “zorb” balls high into the air around 10 am. As the last day of primary school and the end of the 2021 school year, the bouncy castle and zorbs were there to help celebrate what should have been a happy day. Instead, tragedy struck.
“On a day where these children were meant to be celebrating their last day at primary school, instead we are all mourning their loss,” Commissioner Darren Hine said in a statement released to the press. According to Tasmanian Police, police and emergency services, including two helicopters, rushed to the scene within minutes and began administering first aid.
This isn’t the first time wind has injured children playing in a bouncy house or castle. In 2014, as an example, several children were injured when the bouncy house they were playing in became airborne after a wind gust, launching the children more than 20 feet into the air. In this incident in New York, one child came flying back down to the ground, hitting his head on a car before coming to a rest on the pavement.
In 2011, a giant inflatable slide broke loose in Oceanside, New York, smashing down onto people enjoying the outdoor festivities in the park. More than a dozen people there needed hospitalization from injuries from the large inflatable as it rolled and blew around in gusty winds.
