Bouncers and inflatables are inherently safe – after all, the core concept is children jumping on cushions of air. But every now and then you’ll see a headline about people being injured on inflatables, and the rental companies and manufacturers are being sued.

This article is designed to educate our customers and users about the high safety standards upheld at Cutting Edge Creations, and to explain a little bit about what’s actually happening when you see these kinds of news stories.

Safety
At Cutting Edge Creations, every inflatable we create is made with the highest safety standards in the industry. In fact, we have a reputation for being somewhat obsessed with safety. We have worked with the ASTM and the USCPSC (United States Consumer Product Safety Commission) inspectors to develop new safety standards for the industry. We are continually at the forefront of safety innovation.

Cutting Edge Creations inflatables have never been found in any way responsible for any injury of any kind.

In fact, Cutting Edge Creations was named Most Safety Conscious Manufacturer at the IIAPA trade show. Here are just some of the features that set CEC apart in the safety arena.

•    Engineering – CEC has been creating inflatables longer than any other company in the industry, and know inflatable design inside and out. Our inflatables are designed to be sturdier and safer than any other inflatable out there. This includes using reinforced baffles, weft substrate in our vinyl to prevent tears, and more and better stitching.

•    Mesh Netting – another unique CEC feature is the netting on the walls of our bouncers are a fine mesh so that children’s fingers can’t get caught. Some self-proclaimed “safety experts” will say that bouncers should have only solid walls. Solid bouncer walls are unsafe! The vast, vast majority of all inflatable injuries are directly related to a lack of supervision. It is essential that operators and parents can easily see what is happening in an inflatable. Using mesh net view panels in no way detracts from the structural integrity of a bouncer.

•    Captured Air Support – the USCPSC has mandated that all inflatable slides have a sealed chamber that prevents rapid deflation in the event of blower failure. Our patented Captured Air Support system does just this, and does it well. Many manufacturers do not comply with this requirement.

•    Stakes – the USCPSC recommends 40” stakes for inflatables. We ship them out to our customers with their inflatables (many manufacturers do not include stakes at all).

•    Watchdog – We are an authorized distributor of the Watchdog Safety Siren, an alarm that warns of any kind of loss of electrical power to the blower. The Watchdog is such an important new safety item that many insurance companies give discounts to rental companies that use them.

•    State Requirements – all of our products meet and exceed the safety requirements for all 50 states.

Litigation
In today’s litigious society if an accident does happen, you can be pretty sure that someone, somewhere, is going to sue. And every time there is a lawsuit for any reason, as the manufacturer we are always named in the lawsuit. Why? Because in this country you can sue for even your own negligence.

Despite the constant scrutiny our products have come under in various lawsuits we have been mentioned in throughout our 20-year history, Cutting Edge Creations has never been found to have a design flaw that led to an incident, and our inflatables have never been found to be unsafe in any way.

In almost every instance, the cause of accidents is due to a lack of supervision of the inflatable. Here are some examples of the kind of headlines you might see regarding inflatable injuries:

•    13 Injured on Titanic Inflatable
     Obviously the first question that leaps to mind is what were 13 people doing on an inflatable with a capacity of 4? In this instance, a rental company had set up their inflatable outside their business without tethering it down, just to clean it. Then they left for lunch, leaving the inflatable up. A large group of women walked by on their way back from lunch, saw the inflatable, and they all climbed onto the top to take their picture leaning over the edge. Untethered, the inflatable tipped over with 13 adults leaning over the edge. CEC was named in the suit with the owner of the inflatable.

•    9 Children Injured when Inflatable Titanic Collapses
     This incident occurred on a reservation, and the tribal police immediately seized the ride and began an investigation. They found that the slide wasn’t tethered and that it was overloaded. The Police Chief said, “This ride has specific safety rules right in front of you to tell you how to operate and they were simply ignored.” This full story can be found at http://www.kirotv.com/news/3927807/detail.html

In almost every instance, these are exactly the kinds of injuries that happen on inflatables and make the news. Too many people on the inflatable, the inflatable isn't tethered down at all, or some other variation. In almost every incident, there was no supervision. This is why we post our safety rules so prominently on the front of our inflatables, and why it is crucial to always have a responsible adult to supervise your inflatables.

Why the Titanic?
With enough hunting you can find dozens of stories of injuries that have occurred on inflatables – there’s even a video online of several untethered bouncers soaring in the air over a busy highway on a windy day. But why are you more likely to see the Titanic named than any other single inflatable?

There are two answers. Part of it, certainly, is that the Titanic Adventure by Cutting Edge Creations is an amazingly popular inflatable with huge numbers sold every year. And the idea has been stolen by various other manufacturing companies in other countries, increasing the number of Titanic themed slides in circulation. But the main reason is just that the Titanic is such a recognizable and distinctive historical ship. If someone is injured, say, on a “Jim’s Zero G Bounc-o-Matic” the headline just reads “injured on bouncer.” But if an accident happens on a gigantic inflatable Titanic, you can be sure that the name Titanic will appear in the headlines.

Reputation for Safety
In the end, Cutting Edge Creations manufactures only the safest inflatables in the industry. We exceed every standard there is, and work to establish new standards. We have a reputation for safety. And Cutting Edge Creations has been around longer than any other inflatable manufacturer – our reputation goes back over 20 years. And for all that time our inflatables have never once been found at fault in any way for any injury of any kind.

With Cutting Edge Creations, you know you are getting only the safest, and best inflatables in the world.