Man Dies At Trampoline Park In Canada, Raising Safety Concerns

A father of two died Saturday in an accident at a trampoline facility in Richmond, Canada, raising questions about safety regulations deployed by the park.

Jay Greenwood, 46, a resident of Victoria, British Columbia, was injured around 8 p.m. PT (11 p.m. EST) at the Extreme Air Park in Richmond. According to the police authorities, Greenwood fell into a foam pit while “allegedly performing a series of acrobatic maneuvers.”

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Cpl. Dennis Hwang said in a statement the fall resulted in a serious injury and cardiac arrest.

According to witnesses’ accounts, Greenwood made a jump into a foam pit but did not resurface. They added one of Greenwood’s two daughters informed the front desk staff her father was stuck and not breathing, CBC News reported.

The report stated Charlie Bouzakis, a resident of North Vancouver, said he jumped into the foam pit to help Greenwood but faced difficulties in doing so. He added other people who were near the incident called the police authorities and shouted advices at him. Bouzakis said Greenwood’s neck look like it had broken and his face was blue.

“It was scary,” said Bouzakis.

Bouzakis said in a Facebook post his children had seen an “unbelievable, horrible” incident.

Bouzakis, along with other park-goers, questioned the staff’s response to the incident.

An eyewitness, Karm Layegh, said on Facebook, “Staff had no idea what to do and I called 911.”

Austin Dremeneau, who apparently identified himself as a team member of the Extreme Air Park where the incident occurred, responded to multiple the posts of park-goers on Facebook and said, “I appreciate your attempts to help and commend you on the courage it took to assist in this situation. This circumstance weighs heavy on all of our hearts.”

“Sincerely, thank you for your assistance. Although our team [was] supervising, it is impossible to prevent any accident that happens in such an instantaneous manner that is not a result of equipment failure, even with a one-to-one staff to customer ratio. At this time, our focus and concern is with the family,” Dremeneau added.

However, Bouzakis stated on Facebook, “What I am questioning is did the man have a fighting chance after his injury? Was there proper protocol in place prior and enough qualified staff on duty to execute that action that needed to be done in this case?”

He also added there were three workers at the trampoline facility during the time of the incident, and none of them seemed to be qualified to provide first aid service. They did not even assist when Greenwood’s dead body was recovered.

Another witness, Tracy Trowborst, said there wasn’t appropriate supervision at the facility.

According to the CBC News report a witness, Joanne Shoring, who talked to Greenwood before the incident and also agreed to take videos of his jumps, said, “He [Greenwood] was not moving and he was face down. … There were still people jumping into the foam pit right next to him.”

Shoring said Greenwood’s daughters were “hysterical in tears,” while people were trying to calm them and also help their father. She added park-goers tried to restrict the people from going into the foam pit so that the emergency workers were able to get to Greenwood.

“There were still people coming into the place, coming into the area to play, because they didn't know what was going on,” said Shoring.

Daniel Hepburn, an attorney representing the park, stated his clients won’t be making any further comments on the matter.

“As much as my client would like to comment further on this matter there will be no further comment at this time. There is an open RCMP investigation and it would be improper for me or my client to comment on specific details,” said Hepburn in an email.