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Another lawsuit has been filed against a Richmond trampoline park, this time by a customer who allegedly got severely injured.
Changin An, described as a student, filed the suit last Friday at the B.C. Supreme Court, accusing Extreme Air Park and four associated companies of negligence leading to his injuries.
In the lawsuit, An claims that, on Oct. 21 2017, he suffered back injuries at the indoor park in southeast Richmond after landing on the trampoline support fixture.
Court documents don’t specify what activity An was doing at the time of the accident, but there are allegations further into the lawsuit of staff failing to warn him of the dangers of a backward somersault.
As a result of the incident, the student claims that he has sustained personal injury, loss and damage due to injuries to his mid and lower back and a spinal compression fracture.
An alleges that he has also suffered psychological and/or psychiatric injuries, including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
He claims he now suffers from pain, headaches, fatigue, sleeplessness and sustained, and continues to sustain, a loss of income and future opportunities to earn and income.
An is suing for damages, loss of past and future income and the cost of future care.
He alleges that Extreme Air and all its associated companies (including Triangle Road Investments) failed to provide adequate supervision, instruction and didn’t warn him of the “dangers of performing…a backward somersault on a trampoline.”
Extreme Air Park has yet to respond to the lawsuit and none of the allegations have been tested or proven in court.
An’s alleged accident came three months before the tragic death in January 2018 of 46-year-old dad-of-two Jay Greenwood at the same park, after he dove into a foam pit while playing with his two young daughters.
His two children, through their guardian, launched legal action against the park last year.
The children claim they suffered injuries after witnessing their father’s death, including depression and anxiety, having lost the “love and guidance of their father.”
The pair are seeking unspecified general and special damages for negligence for Extreme Air Park’s alleged failure to supervise patrons’ use of the foam pit and trampoline equipment in the facility.
In June 2018, other family members of Greenwood also sued the same group of defendants over his death. Those allegations have yet to be proven or tested in court.
According to witnesses, Greenwood was jumping from an elevated trampoline into a foam pit and broke his neck.
In January of this year, Extreme Air responded to the children’s lawsuit, claiming Greenwood may have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of his death.
In the response, Extreme Air suggested that Greenwood “caused or contributed to the incident” by “using the trampoline and/or foam pit when his ability to do so was impaired or compromised by fatigue, the consumption of alcohol or the ingesting of drugs.”
The company also alleges that Greenwood failed to “pay sufficient attention to the activity he was engaged in,” failed to “follow the oral warning and instructions given by the employees of Extreme Air” and “failed to observe and comply with warning signs posted” at the premises.
In its response, Extreme Air insists that Greenwood “willingly accepted and assumed any risk of injury” and that signs to that effect are posted throughout the Triangle Road premises in southeast Richmond.
The company claims that Greenwood and his family members signed a release agreement, which specifically covers the aforementioned risk assumption by any customers.
Extreme Air Inc. has also claimed that three other businesses, Extreme Air Park Ltd 2, 3 and 4, were not involved in the operation of the Richmond facility.
In a separate response filed Jan. 15 to Greenwood’s children’s lawsuit, another defendant, understood to be the owners of the building - called 14380 Triangle Road Investments – claims it had nothing to do with the operations of Extreme Air Park.
None of the allegations contained in the lawsuit or its responses have been proven in court.
Greenwood’s death prompted serious questions among eyewitnesses about safety at the facility, with some claiming staff at the park didn’t appear to know what to do at the time.
Two weeks after the fatality, the company issued a statement, offering its condolences and also asking the provincial government to draw up trampoline safety regulations, which don’t appear to exist.
And in July this year, recommendations were made to Victoria by Technical Safety BC to regulate such facilities across the province.
