RENO, NEVADA: On July 14, 2019, a wind gust blew a bounce house with three kids inside onto power lines, killing 9-year-old Reno girl Elizabeth “Lizzy” Hammond. She had been badly hurt.
Now, the girl’s family is trying to get stricter laws and more awareness among parents and people who run bounce houses.
The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office said that around 4 p.m. on July 14, dispatchers got a call that a bounce house in a south Reno neighborhood had been lifted about 10 feet off the ground and was caught on the power lines. Sheriff’s deputies and people from the fire department got to the scene right away and asked Nevada energy to turn off the power in the area.
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After a fight, the deputies and firemen got the three kids out of danger. Hammond was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead two days later. Two of the children had minor injuries and were treated at the scene. “We went through a lot of stress in the months after,” said Wendy, her mother. “Not only did you lose your daughter, but high winds also scared your other two children.”
Now, the Hammond family is doing everything they can to make parents and people who run bounce houses aware of safety rules that everyone needs to follow. Hammond’s parents, Mitch and Wendy, started a non-profit called the Lizzy Hammond foundation. Its goal is to protect children and make sure that bounce houses are safe through education, raising awareness, and volunteer opportunities.
They said they were going to try to get a law passed to regulate businesses with bounce houses. Nevada is one of 17 states that neither has rules for inflatables nor leaves them out of the rules. They think that Lizzy wouldn’t have died if state or federal laws had made sure that bounce houses had the right equipment to keep kids safe.
Mitch said, “What’s really sad is that we lost our precious baby, and this person wasn’t even given a ticket.” “If we could have just put something on there, like a weight, the kids would have had a chance to get out. This law is all about that, “Wendy said. “It really comes down to making these things heavier,” she said.
They want a new law that will require bounce house businesses to be licensed, bonded, and insured, as well as follow other strict rules. These rules would be similar to the ones that 19 US states have for commercial bounce houses. “How many people have to die at an intersection before a state puts in a streetlight? Or, how many people would have to die in a car before the law was enforced?” Mitch said. “How many kids have to die before we make it a federal law that bounce houses have to meet certain minimum standards?” he asked.