Charges possible in 5-year-old's fatal fall from inflatable

Wichita police investigating the death of a boy at an inflatable amusement facility said Tuesday they plan to present the case to the District Attorney's Office "for review of any possible criminal charges."

Also Tuesday, national safety officials said they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the boy's death.

Wichita Deputy Police Chief Tom Stolz said he could not comment specifically about the case, but said, "There are safety factors which are concerning regarding this particular inflatable and how it was operated."

He said police plan to present the case to the district attorney later this week or early next week.

Five-year-old Matthew Branham died March 22 after falling and striking his head on a concrete floor at Pure Entertainment, an indoor amusement center near Kellogg and Tyler.

Police say the child and several older family members were on an inflatable known as King of the Hill when the fall occurred. The inflatable ride, also called King of the Mountain, was produced by China Cheer, a Chinese manufacturer, Stolz said.

Patty Davis, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, said Tuesday that the agency has launched an in-depth investigation into the incident.

During such inquiries, agency officials usually talk with witnesses, employees, business owners, the victim's family members and others in an attempt to "look at what role the product played in the child's death," she said.

"We want to know what happened," Davis said. "What were the circumstances in general that led to this?"

She could not say whether the agency had investigated other incidents involving the King of the Hill or similarly designed units.

In December 2007, a 3-year-old Washington boy died when two men playing on a King of the Hill unit fell off and landed on the boy, who was standing near the ride at an indoor playground.

According to a report released by the safety commission in July 2009, the agency was "aware of four deaths involving inflatable amusements from 2003 through 2007. . . . All four involved the decedent striking their head on a hard surface."

The agency regulates the sale and manufacture of thousands of consumer products, from cribs to swimming pools. It has the authority to ban dangerous products, issue recalls of products already on the market, issue fines, and alert consumers about potential hazards associated with products.

Pure Entertainment was closed several days last week but reopened Saturday. Duane Zogleman, owner of Moonwalks For Fun Inc., which holds licenses to operate the equipment inside, has said the fatality last week was the result of customers misusing the equipment.

Zogleman did not return phone calls or e-mails Tuesday.

Last week he said that the 5-year-old was on the ride with his mother, two grandparents, a 17-year-old boy and a 21-year-old woman. Attendants trained in ride safety were working inside the building on March 22, but no one was assigned specifically to the King of the Hill unit and no employee witnessed the fall, he said in a previous interview.

"The unit wasn't used in the manner it was intended," Zogleman said last week.

Some customers who visited Pure Entertainment two days before the accident said there were no signs or other instructions telling people how to use the ride. One said that on March 20 she saw four teenage employees jumping on the ride with smaller children onboard.

"I just remember thinking that if they're participating and bouncing, they're not really watching what's going on," said Marla Barngrover, who visited the facility with her three stepchildren during the facility's "open bounce" session.

Julie Rains of Wichita said she took her two children to Pure Entertainment on March 20 as a spring break treat. She said she became concerned about the King of the Hill ride after an adult visitor bounced on one side of the ride, causing her 5-year-old son, Ty, to fly into the air.

"I'd never been in a bounce place where they had one of those things, and I honestly didn't know what the purpose of it was," Rains said. One adult and children of various ages were jumping on different areas of the mattress-like ride, and "basically just knocking each other down," she said.

The ride is surrounded by an inflatable barrier about 2 feet high. When Rains saw her son sail several feet into the air, she said she quickly told him to get off the ride.

"I was just like, 'I don't know. Maybe it's supposed to be used like that, but my kids are not getting on it,' " she said.

Pure Entertainment requires visitors to sign a waiver acknowledging the dangers associated with inflatables and agreeing "to freely assume all risk of personal injury, both known and unknown, even if arising from the negligence of others."

Rains said she signed the waiver but did not receive instructions from attendants or see any signs explaining how the rides should be used. "The only instruction we were given was, 'No running,' " she said.

Todd Shadid, a Wichita lawyer representing Matthew's parents, did not return calls Tuesday.

This story was originally published March 31, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Charges possible in 5-year-old's fatal fall from inflatable."