RENO, NEVADA: A 9-year-old Reno girl named Elizabeth “Lizzy” Hammond died after suffering serious injuries when a gust of wind blew a bounce house with three children inside onto power lines on 14 July 2019. Now, the girl’s family is fighting for stricter laws and awareness among parents and bounce house operators.
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The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office said dispatchers received a call around 4 p.m. on July 14 that a bounce house had risen about 10 feet off the ground and remained caught in power lines in a south Reno neighborhood. Sheriff’s deputies immediately arrived on the scene with fire department personnel and asked Nevada Energy to turn off power to the area.
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Elizabeth “Lizzy” Hammond (Facebook)
After a struggle, deputies and firefighters rescued the three children. While two of the children had minor injuries and were treated at the scene, Hammond was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead two days later. “We had a lot of trauma in the months that followed,” said his mother, Wendy. “Not just the trauma of losing your daughter, but having two children traumatized by the high winds.”
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Now, the Hammond family is taking every step possible to raise awareness and educate both parents and bounce house operators about the safety practices that were necessary for everyone. Hammond’s parents, Mitch and Wendy, have established a non-profit foundation called Lizzy Hammond, which works to protect children and ensure bounce house safety through education, awareness and volunteer opportunities.
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They said they planned to push for a bill to regulate bounce house businesses. Nevada is one of 17 states that neither has guidelines nor excludes inflatables from regulation. They believe Lizzy would not have died if state or federal laws had regulated the equipment needed to ensure the safety of children in bounce houses.
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“And that’s what’s really sad…we lost our precious baby, and this guy didn’t even get a summons,” Mitch said. “If we could have had the weight, something there, to start giving kids a chance to get out. That’s what this law is about,” Wendy said. “It’s really a matter of weighing these things,” he added.
They expect a new law that would require commercial bounce houses to be licensed, bonded and insured, as well as subject to other strict guidelines similar to laws or regulations for commercial bounce houses that have been followed in 19 states other than the US. “How many people have to die at an intersection before any state, at the local level, turns on a traffic light? Or how many people would die in a vehicle before they enforce seat belt laws?” Mitch said. “How many kids have to die before we actually make this a federal law that bounce houses have to have certain minimum guidelines?” added.
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