Man who broke his neck at trampoline park shares harrowing tale | UK News

A man who was paralysed for life after breaking his neck at a trampoline park said he felt like his ‘life had ended.’

Daniel Moseley, 25, said the fact he wasn’t made aware of the 11 previous back-breaking accidents at Flip Out Trampoline Park makes his ‘blood boil’.

Once an avid runner, Moseley is now confined to a wheelchair after suffering a double neck fracture in 2018, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.

Moseley spoke out as two former trampoline bosses who ran the park where he was injured, admitted to breaching health and safety offences.

Moseley told the BBC: ‘When it first happened I knew exactly the seriousness of it and it just felt like my life had ended.

‘When I think back to it, it’s emotionally hard, I keep it shut in my head, I try not to think about it.’

In one instance, three different people suffered broken backs at one of Flip Out’s park in one single day.

A nearby hospital in Chester even warned that their specialist orthopaedic surgeons were facing pressure due to the mounting injuries.

Now, victims have begun to speak out about the lack of regulation at trampoline parks across the UK.

Moseley told Mail Online: ‘The fact remains that in the years before my accident nothing was done in regards to health and safety to prevent this from happening.’ 

Flip Out bosses David Shuttleworth and Matthew Melling, both 33, have admitted an offence of failing to prevent exposure to risk under the Health and Safety Act at Chester Crown Court.

The charges are said to relate to an investigation into 270 incidents over a seven-week period from December 2016 to February 2017.  

In one incident, Rebecca Louden nearly had her ankle ripped off after jumping from a height into a foam pit – leaving bones and tendons exposed.

And cardiac nurse Liza Jones, 26, was one of the three people who broke their back on the same day while plunging from the 13ft tall ‘Tower Jump’ – described at the time by Shuttleworth and Melling as the largest of its kind in the world.

Recalling her ordeal, Liza said: ‘It was really scary, it was the most pain I’ve suffered in my life. 

‘[Hospital doctors] said I had an unstable fracture and one of my vertebrae had burst, which meant I had fragments of bone sticking out that could have paralysed me.’

Ceri Jones, then 21, described hearing a ‘crunch’ when her vertebrae ‘exploded’ on impact as she jumped off a tower into the foam pit, leaving her in agony. 

Meanwhile mum-of-four Michelle Conway was left needing stitches after her top lip was ripped away from her nose in the free-running zone at the same park, in Ellesmere Port.  

The council’s cabinet member for homes, planning and safer communities, Christine Warner, said: ‘Injuries in this case included 11 fractured spines, as well as other serious injuries.  

‘Those injured on a daily basis included both adults and children.’ 

Before entering the trampoline parks, thrill seekers were asked to sign a waiver declaring pre-existing issues.

The waiver also mentions that ‘participation can result in serious injury or death’.

Despite the high levels of injuries, hundreds of trampoline parks continue to operate across the UK – and Flip out plans to open a new location in Canary Wharf later this year.

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