ROSEVILLE, Calif. — Even after a couple of days, DJ, 3, hugs his mom in fear and can’t stop telling people about a dark and scary place.
“It's scary! I don't want to go in there,” the toddler said, as his mother, LaShay Mori, wiped away her tears. “I was screaming.”
That dark place was just below an uncovered hole at the popular and well-reviewed Rockin’ Jump of Roseville. Now, Mori is speaking out and sharing the footage to raise awareness for other families about being extra vigilant at trampoline parks.
Mori filmed the facility’s security camera footage and shared it with ABC10. In that video, DJ is seen jumping back and forth from a trampoline to a jumping area as Mori watches and other children jump nearby. Just as she turns her face, he falls. When she looks back, he’s gone.
“My heart just dropped to my stomach. It was a feeling that I would never want any mother to feel,” Mori said.
It turns out that DJ slipped between exposed inflatable tubes and into the crawl space below. Mori said an employee went down below to look for her son but did not find him. She feared that he was abducted and sent her family into a panic.
"The music is still loud, there's a long line, people are checking in, kids are still jumping on the equipment, (and) no one has made an announcement about a missing child or anything,” Mori recalled.
She said she feels that the facility was unequipped and unprepared for the situation.
“I felt helpless and I was looking for the security of this facility, who I'm assuming is a professional facility and works with children to help me and help manage the situation in a professional manner, which they did not,” Mori said.
"The only way we found him was my 11-year-old cousin,” she added.
She said that she's proud of her cousin for taking it upon himself to find her son about 25 minutes after he fell into the dusty, dark crawlspace. DJ had crawled to a far end below the equipment.
"His white shirt is dark in dust, his face was beet red, his cheeks are really red,” Mori said. “And I embraced him, and I cried.”
After three phone calls, three e-mails, and a visit to the business, the owner referred ABC10 to Rockin' Jump's corporate office for a formal comment due to company policy and added that safety is a priority at the facility.
The area where DJ fell is now completely closed and roped off. On Saturday, it was marked with a retractable rope and a sign. Mori said that was not adequate to warn guests of the hazard, and her son is lucky he wasn't injured.
In the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics most recent report on trampoline fractures, a 2020 report showed more than 6% of all pediatric broken bones originated in trampoline parks. According to the study, children are 32% more likely to break a bone at a public trampoline park than on a home trampoline due to increased risk factors such as lax supervision
Rockin’ Jump’s website indicates that it meets American Society for Testing and Material Standards and is part of the International Association of Trampoline Parks.
However, trampoline parks are a self-regulated industry, according to attorney Andrew Mazan, who specializes in trampoline park lawsuits
"There's no federal regulation. There's nobody stepping in providing some oversight,” Mazan said.
In California, a bill aiming to regulate trampoline parks died in the legislature in 2014.
ABC10 has yet to receive comment from Rockin’ Jump's corporate office.
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