A woman’s lawsuit against a State College area indoor trampoline park and its parent company alleges that she broke her back when she jumped into a foam pit.
Makenna Taddy, 21, says she was a customer at Get Air State College, 2252 E. College Ave., on March 22, 2024 and “felt a hard floor or obstruction upon impact” after jumping into the pit that she alleges was too shallow, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit, originally filed in Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas, was transferred to federal court on Tuesday.
No employees were nearby when Taddy was injured, attorney Carin A. O’Donnell wrote, and her friends helped her out of the pit. Another customer alerted staff, who called an ambulance.
Taddy, of Cambria County, sustained compression fractures of two vertebrae, which the lawsuit claims was the result the foam pit’s “dangerously inadequate depth.” O’Donnell wrote that the pit was 2 feet deep with a hard bottom and did not meet minimum standards for trampoline courts.
The lawsuit accuses Get Air State College, Get Air Sports and related corporations of negligence. Taddy is seeking in excess of $50,000.
In its preliminary objections, Get Air claims that prior to the incident, Taddy’s mother had signed a waiver on her behalf in 2018 for all future visits in which she agreed “not to sue” the franchise or its parent company for any claims or liabilities.
Instead, the companies’ attorney wrote, the matter should have been submitted for formal mediation, and if that failed, for binding arbitration.
