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Trampoline death: Richmond park staff not trained, says coroner

Grim details also highlighted that the three staff members had no idea how to administer first aid or how to respond in an emergency

The death of a 46-year-old father-of-three at a Richmond trampoline park was an accident, according to a coroner’s report.

Jason Greenwood died in January, 2018 after doing a front-flip into a foam pit at Extreme Air Park at the Riverport entertainment complex in south-east Richmond.

According to the report, released today, moments before his fateful leap, he had requested his family shoot a video of his somersault.

The report stated that he landed head-first after bouncing off a trampoline into the foam pit while at the park with two of his stepkids.

However, Greenwood failed to resurface after the jump and family members and bystanders began to dig through the metre-deep pit looking for him.

"The scene was very chaotic with a dozen or more people in and out of the foam pit and people still playing nearby," reads the report.

Extreme Air staff were alerted after Greenwood was found, unresponsive and upside down in the pit.

According to the report, witnesses who called 911 got conflicting instructions, with one responder saying Greenwood shouldn't be moved, while another said the opposite.

It then took firefighters 21 minutes to remove Greenwood from the pit. It later became apparent that an injury to his cervical spine had damaged his spinal cord, which stopped his breathing. He was pronounced dead in hospital.

Greenwood, according to the report, had a moderate level of alcohol in his system. However, it didn`t specify whether that was a factor in his death.

What it did say was that "a more timely medical aid response with respiratory support" could have prevented his death.

The report also found none of the three staff members working at the park that day were trained in first aid or CPR.

Neither were they aware of any instructions on how to respond to an emergency — other than to call 911.

Greenwood`s death sparked several lawsuits against the park and put pressure on the B.C. government to properly regulate facilities which, until now, had largely flown under the safety radar.

His wife and stepchildren are named as plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Extreme Air Park Inc. and its affiliates, filed in B.C. Supreme Court last year.

The company has denied negligence or breach of duty of care or failure to warn. They also indicated that Greenwood may have been drinking alcohol that day, adding that he and his party signed a waiver acknowledging the dangers of the activity.

Another lawsuit by a different customer was filed last month, with claims of severe injury.

None of the allegations have been tested or proven in court.

In July this year, recommendations were made to the B.C. government by Technical Safety BC to regulate such facilities across the province.