FUN Zone Safety Enhancements
TinCaps fans,
Fan safety is a priority and we take precautions to do all we can to keep people as safe as possible while in our venue.
During the game on Sunday, August 28th, I was at the ball field and I noticed the temperature begin to drop. We are constantly monitoring weather storms, watches, and warnings. We had been looking at radar throughout the day and there was not any rain in the immediate area. After a few minutes of the temperature dropping, the wind picked up. As soon as the wind picked up, we decided to take down all umbrellas, shut down the kid's area, and secure any other areas that needed attention. Within a short period of time of that call going out, we received a wind burst that had an effect on things in the ballpark. We had never seen that sort of wind in our venue without rain, thunder, or lightning. There was no warning for the wind that took place.
During this wind gust, one of our inflatables with kids inside blew over. It was the moonwalk/bounce house. The safeguards we had in place for the game on 8/28/16 were the same as we had in place the previous 500+ games. We never had a problem in the past. On 8/28/16 some of the support straps broke from the heavy wind and the bounce house blew over. Our main concern was to ensure that all kids were safe and get medical attention to anyone that needed to be seen by our on-site EMT staff. Two kids were seen for treatment by our on-site EMT staff. Initially, I believed there were only two kids inside the bounce house, but our research after the fact showed that there were seven kids.
I called the family immediately to touch base with them after they left the game to see how their children were doing. I conveyed our sincere apologies to the family and let them know to keep us posted on the condition of their children. Since this time we have communicated frequently.
After arriving home Sunday, I was called by a local TV station and asked about the incident. They had received cell phone video regarding it and wanted comment. I was unaware of the video and discussed the event in full detail. I reassured them that fan safety is our biggest concern and that we would look into the event. I watched the video and saw a very unfortunate event with our staff working to make sure folks were going to be okay.
On the morning of 8/29/16 our staff immediately went into action to learn what had happened and to work on improving the area.
We set up the area as it was the day before. We assessed the situation and we made the decision at that time that we would not open up the area until it was safe enough to do so. We called local folks and discussed potential solutions. Based on these discussions, we prepared a new plan for securing the inflatables in the kid's area. We determined that the area was safe to re-open based on our new plan for the game on 8/29/16. It was open on 8/29 and 8/31 without incident.
Fan safety is a priority of ours and I wanted to put this out there so our fans understand we care about all of you. We are sorry for the events last Sunday. We are thankful that nobody was seriously injured.
We are on the verge of a record-setting attendance year and we appreciate the 500,000+ fans a year that come into our venue for family entertainment.
If you have any questions about this incident or anything within Parkview Field please feel free to email me: [email protected] or call me at 260-407-2807.
Lastly, to the families that were impacted on 8/28/16--we apologize. We want to re-earn your trust that this is a very safe, clean, family-friendly, responsible venue and organization. Your input after this has made our operation better. We are grateful that nobody was more seriously injured and we will work to continue to make sure all aspects of our operation meet and exceed our fans' needs.
Thanks,
Mike Nutter
President
Fort Wayne TinCaps Baseball