What other nations call football, we call soccer. The internationally popular game has a newer version, created in Europe. In Germany, they call it Loopyball. Other European countries call it bubble football. Here, we call it bubble soccer. The game is played with the players encased from the head to below the waist in a plastic bubble, much like the bubbles people roll down hills inside. The objective of the game is to score the ball in the other team’s net and knock as many people down as possible. It sounds like a lot of harmless fun, but as CVN reports, a family’s lawsuit says it isn’t without dangers.
In Marietta, Georgia, jurors handed down a $5 million dollar verdict against a Georgia party rental company for the brain injury a teenager suffered in a bubble soccer game.
The jurors at the Cobb County State Court deliberated for about two hours before they returned with the verdict. They found the rental company, Georgia Game Truck LLC 93% responsible for a May 2016 accident that fractured Salvador Reyes’ skull. The jury assigned 7% of the blame to Reyes.
At the time, Reyes was an 18-year-old senior at Campbell High School. At a party hosted by the school, Reyes was playing bubble soccer when he crashed into another student. Georgia Game Truck was hired by the school for the event and oversaw the game.
Reyes, who played soccer for the Campbell High School team, said that the injury left him with a traumatic brain injury. The injury has since affected his memory, decision making, mood, and caused him other issues.
The trial focused on both the extent of Reyes’ injuries and whether adequate safety instructions were given to participants. Attorneys for Game Truck argued that the company had provided students on how to play the game safely. They also argued that Reyes disregarded the instructions and charged another player.
The attorney for the Reyes’ said that the company never provided the students with written instructions and that it was encouraged for players to run into one another in previous games.
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