BILL NUMBER: SB 256 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 24, 2013
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 30, 2013
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 4, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Senator Lieu
FEBRUARY 13, 2013
An act to add Part 8.2 (commencing with Section 7940) to Division
5 of the Labor Code, relating to trampoline courts.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 256, as amended, Lieu. Trampoline courts: safety inspection.
Existing law establishes the Permanent Amusement Ride Safety
Inspection Program and requires the Division of Occupational Safety
and Health within the Department of Industrial Relations to propose
rules and regulations for adoption by the Occupational Safety and
Health Standards Board relating to permanent amusement ride safety
for the protection of the general public. The program exempts certain
amusements from its provisions, including trampolines and stationary
spring-mounted fixtures.
This bill would establish a state program to inspect trampoline
courts, as defined, for the protection of the general public using
trampoline courts. The bill would require each owner of a trampoline
court to annually submit to the division a certificate of compliance,
and to report specified accidents. The bill would make operation of
a trampoline court contingent on being insured or bonded
in an amount not less than $1,000,000, or
self-insured self-insured, as
prescribed, in accordance with prescribed by
rules and regulations promulgated by the division. The bill would
require the division to formulate and propose rules and regulations
for adoption by the board regarding trampoline courts, and to adopt
rules and regulations necessary to administer the program. The bill
would authorize the division to employ qualified safety inspectors,
as defined, for purposes of the program and would require the
division to certify inspectors as prescribed. The bill would
authorize the division to fix and collect fees to cover the
reasonable costs of administering the program, and provide for the
imposition of civil penalties for violations of the program or rules
and regulations adopted to implement the program. The bill would
establish the Trampoline Courts Safety Fund and require fees and
penalties collected pursuant to these provisions to be deposited in
the fund, as specified, and specified. The
bill would require that all moneys in the fund be made
available upon appropriation by the Legislature.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Part 8.2 (commencing with Section 7940) is added to
Division 5 of the Labor Code, to read:
PART 8.2. Trampoline Courts
7940. It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this part
to create a state program for the inspection of trampoline courts.
7941. As used in this part:
(a) "Trampoline court" means a defined area comprised of one or
more institutional trampolines, a series of institutional
trampolines, a trampoline court foam pit, or a series of trampoline
court foam pits. The division shall determine the specific devices
that are trampoline courts for the purposes of this part. This
determination shall be made to apply equally to all operators of
similar or identical facilities and shall be made pursuant to a
procedure promulgated by the standards board.
(b) "Institutional trampoline" means a trampoline intended for use
in a commercial or institutional facility.
(c) "Trampoline court foam pit" means a combination style dismount
pit designed with a rebound device, covered with loose impact
absorbing blocks.
(d) "Operator" or "owner" means a person who owns or controls or
has the duty to control the operation of a trampoline court. It
includes the state and every state agency, and each county, city,
district, and all public and quasi-public corporations and public
agencies therein.
(e) "Fund" means the Trampoline Courts Safety Fund established by
Section 7949.
(f) "Qualified safety inspector" means either of the following:
(1) A person who holds a valid professional engineer license
issued by this state or issued by an equivalent licensing body in
another state, and who has been approved by the division as a
qualified safety inspector for permanent amusement rides.
(2) A person who documents to the satisfaction of the division
that he or she meets all of the following requirements:
(A) The person has a minimum of five years' experience in the
amusement ride field, at least two years of which were involved in
actual amusement ride inspection with a manufacturer, government
agency, amusement park, carnival, or insurance underwriter.
(B) The person completes not less than 15 hours per year of
continuing education at a school approved by the division, which
education shall include inservice industry or manufacturer updates
and seminars.
(C) The person has completed at least 80 hours of formal education
during the past five years from a school approved by the division
for amusement ride safety. Nondestructive-testing training, as
determined by the division, may be substituted for up to one-half of
the 80 hours of education.
7942. This part does not apply to any of the following:
(a) Any playground operated by a school or local government, if
the playground is an incidental amenity and the operating entity is
not primarily engaged in providing amusement, pleasure, thrills, or
excitement.
(b) Museums or other institutions principally devoted to the
exhibition of products of agriculture, industry, education, science,
religion, or the arts.
(c) Skating rinks, arcades, laser or paint ball war games, indoor
interactive arcade games, bowling alleys, miniature golf courses,
mechanical bulls, inflatable rides, ball crawls, exercise equipment,
jet skis, paddle boats, air boats, helicopters, airplanes, parasails,
hot air balloons, whether tethered or untethered, theaters,
amphitheaters, batting cages, stationary spring-mounted fixtures,
rider-propelled merry-go-rounds, games, slide shows, live animal
rides, or live animal shows. As used in this section, "stationary
spring-mounted fixtures" does not include trampolines.
(d) Gymnastics clubs or facilities where all of the following are
applicable:
(1) The majority of the activities are gymnastics based.
(2) The gymnastics club or facility derives the majority of its
revenues through supervised educational instruction classes or
programs where the student-to-coach/instructor ratio is based on age,
skill level, and number of students.
(3) The gymnastics club or facility teaches gymnastics skills and
basics through programs that use progression-oriented training and
has supervised training and classes.
(e) Trampoline courts operated at a private event that are not
open to the general public and not subject to a separate admission
charge.
7943. (a) The division shall formulate and propose rules and
regulations for adoption by the Occupational Safety and Health
Standards Board for the safe installation, repair, maintenance, use,
operation, and inspection of all trampoline courts as the division
finds necessary for the protection of the general public using
trampoline courts. The rules and regulations shall be in addition to
the existing applicable safety orders and shall be concerned with
engineering force stresses, safety devices, and preventive
maintenance. Nothing in this part shall limit the authority of the
division to prescribe or enforce general or special safety orders.
(b) It is the Legislature's intent that the rules and regulations
adopted pursuant to this part be consistent with those adopted by the
Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board for traveling
amusement rides, to the extent that those rules and regulations are
found to be appropriate.
7944. (a) On an annual basis, each owner of a trampoline court
shall submit to the division a certificate of compliance on a form
prescribed by the division, which shall include the following:
(1) The legal name and address of the owner and his or her
representative, if any, and the primary place of business of the
owner.
(2) A description of, the name of the manufacturer of, and, if
given by the manufacturer, the serial number and model number of, the
trampoline court.
(3) A written declaration, executed by a qualified safety
inspector, stating that, within the preceding 12-month period, the
trampoline court was inspected by the qualified safety inspector and
that the trampoline court is in material conformance with the
requirements of this section and all applicable rules and regulations
adopted by the division and standards board.
(b) The owner of multiple trampoline courts at a single site may
submit a single certificate of compliance that provides the
information required by subdivision (a) for each trampoline court at
that site.
(c) A certificate of compliance shall not be required until one
year following the promulgation of any rules or regulations by the
division governing the submission of the certificates.
(d) A person shall not operate a trampoline court that has been
inspected by a qualified safety inspector or division inspector and
found to be unsafe, unless all necessary repairs or modifications, or
both, to the devices at the facility have been completed and
certified as completed by a qualified safety inspector.
(e) For the purposes of satisfying this section, a qualified
safety inspector shall meet the requirements in subdivision (e) of
Section 7941 and shall be certified by the division. Each qualified
safety inspector shall be recertified every two years following his
or her initial certification. A qualified safety inspector may be an
in-house, full-time safety inspector of the owner of the trampoline
court, an employee or agent of the insurance underwriter or insurance
broker of the trampoline court, an employee or agent of the
manufacturer of the trampoline court devices, or an independent
consultant or contractor.
(f) The owner of a trampoline court shall maintain all of the
records necessary to demonstrate that the requirements of this
section have been met, including, but not limited to, employee
training records, maintenance, repair, and inspection records for
each trampoline court, and records of accidents of which the operator
has knowledge, resulting from the failure, malfunction, or operation
of a device at the trampoline court, requiring medical service other
than ordinary first aid, and shall make them available to a division
inspector upon request. The owner shall make those records available
for inspection by the division during normal business hours at the
owner's permanent place of business. The owner, or representative of
the owner, may be present when the division inspects the records. In
conjunction with an inspection of records conducted pursuant to this
subdivision, the division shall conduct an inspection of the
operation of the devices at the trampoline court.
(g) Upon receipt of a certificate of compliance, the division
shall notify the owner of the trampoline court or courts for which a
certificate is submitted whether the certificate meets all the
requirements of this section, and if not, what requirements must
still be met.
(h) The division, in addition to the annual inspection performed
by the division pursuant to subdivision (f), shall inspect the
records for a trampoline court or the devices at the trampoline
court, or both, under either of the following circumstances:
(1) The division finds that the certificate of compliance
submitted pursuant to this section for the trampoline court is
fraudulent.
(2) The division determines, pursuant to regulations it has
adopted, that a trampoline court has a disproportionately high
incidence of accidents required to be reported pursuant to Section
7945.
(i) The division shall conduct its inspections with the least
disruption to the normal operation of the trampoline court.
7945. (a) Each operator of a trampoline court shall report or
cause to be reported to the division immediately by telephone each
known accident where maintenance, operation, or use of the trampoline
court results in a death or serious injury to any person unless the
injury does not require medical service other than ordinary first
aid. If a death or serious injury results from the failure,
malfunction, or operation of a trampoline court, the equipment or
conditions that caused the accident shall be preserved for the
purpose of an investigation by the division.
(b) A division inspector may inspect any trampoline court after
the report of an accident to the division. The division may order a
cessation of operation of a device if it is determined after
inspection to be hazardous or unsafe. Operation shall not resume
until these conditions are corrected to the satisfaction of the
division.
(c) Whenever a state, county, or local fire or police agency is
called to an accident involving a trampoline court covered by this
part where a serious injury or death occurs, the responding agency
shall immediately notify the nearest office of the division.
7946. (a) A person shall not operate a trampoline court unless,
at the time of operation, one of the following is in existence:
(1) The owner of the trampoline court provides an insurance policy
in an amount not less than one million dollars ($1,000,000) per
occurrence insuring the owner or operator against liability for
injury or death to persons arising out of the use of the trampoline
court.
(2) The owner of the trampoline court provides a bond in an amount
not less than one million dollars ($1,000,000), except that the
aggregate liability of the surety under that bond shall not exceed
the face amount of the bond.
(3)
(2) The owner of the trampoline court meets a financial
test of self-insurance, as prescribed by rules and regulations
promulgated by the division, to demonstrate financial responsibility
covering liability for injury suffered by patrons using the
trampoline court.
(b) The insurance policy or bond shall be
obtained from one or more admitted insurers or
sureties licensed by the Department of Insurance to
do business write liability insurance
in this state, as defined in Section 100 of the Insurance Code,
or by a nonadmitted insurer employed by a surplus
lines broker licensed by the Department of Insurance.
an eligible surplus line insurer, with the insurance procured
pursuant to Section 1765.1 of the Insurance Code.
7947. Each owner of a trampoline court shall provide training for
its employees in the safe operation and maintenance of amusement
rides, as required by the standards adopted by the American Society
for Testing and Materials, as amended or as may be amended from time
to time, to the extent that those standards are consistent with the
standards adopted by the division pursuant to this part, and the
injury prevention program required under Section 6401.7.
7948. The division shall adopt rules and regulations necessary
for the administration of this part. The division may employ
qualified safety inspectors as it determines to be necessary for the
purposes of this part.
7949. (a) The division may fix and collect all fees necessary to
cover the reasonable costs of administering this part. Fees shall be
charged to a person or entity receiving the division's services as
provided by this part or by regulations adopted pursuant to this
part, including, but not limited to, approvals, determinations,
certifications and recertifications, receipt and review of
certificates, and inspections. In fixing the amount of these fees,
the division may include a reasonable percentage attributable to the
general cost of the division for administering this part.
Notwithstanding Section 6103 of the Government Code, the division may
collect these fees from the state or any county, city, district, or
other political subdivision.
(b) (1) The Trampoline Courts Safety Fund is hereby established
within the State Treasury. All money in the fund shall be available
for the administration of this part, upon appropriation by the
Legislature.
(2) All fees collected pursuant to this part shall be deposited
into the Trampoline Courts Safety Fees Account, which is hereby
established within the fund.
(3) All penalties collected pursuant to this part shall be
deposited into the Trampoline Courts Safety Penalties Account, which
is hereby established within the fund.
7949.5. (a) If the division determines that any owner or operator
of a trampoline court subject to this part has willfully or
intentionally violated this part or any rule or regulation
promulgated under this part, and that violation results in a death or
serious injury as specified in Section 7945, the division shall
impose on that owner or operator a civil penalty of not less than
twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) and not more than seventy
thousand dollars ($70,000).
(b) The division shall enforce this part by the issuance of a
citation and notice of civil penalty in a manner consistent with
Section 6317. Any owner or operator who receives a citation and
penalty may appeal the citation and penalty to the Occupational
Safety and Health Appeals Board in a manner consistent with Section
6319.