BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations
Ted W. Lieu, Chair
Date of Hearing: April 24, 2013 2013-2014 Regular
Session
Consultant: Gideon L. Baum Fiscal:Yes
Urgency: No
Bill No: SB 256
Author: Lieu
As Introduced/Amended: April 4, 2013
SUBJECT
Trampoline courts: safety inspection.
KEY ISSUE
Should the Legislature create a safety program for the
inspection by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health of
trampoline parks?
ANALYSIS
Existing law creates the Permanent Amusement Ride Safety
Inspection Program, a state system for the inspection of
permanent amusement rides that provides the Division of
Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) the ability to inspect
permanent amusement rides to ensure the safety of the general
public. (Labor Code ��7920-7932)
Existing law exempts certain amusements from the Permanent
Amusement Ride Safety Inspection Program, including skating
rinks, arcades, bowling alleys, and trampolines .
This bill would create a safety program for the inspection of
trampoline courts .
Specifically, this bill would:
1) Require the Division of Occupational Safety and Health
(DOSH) to formulate and propose rules and regulations for
adoption by the Occupational Safety and Health Standards
Board (OSHSB) for the safe installation, repair,
maintenance, use, operation, and inspection of all
permanent amusement rides;
2) Annual certification by the owner of the permanent
amusement ride that provides the following information:
a) The legal name and address of the owner and his or
her representative, if any, and the primary place of
business of the owner;
b) 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; and
c) 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
DOSH and OSHSB.
1) Prohibits the operation of 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 have been completed and certified
as completed by a qualified safety inspector.
2) Requires that all qualified safety inspectors be
approved by DOSH and meet the following requirements:
a) 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 DOSH; OR
b) Has a minimum of five years' experience in the
amusement ride field, at least two years of which was
involved in actual amusement ride inspection with a
manufacturer, government agency, amusement park,
carnival, or insurance underwriter and meets certain
educational requirements.
Hearing Date: April 24, 2013 SB 256
Consultant: Gideon L. Baum Page 2
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations
1) Requires 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, inspection
records for each trampoline court, and records of accidents
requiring medical service other than ordinary first aid,
and shall make them available to a DOSH inspector upon
request;
2) Requires DOSH to conduct an annual inspection of the
trampoline court;
3) Requires each operator of a trampoline court shall
report or 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.
4) Requires that 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.
5) Requires the following insurance requirements:
a) 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.
b) 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.
c) Meets a financial test of self-insurance, as
prescribed by rules and regulations promulgated by the
Hearing Date: April 24, 2013 SB 256
Consultant: Gideon L. Baum Page 3
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations
DOSH.
1) Requires the owner of a trampoline court to 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;
2) Creates The Trampoline Courts Safety Fund and allows
DOSH to fix and collect all fees necessary to cover the
reasonable costs of administering this part;
3) Provides that any operator of a trampoline court who has
willfully or intentionally violated the above standards,
and that violation results in a death or serious injury ,
DOSH must 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).
COMMENTS
1. Need for this bill?
California first legislated inspecting amusement rides in
1968, after the death of a teenage woman the year prior at the
Kern County Fair. The original version of the bill included
permanent amusement rides, but an amendment on the Senate
floor removed permanent amusement rides from the bill.
Starting in 1979, several bills were introduced to regulate
permanent amusement rides, but none passed. It wasn't until
1999 that then-Assembly Member Tom Torlakson successfully
passed the Permanent Amusement Ride Safety Inspection Program.
At that time, trampoline parks, which are a series of
trampolines connected together in a large enclosed space, were
not a common amusement, and trampolines generally were
exempted from the bill. Since that time, trampoline parks
Hearing Date: April 24, 2013 SB 256
Consultant: Gideon L. Baum Page 4
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations
have grown in popularity throughout the state. According to
the sponsor of this bill, there are currently 26 trampoline
parks throughout the state and another 12 planned. Since they
were exempted from the Permanent Amusement Ride Safety
Inspection Program, they are unregulated .
Unlike other unregulated amusements, however, trampoline parks
have a high incidence of injury. According to the American
Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the National Electronic Injury
Surveillance System estimated in 2009 that almost 98,000
trampoline-related injuries in the U.S., resulting in 3,100
hospitalizations. The AAP also noted that rates of trampoline
injury appear higher for children than in adults. Similarly,
according to research by the sponsor of the bill, trampolines
parks have an average of 2.0 to 2.7 injures per thousand hour
of use. This injury rate is more than four times higher than
downhill skiing and more than two hundred times higher than
permanent amusement rides.
Additionally, there have been cases of significant injuries,
including deaths. One of the most notable cases was in 2012,
when Ty Thomasson broke his neck landing in a pit of foam
blocks. Unfortunately, despite efforts by paramedics, Mr.
Thomasson died at the trampoline park. The corner ruled that
his death was due to blunt force trauma to his spine. Mr.
Thomasson was 30 years old.
In order to prevent similar serious injuries, SB 256 would
create an inspection program, closely modeled after the
successful Permanent Amusement Ride Safety Inspection Program,
for trampoline parks.
2. Possible Amendments:
While USA Gymnastics has not positioned on the bill, the
organization has reached out to the Committee with concerns
that SB 256 could inadvertently impact gymnastics clubs and
facilities. Since the author and the proponents did not
intend to cover gymnastics clubs, the Committee may wish to
take the following amendment to exclude them from the bill:
On page 4, between lines 9 and 10, insert the following:
Hearing Date: April 24, 2013 SB 256
Consultant: Gideon L. Baum Page 5
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations
(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 with the student-coach/instructor ratio
is based on age, skill level and number of students; and
3) The gymnastics club or facility teaches gymnastics
skills and basics through programs that use
progression-oriented training; has supervised training and
classes.
On page 4, line 10, make the following conforming amendment:
(d) (e) Trampoline courts operated at a private event that are
not open to the general public and not subject to a separate
admission charge.
3. Proponent Arguments :
Proponents of the bill note that, over the past five years,
trampoline parks have grown rapidly in California. Proponents
estimate that over 3 million Californians are annually
attending the 26 trampoline parks that currently exist in
California and that about 6,000 people are being injured and
about 600 of those injuries are severe enough to warrant 911
calls. Proponents note that trampoline parks are currently
unregulated, and proponents believe that this high incidence
of injuries demands regulation by DOSH, like permanent
amusement rides. Proponents argue that SB 256 will increase
safety at trampoline parks by creating an inspection program,
requiring appropriate levels of insurance, training employees
on the safe operation of trampoline park equipment, and
requiring trampoline courts to report serious injuries.
4. Opponent Arguments :
None on file.
Hearing Date: April 24, 2013 SB 256
Consultant: Gideon L. Baum Page 6
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations
5. Prior Legislation :
AB 850 (Torlakson), Statutes of 1999, Chapter 585, created the
Permanent Amusement Ride Safety Inspection Program.
SUPPORT
Think Before You Bounce (Sponsor)
Safeparks
1-Individual
OPPOSITION
None on file.
Hearing Date: April 24, 2013 SB 256
Consultant: Gideon L. Baum Page 7
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations