Utah lawmakers want to ensure the safety of trampoline park patrons through a bill that would impose licensure, safety and insurance requirements on the parks.
HB150 was approved by the Senate Friday but requires a final vote of the House to concur with an amendment made earlier in the week in a Senate committee. If it gets a thumb’s up in House, it will go to the governor for final action.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo, said that by getting more trampoline parks to abide by national safety standards, lawmakers could help reduce injuries. The threat of legal repercussions by injured patrons, he said, was not enough because “lawsuits don’t prevent injuries.”
A substitute version of the bill, however, did adjust verbiage that had been of concern to trial attorneys who feared it may have provided immunity from lawsuits for the trampoline industry.
Another area of concern addressed in the substitute, saw the ambiguous requirement for “adequate liability insurance” swapped out for minimum coverage of $500,000 per incident and an aggregate of $1 million.
Katie James, speaking on behalf of Get Air, an association of trampoline parks in Utah, expressed concern that the new language “significantly changed the scope” of trampoline parks’ liability.
James said she was concerned that language in the substitute would “neuter the strength” of “patron responsibility,” an element which she said is important in a state with a thriving recreational industry.