Why Texas isn’t likely to regulate or inspect trampoline parks anytime soon [Fort Worth Star-Telegram]

Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX)

A bill to regulate trampoline parks in Texas is not expected to pass this legislative session, after stalling in committee in the session’s final weeks.

The proposal by Rep. Chris Turner, a Grand Prairie Democrat, follows a 2022 Star-Telegram investigation into the lack of state regulations at trampoline parks and injuries sustained at them. Testimony was taken on the proposal on April 11, but it hasn’t been voted out of the House Insurance Committee, missing a key deadline.

Monday was the last day for House committees to vote out House bills. While the deadline isn’t expressly written in the House’s rules, it’s effectively the last day for a House bill to be reported and still have time to be placed on a calendar for consideration on the floor before the whole chamber, according to the Legislative Reference Library.

The legislative session ends May 29.

“It’s unfortunately not going to pass this session,” Turner said in a Tuesday interview. “I think that this was a novel concept. No one had ever filed legislation to regulate trampoline parks before, that I’m aware of, and so a lot of times when you file something for the very first time, there’s resistance to it.”

Currently, there aren’t state laws regulating the parks or inspection requirements and injuries and safety protocols at the facilities are not tracked, the investigation found. The industry’s trade association has safety guidelines, but the state doesn’t require parks to follow them.

The news report, which included the review of ambulance calls, uncovered nearly 500 reports of injuries at 21 trampoline parks in Dallas-Fort Worth since 2015.

“Members, serious, sometimes life changing, injuries are occurring in these unregulated facilities, and it’s up to us to take action particularly as they continue to proliferate in our state,” Turner said during the April committee hearing.

Turner’s bill would have put trampoline parks in the same regulatory category as amusement park rides. Among other requirements, the parks would have to be inspected at least once each year by their insurer. They’d also have to have insurance for bodily injury and property damage and submit injury reports, Turner said.

Turner said there was industry opposition to the bill — many businesses don’t like additional regulation, he said — but that his office had been in contact with a industry group that had been helpful with regulation suggestions.

‘”But there’s a lot of ideas that still have to be worked through and simply ran out of time,” Turner said.

He doesn’t believe the legislation had the votes to pass out of the Insurance Committee.

Turner said incremental progress was made but that the push would be a multi-year effort. He hopes the issue will be studied between legislative sessions. Lawmakers meet in Austin every two years unless the governor calls a special session, but hold interim hearings between to study various issues.

“Whether it is formally or not, it’s an issue I intend to continue working on during the interim to where hopefully we can file a bill next session that will perhaps have some support from responsible operators in the industry — the operators that recognize that some degree of regulation is actually beneficial in weeding out bad actors,” he said

Turner said there seemed to be support for requiring liability insurance and inspections, but there were questions around who should conduct inspections and local law enforcement’s authority to close a facility if safety violations are found.

Bills can be resurrected as amendments to other pieces of legislation, but Turner said he’s not aware of an opportunity for that route. Most likely, it’s something that will be deferred to next session, he said.

In April, Sarah Pugliano of Fort Worth testified that she went to a trampoline park with her daughter and husband and was injured and taken to the emergency room. Pugliano said she’d fractured her tibia and fibula, and crushed her talus bone, and continues to deal with a complication called called vascular necrosis.

“I am by nature a cautious person,” she told the panel of lawmakers. “I am not at all a risk taker. There were no back flips or craziness.”

Pugliano described a lack of staff supervision and instruction. A lawmaker asked Pugliano whether she’d inquired into whether the park had any liability for the injury, and Pugliano said she was told she’d signed a waiver.

“I support this bill because right now there’s no consistent regulation or oversight for trampoline parks across the state of Texas,” she said.

Stephen Polozola, the chief legal officer for Urban Air Adventure Parks and Unleased Brands, opposed the bill, calling it unnecessary regulation during the April hearing. Urban Air Adventure Parks has sites across the country, including in Fort Worth, according to its website.

He told lawmakers that parks are already insured.

“There is no need to pass a bill to correct the problem that doesn’t exist,” Polozola said.

He also expressed concern over a separate proposal requiring amusement ride operators to be at least 16. If it and Turner’s proposal passed into law, Polozola said those 15 and younger could no longer supervise trampoline parks.

“I can no longer use those employees, and they’re a vital source of employees for us,” Polozola said.