A bill aiming to make the parasailing industry safer will look different than in years past when it’s next discussed by the Florida Legislature. The bill’s sponsor says instead of having the government regulate the industry, parasail operators would regulate themselves.
It’s the fourth consecutive year the legislation has been filed. In years past, the bill has allowed for government regulation of the parasailing industry, but Delray Beach Senator Maria Sachs says she worked out a compromise to give the bill a chance of passage.
“Now, what we’ve done to make it so that we have no fiscal impact and to compromise with those in the Legislature who don’t want greater government regulation, we’ve taken the government basically out of it,” said Sachs.
Sachs says after discussing it with Senate President Don Gaetz and parasail operators, the group decided it should be mandatory that operators have uniform safety standards and insurance.
“We want to make sure that when someone participates in this great support that this operation has a minimum amount of insurance of $1 million and two-million for the entire occurrence and the basic safety structure of not going up when the weather is rough or when there’s a lightning storm within 7 miles,” she added.
Sachs says she filed the bill because of two women in South Florida who died while parasailing, after whom the bill is named. The legislation also comes after a parasailing incident in July that injured two Indiana teens whose rope snapped, causing them to hit a condominium, a power line and a parked car.
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