Lawmakers are flipping over the possible dangers of trampoline parks, which have grown in popularity in recent years.
According to CBS This Morning, which did a recent expose on trampoline parks, there have been six deaths at facilities since 2012 and a number of severe injuries at popular parks across the country.
Now, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) is sponsoring legislation that would hold businesses accountable for the injuries occurring inside trampoline parks. While visitors are usually required to sign waivers with forced arbitration clauses, which prohibit them from taking their cases to court, Blumenthal’s Fair Act would eliminate those clauses in consumer cases.
"I was horrified, as a parent, not to mention a public official," Blumenthal said. "Trampoline parks want to avoid justice. They want to rig the system against anyone who is injured who may assert claims against them."
Blumenthal alleges that the parks are "trying to hide individual deaths, the total number. Everything about these injuries that may cast them in a bad light."
CBS reports that in 2011 there were an estimated 40 trampoline parks nationwide. Today, there are more than 800 and there is no federal oversight of the facilities.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has now launched investigations to see whether there is anything the agency can do to protect consumers.
"Congress should have a role here ... but the biggest deterrent to death and injury at these parks will be the park owners being hauled into court, held responsible, deemed culpable, having to pay," Blumenthal said.
