An effort to impose minimum regulations on the parasailing industry is starting to get off the ground in the Florida Legislature. A Senate panel unanimously passed a bill on Thursday that would ban parasailing when sustained winds are 20 mph or higher, or with lightning storms within seven miles.
The bill was aided by a video of a parasailing accident in Panama City Beach last summer that seriously injured two Indiana teens. The ghastly accident went viral on the Internet.
Bill sponsor Maria Sachs said the measure should lessen the chance that Florida will again find itself showcased worldwide as a risky place for amusements."When you see those storm clouds coming up, and those two young girls slammed against buildings and balconies, and then going up against power lines and finally landing against on an SUV, you think why is this happening", Sachs said.
The bill was supported by Alexis Fairchild, one of the two Indiana teens injured last July first, and by family members of Amber May White, who died in a parasailing accident in 2007. Fairchild says remembering her accident is awful.
"I just remember feeling this jolt through my whole body", recalled Fairchild. "I don’t remember hearing anything. I just remember feeling it in my body and just knowing that it just snapped. I remember we were screaming”
Between January 2001 and last October30th, Florida recorded 21 parasailing accidents that caused 23 injuries and six deaths. Nearly half were due partly to wind conditions, others due to equipment or operator error.
The bill has the support of people in the parasailing industry this year.