Bill > A5643

Introduced Session

The "New Jersey Bleacher Safety Act" would require stricter safety standards to be adopted for existing bleachers at places of public accommodation within the State. Each year, there are an average of 19,100 injuries to people in the United States, many of them children, directly attributable to falls from bleachers or unsafe conditions of bleachers. In the past twenty years, there have been at least 10 deaths related to falls from bleachers, four of them involving children under the age of 15. Recently in New Jersey, three-year old Adam J. Graham suffered severe injuries when he tumbled through a gap in the bleacher seating at a school athletic event. According to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, falls from bleachers can occur when guardrails are missing from the backs or open sides of bleachers. Falls from bleachers also occur when there are large enough openings between components in the seating and the guardrails to permit a person to pass through them. Often the falls involve openings between the components of the seating, such as between the footboard and seat board, as was the case with Adam's fall, but other falls through spaces related to the guardrails have occurred as well. In addition to the risk of falls, some bleachers are dilapidated or poorly constructed, and are at risk of collapsing. Although the New Jersey State Uniform Construction Code (UCC) has incorporated standards for bleacher safety, these standards are applicable to new bleachers only, and do not require the retrofitting of existing bleachers with safety features to prevent falls or injuries. This bill would require the Commissioner of Community Affairs to adopt, within six months of the effective date of the bill, safety standards for existing bleachers, which would involve replacement of these bleachers, or their retrofitting to make them safe. In promulgating the standards, the commissioner is directed by the bill to utilize the guidelines created by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for the retrofitting of existing bleachers, or to use standards for the retrofitting of bleachers developed by nationally or internationally recognized model code agencies. The commissioner is also directed by the bill to establish certification and inspection procedures. The bill requires a place of public accommodation, defined as a public or privately- owned sports or entertainment arena or park, gymnasium, auditorium, stadium, hall, special event center in a public park or other facility for public assembly, to replace or retrofit existing bleachers in compliance with the code. Governmental entities from which funding would be available for such purposes are required to comply immediately after regulations are adopted by the commissioner. An example of governmental entities which may have access to funding for such purposes would be school districts, which are eligible for funds from bond acts or other funding for school facilities. Governmental entities not having access to immediate funding would have one year from the date of the promulgation of the regulations requiring retrofitting to comply. Private or nonprofit entities would have two years to comply with the regulations. Entities would be required to post a warning notice on bleachers that have not yet been certified as being in compliance with the UCC for safety features. A bleachers that is not certified as in compliance with the State Uniform Construction Code by the end of the allotted time period (one year for governmental entities, two years for all others) will be required to have a notice posted in a conspicuous place forbidding its use until certification has occurred.

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Christian Barranco (R)*,  Chris DePhillips (R)*,  Brian Bergen (R), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Community Development and Affairs Committee (on 06/20/2023)

Official Document