PANAMA CITY — A bill to regulate Florida’s parasailing industry may get an extra push in the state Legislature next year after another high-profile accident in July — this time in Panama City Beach.
State Rep. Gwyndolen Clarke-Reed, D-Deerfield Beach, filed a bill (HB 347) in the House on Wednesday that, she said, puts “reasonable expectations” on the parasailing industry. An identical bill (SB 320) was already filed in the Senate.
“The bill would require commercial parasailing companies to ensure that operators stop services when weather conditions are unfavorable, to have an employee present on the boat to monitor weather conditions, and to carry insurance,” she said in a statement. “The operator also would be required to have a current and valid license to operate the vessel for this activity.”
This is the fourth year a parasailing regulation bill was filed in the Legislature and none ever received a floor vote in the House or Senate. During the 2013 session, bills languished in both houses, only receiving one hearing between them. Bills usually have three committee stops before going to the floor.
The bill’s regulations may have prevented the summer accident — where a storm kicked up and two 17-year-olds from Indiana came untethered to the boat towing their tandem parasail. The two drifted and eventually slammed into a Panama City Beach high-rise; both sustained injuries and were hospitalized.
“Unfortunately sometimes there has to be a dramatic event or even a tragic event to bring an issue to the forefront; I am terribly sorry that it took a tragic event here in Northwest Florida to bring this issue up again,” said state Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville.
Gaetz has shown tepid support for the bill, despite a general antipathy for government regulation. Gaetz said he wants the bill to make it to the floor, but stressed it should be amended to include “training and safety measures.” He said state regulation may be necessary to ensure the industry adds these safeguards.
State Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City, takes the opposite view, finding the regulations unnecessary — “too much of a reach of government.” He said he’s against additional government regulation when there’s no requirement for people to use a service.
“There’s nobody saying that you have to go parasailing,” he said.
The bill would require the operator carry bodily injury liability insurance covering at least $1 million per trip and $2 million annually. The boat operator must have a proper U.S. Coast Guard license and access to National Weather Service storm alerts.
Parasailing would be prohibited when sustained wind speeds exceed 20 mph, when gusts are 15 mph more than the sustained wind speed, or when gusts exceed 25 mph, according to the bill.
Parasailing also would be halted if visibility was reduced to less than half a mile by rain or fog. A lightning storm within seven miles would stop parasailing too.
Though Patronis called the summer accident a “tragedy,” he said legislation shouldn’t automatically follow. But he said if an accident investigation shows regulation could have prevented it, then that must be considered.
Patronis said regulation won’t prevent all accidents either. He gave the example of a person unaware of a heart condition that goes parasailing leading to a heart attack.
Meanwhile, Gaetz said he hopes the bill gets a “full hearing and a thorough debate” and makes it to the Senate floor. He said there are other options, like local government regulation, but that could have its problems. He said the beach is “no respecter of county lines or of city boundaries, and so sometimes a state has to regulate.”
He continued: “My hope is that safety measures and training will be at the heart of anything that reaches the Senate floor.”