New law targets skydiver safety
Gov. Brown signs bill sparked by fatal Lodi incidents
California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law over the weekend a bill that was spurred by deaths at the Lodi Parachute Center.
Assembly Bill 295, authored by Assemblywoman Susan Eggman (D-Stockton) and also known as Tyler’s Law, will hold parachute centers accountable in state court if they fail to abide by federal safety regulations.
“We are very pleased and grateful that the governor signed it and we think it adds an important measure of accountability into the law that was missing before,” Eggman’s Chief of Staff David Stammerjohan said. “Our hope is that it will cause facilities to be more cautious and be more prudent in ensuring folks are properly certified.”
The new law provides that owners and operators of a skydiving or sport parachuting operation have a duty to ensure that the parachutist in command of a tandem jump and the parachute rigger responsible for packing a parachute are in compliance with all federal laws relating to parachute safety and certification. It grants jurisdictional authority for local governments and other law enforcement officials to get involved in overseeing parachute operations. The law strengthens the ability of citizens to hold parachute centers accountable through civil suits.
Eggman introduced the law in February after a series of deaths in connection with the Lodi Parachute Center, including the August 2016 skydiving deaths of 18-year-old Tyler Nicholas Turner and tandem instructor Yong Kwon, 25.
Following their deaths it was discovered that Kwon was not properly certified. As a result, the United States Parachute Association took action against at least two individuals who were USPA members for abusing their authority to conduct certification courses for tandem instructors. The individuals had their USPA membership and instructional ratings revoked.
The association also reviewed 140 tandem instructors that obtained courses through those individuals and required retraining and recertification of those instructions.
Out of the 140, there were at least 40 individuals who did not take the required retraining, most of whom reside in foreign countries and have been listed as having their tandem instructor ratings revoked. The list has been distributed to all skydiving businesses nationwide.
“I think any one of us who live in the Valley have read multiple times about catastrophes, deaths and crashes coming out of this center,” Eggman said in a February interview with the News-Sentinel. “It makes us think this is a problem, and it’s not something good for our community to have. When people go to a facility to jump out of a plane and it’s in the state of California, they should be able to have a reasonable expectation that it’s a well-regulated agency that is following the law.”