N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law § 37.09: Protection of aerial performers from accidental falls

§ 37.09. Protection of aerial performers from accidental falls. 1. No

person shall participate in any public performance or exhibition on a

trapeze, tightrope, wire, rings, ropes, poles, or other aerial apparatus

which requires skill, timing or balance and which creates a substantial

risk to himself or others of serious injury from falling, unless there

shall be provided for such performance a safety belt, life-net, or other

safety device of similar purpose suitably constructed and placed to

arrest or cushion his fall and minimize the risk of such injury. No

owner, agent, lessee, manager or other person in charge of a circus,

carnival, fair, theatre, moving-picture house, public hall, or other

public place of assembly, resort or amusement, shall permit any person

to take part in a performance specified herein without providing such

safety device. Any such aerial performance or exhibition without such

safety device in which the height of possible fall is more than twenty

feet, shall be presumed to create a substantial risk of serious injury.

2. The commissioner of labor may make rules supplementary to this

section designating safety devices of an approved type, strength and

location and otherwise effectuating the purposes hereof. The

commissioner may also grant variations pursuant to the provisions of

section thirty of the labor law. Violations of this section shall be

punishable as provided in section two hundred thirteen of the labor law

for violations thereunder.

3. In acting upon an application for a variation, the board may take

into consideration the availability, in whole or part, of practicable

safety devices for a particular type of performance or exhibition and

the history and nature of the accidents incurred in such performance or

exhibition. The provisions of subdivision one of this section and the

rules of the board issued pursuant to this section shall be inapplicable

to any performance or exhibition concerning which a variation has been

issued to the extent specified in such variation.