by Kevin M. Wieging, IIPGA Ohio ISR-E

You might think the topics of safety and risk management are boring and, for the most part, they should be. Essentially, excitement within a risk management program means an incident has occurred and needs attention. Incidents are an area of the business few want to address, but it’s important to do so.

Most of us entered the business to have FUN, however, with the state of the insurance industry, we must focus not only on the fun aspects of our industry, but insuring a safe future for everyone. Regardless of business size, number of employees or industry experience, developing an effective risk management program should be an important and ongoing focus to any inflatable rental business.

Although a number of factors influence overall insurance premiums, as an industry, we need to focus on the factors that we control. Writing and implementing an effective risk management program will benefit both your business and the industry as a whole.

Begin by gathering information from your insurance company and/or state regulatory agencies. Also, use the resources of industry trade associations and organizations. Inflatable rental business owners must draft a comprehensive risk management manual to demonstrate and document a program for your business. Depending on the size of your business, you may want to organize a meeting to discuss the prevention of accidents and establish ongoing safety meetings with staff members.

Outline the process by which your business will educate clients on the safe use of inflatable amusement devices. Establish set up and pre opening inspection guidelines. Provide documentation of your risk management program and a process for handling incident and/or accidents in the event of an emergency. By developing an effective risk management program, you can minimize risk for your business.

Most inflatable manufacturers have begun manufacturing games with rules for safe operation and safety warnings posted near the game entrance. Most have also developed manuals and safety guidelines. You may wish to develop and/or purchase additional guidelines and signs indicating the rules to display at the event site.

For our risk management program to comply with Ohio Regulations, documentation of proper set-up and pre-opening inspection paperwork is required. Some companies may allow over-the-counter pickup and return of inflatables, however, we do not. Although we rent basic bounces and crawl-through activity mazes for use at private parties, our staff members deliver, set up and remove the equipment. After the equipment is set up and ready, a brief orientation is provided to the responsible party.

Set-up and pre-opening inspection procedures are documented and clients are required to sign a liability and hold harmless agreement after they receive proper instruction. Rental of larger and/or more complex inflatable and/or interactive event concepts are treated differently and require that our company provide mandatory staffing.

With the May 2004 publication of new ASTM standards pertaining to the safe manufacturing and operation of inflatables, industry standards are now being defined. The outlook for insurance in the future may be improved because of this.

Although we sometimes rely on manufacturers to engineer safety into the design of new games, not all manufacturers are created equal.

Ultimately you are responsible for customer safety. Verifying manufacturer’s product liability insurance, as well as gauging your own likelihood of obtaining insurance on a particular game, are two things that should be considered prior to purchase. Many insurance companies require manufacturer name before offering coverage.

By being proactive, addressing risk management and safety concerns, and collectively working together as an industry to establish safety standards, we can ensure the successful future our industry.