ASSEMBLY, No. 2059

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED JUNE 3, 1996

By Assemblymen CORODEMUS and T. SMITH

An Act concerning the adoption of amendments to the electrical subcode and supplementing P.L.1975, c.217 (C.52:27D-119 et seq.).

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. The Commissioner of Community Affairs, in consultation with the code advisory board, shall adopt a rule or regulation that requires the owner or operator of any commercial spa, hot tub, whirlpool bath or similar unit to provide, in close proximity to the unit, a cutoff switch that will immediately disconnect power from the unit's motor for the purpose of deactivating its recirculation system. The rule or regulation shall also require the posting of a sign on the unit indicating the location of the cutoff switch. These requirements shall apply to units installed before, on and after the effective date of this act.

    2. This act shall take effect on the first day of the fifth month after enactment, except that upon enactment the commissioner may take such anticipatory administrative action in advance as shall be necessary for the implementation of this act.

STATEMENT

    This bill is a response to the tragic accident on May 25, 1996, in which a New Jersey high school student, Tanya Nickens, was accidentally drowned at the bottom of a commercial hot tub during a post-prom party, as a result of having been pinned by pressure to a water intake duct with a broken covering. It was reported that the emergency cutoff switch for the hot tub's motor, which created the pressure on the grate, was in the basement of the facility and may not have been easily located.

    This bill would direct the Commissioner of Community Affairs to adopt a rule or regulation as an amendment to the electrical subcode that would require all existing and future hot tubs and similar units to provide for a readily accessible disconnect switch that would enable rescuers to immediately turn off the unit's recirculation system in the event of a recurrence of such an accident. Also, a sign on the tub would direct rescuers to the site of the cutoff switch.

Directs Commissioner of Community Affairs to require readily accessible safety cutoff switches on commercial hot tubs, spas and similar units.