A bill that aims to protect municipalities from liability claims from recreational activities is awaiting the governor’s signature to become law.

District 24 Senator Jerry Behn says when people get injured from voluntary recreational activities, some have been suing municipalities.   He states that the bill proposes that municipalities are not held liable if someone is injured from a recreational activity where the inherent risks are known.

Behn notes that the bill would allow cities the ability to re-open areas like bike trails and sledding hills that were closed due to liabilities against them.

“Things that were actually designed to encourage a healthy lifestyle and things that people wanted to do, but there were cities shutting them down because they said, we can’t risk the liability issue.  So this has been kind of brewing for a couple of years.  It finally got taken care of.”

Because it started as a House bill and the Senate passed it unanimously, it now requires the governor’s signature before it can become  law.