Booker, Menendez call for beach umbrella safety regulations

Sens. Cory Booker and Bob Menendez are calling for greater safety regulations when it comes to beach umbrellas.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission says that 31,000 people nationwide were injured by beach umbrellas over the last nine years. This includes a woman in Virginia Beach who was impaled by a beach umbrella in 2016 and died from her injuries.
Beach umbrella use at the Jersey Shore is common. Many beachgoers simply shove the umbrellas into the sand and then pile on more sand to secure it in place. Others dig holes in the sand first with the help of a shovel.
But many at the Jersey Shore tell News 12 New Jersey that they have experienced mishaps with beach umbrellas.
“These things are like a projectile. They have a spike,” says Barry Prezioso, who says he was hit by a runaway umbrella on a beach in Belmar. “The umbrella outside hit me in the chest as opposed to the spike…I was lucky.”
Rachel Morelli says that her aunt was hit by an umbrella at the beach and had to get stitches.
Booker and Menendez, along with several others lawmakers, have sent a letter to the Consumer Product Safety Commission to call for safety standards and education for users in an effort to limit the number of injuries surrounding beach umbrellas. The lawmakers say that the education may include how to properly secure them in the sand.
Menendez says that he would like to see a response from the Consumer Product Safety Commission by June 3.