§ 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.