Insurance Woes Rein In Rodeo at Pierce College

The Pierce College rodeo is the latest victim of the decreasing availability of liability insurance.

The annual rodeo, scheduled for May 9 and 10 at the Woodland Hills campus, has been canceled because its organizers were unable to obtain liability coverage for rodeo participants, rodeo director Ron Wechsler said Monday.

Wechsler, an associate professor of animal science at Pierce, said he was forced to cancel the popular event last week after being informed by the rodeo’s insurance company that it had decided to reduce its coverage.

‘People Are Suit-Crazy’

“We can get spectator insurance, but we can’t get participator insurance,” said Wechsler, the rodeo’s director for the past 16 years. “No one wants to get involved with this type of thing at this time. Too many people are suit-crazy.”

Wechsler said that the rodeo, which is co-sponsored by the Associated Students Organization at Pierce College, has not been sued in its 32-year history.

“It’s a heartbreak to have to postpone it,” he said. “I’m calling it a postponement because we’re looking ahead to next year when the industry recovers from this.”

Facilities Closed

The reluctance of insurance companies to issue liability coverage for sporting events recently has caused the closing of some facilities in the area. At the end of December, the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center in Lake View Terrace stopped renting its 40 horses to the public. The Encino Velodrome, a bicycle-racing track, was closed for all but formal competitions at the same time.

The same problem has affected non-sports facilities as well. For instance, some insurance companies stopped insuring day-care centers in the wake of the McMartin Pre-School case in Manhattan Beach.

The Woodland Hills rodeo, called the Pierce College Roundup, was to have been held in the school’s football stadium. The two-day event, which includes bull riding, calf roping and saddle bronc riding, as well as livestock exhibits, has drawn nearly 10,000 spectators.

Under the insurance coverage offered the rodeo this year, participants would have been provided with medical coverage. But a liability insurance option was deleted from the insurance company’s sports policies earlier this year, said Jerry Ford, vice president of Specialty Programs Insurors of Kansas City, Mo., the insurance agency for the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Assn., the other sponsor of the Pierce College rodeo.

Lawsuit Costs Cited

Ford said the Insurance Co. of North America, which issues the policy, stopped providing liability insurance for sports events because of the high cost of recent lawsuits.

Although the Los Angeles Community College District is self-insured for $50 million, there is a $250,000 deductible, Wechsler said. The Associated Students Organization could not afford to pay that if there were a successful claim, Wechsler said. He was unable to locate an insurance company that would insure the rodeo up to that amount.

Wechsler, who is also director of the West Coast Intercollegiate Rodeo Assn., said Lassen College in Susanville also had to cancel its annual rodeo and that the rodeo at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, is also threatened.

“The sport is innocent. It’s just a shame we got caught up in this,” Wechsler said.