Sledging bans - coming to a town near you?

[x SF med]

Blood at the end of the day was a requirement when we went out to play... rock fights, falling out of trees, wrestling, tackle football without pads and other more dangerous stuff....

[Rumblyguts]

"Mom, glad you weren't there today" was a common phrase after I came back from sledding with a limp. Every good sledding hill needs a tree to avoid, erm to test your steering skills.

Took the kids to the local sledding hill yesterday. Super fast, and it doesn't have a smooth transition from the hill to the run-out area. Many sleds nosed-into the snow resulting in hats one way, sleds the other, and stunned kids cartwheeling with the WTF just happend look, followed shortly thereafter by them charging right back up the hill. :

IN theory, couldn't the city be open for lawsuit for not choosing a "safe" hill with a propper run-out?

I also wonder about rural vs. urban thought prcesses as well.

[I am Al]

Originally Posted by Rumblyguts

"
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IN theory, couldn't the city be open for lawsuit for not choosing a "safe" hill with a propper run-out?

I also wonder about rural vs. urban thought prcesses as well.

If you go back the original article that was on the BBC website, I think there's a flaw in the article. IMO, it's misquoting a Nebraska case (happened where I live) to make it sound like the city got sued because some kid randomly got hurt sledding.

In Omaha anyway, that wasn't the case. There's a well known sledding hill at a large city park here. The hill is maybe 1/3 to 1/2 mile long. You can really get some speed up on the hill.

The "Reader's Digest" version is someone in the Park and Rec department of the city wanted to plant trees on the run out of this sledding hill. The city had comments from both citizens and professionals that said if they planted trees, someone was going to get hurt. Someone in the city decided "We don't care. Nobody's going to tell us what to do. Plant the trees anyway." They did. A kid hit one of the trees and was paralyzed.

The parents of the paralyzed kid sued for negligence to cover medical expenses and won. They won in the initial trial and at every appeal. All the way to the State Supreme Court. IIRC, NE has a max damage limitation for cities of $2 million. That's what the city got sued for. That's what the city lost.

I'm not an attorney (maybe one of the attorneys here can comment), but I'm pretty sure you could take sledding out of this altogether. The city had information if they did something, there was a probability someone would get badly hurt. The city said they didn't care and did it anyway. Someone was paralyzed because of the city's actions. The paralyzed person sued for negligence and won.

The article said it was about sledding. Sledding was incidental to the whole deal. It was about negligence.

[MR2]

Originally Posted by Rumblyguts

I also wonder about rural vs. urban thought prcesses as well.

Stairs?

[Sdiver]

Originally Posted by MR2

Stairs?

Already been done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4KUF4klKrU

[Rumblyguts]

re: the gross negligence/planting trees,
Even though the city planted the tree, at a known sledding hill, I still think it falls in the gray area of "tough luck" for the child. Also, the parent should take some responsibility for letting their kid sled there in the first place. The rec hill here in town that I mentioned was recently created. Perhaps the county is off the hook since this lack of transition was not previously known; perhaps the hill will be changed; perhaps there's a different mentality here?

Originally Posted by MR2

Stairs?

Nah,

Was stereotyping and going trying o think broader about "rurals" more accepting of bumps and bruises vs. "urban folks" who need padding and contracts for everything.

This is something that's been noticed where I work. Rural kids tend to be more at home and safer in the woods, while "urban" kids tend to be like crazed monsters in the woods - they haven't learned "hard knock" lessons. Also noted when giving the bowsaws Unstructured vs. structured; let them loose vs. helicopter parents; risk taking vs. risk adverse; lack of risk-taking showing up later in life, etc. Eh, I'm rambling. I'll never forget going past a sledding hill in suburbia where they were handing out helmets on a wide open slope.