Posted on 01/06/2015 8:07:37 AM PST by Olog-hai
As anyone who has grown up around snow knows, part of the fun of sledding is the risk of soaring off a jump or careening around a tree.
But faced with the potential bill from sledding injuries, some cities have opted to close hills rather than risk large liability claims.
No one tracks how many cities have banned or limited sledding, but the list grows every year. One of the latest is in Dubuque, Iowa, where the City Council is moving ahead with a plan to ban sledding in all but two of its 50 parks. […]
A study by Columbus, Ohio-based Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that between 1997 and 2007, more than 20,000 children each year were treated at emergency rooms for sledding-related injuries. …
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
Good lord we had no snow but flexis back in the 60’s yeah we got hurt parents paid to patch us up
“Fundamentally Changed America”. PC along with an unfettered legal system is killing a great nation.
I broke an arm sledding, by skidding out of control and hitting a tree. It wasn’t a tree on our lot, it was on a neighbor’s lot.
Did we sue? What? What’s suing?
We don’t need more liability plans, we need a change of heart in our populace. And to enforce that, we need judges with common sense.
Moving targets.
SWAT teams are smiling.
Life is just too dangerous to be lived.
I heard there is a smart phone app which allows you to do virtual sledding. Sounds like we are supposed to encourage kids to play yet Another video game rather than play in actual snow. Gees Louise.
When will they ban cars? About 100 people a day are killed in car accidents in this country. If the criteria here are that someone could get killed or injured by some activity, driving cars should be an activity which needs to be banned. Based on this reasoning that is.
I would not blame the cities for this one if they are getting hit with multi-million dollar liability claims. I’d blame the legislators and attorneys who set up the system to allow multi-million dollar claims. And I’d blame the parents who can’t accept that getting injured is a part of childhood that should not result in some type of jackpot payout. Everyone is looking for an easy payday, unfortunately.
But faced with the potential bill from sledding injuries”
Can’t we just eliminate all the Lawyers instead?? Or tax them at 110% of their Gross Revenue?
You can’t sled because you “might get hurt!”
But people can still ride motorcycles without helmets.
Government requiring us to do these “safety” things is ridiculous. We are each responsible for our own actions and the consequences thereof.
In junior high, we lived just above Chicago. Worst ice storm in 50 years...you could literally ice skate on the grass. Sledding on the old two-rail American Flyer was at blistering speeds.
Across the street from our house, there was a school and a long slope with a sidewalk running down the slope. You could sled down the sidewalk, cross the street, and continue another 2 blocks or so. Unfortunately there was a blue mailbox at the bottom of the school property. I found it, moving at top speed. Caught the sled steering grip as I went by. Direct impact probably would’ve killed me. My parents couldn’t figure out whether to sue the school or the post office...so they patched me up and sent me back outside with the advice to “try to miss the mailbox next time”.
I miss those days.
Time to outlaw public parks and playgrounds. Liability issues, ya know.
Until last night we haven’t had snow here in mid Indiana.
But over the weekend I did see one guy with an ATV towing another on a lawn chair fitted with wooden slats for skis.
This was on wet grass.
I can expect the impending crash video to go viral, LOL.
We must layer all trees with bubble wrap. Fill in all valleys and low spots. Level all hills and mountains. Then require helmets, eye protection, dust masks and padding at all times (indoors and out) for everybody. Ban all risky activities and behaviors. It’s for the children!
-Or-
Just outlaw lawyers.
As someone who spent his childhood years sledding off of a highway, I can tell you that Flexible Flyers can be steered. Saucers cannot.
Every year, there were injuries, including paralysis as well as broken bones. Every one of them was because some kid got on a saucer, held on for dear life and when approaching an obstacle couldn’t get off in time.
On my sled, I went down head first, screaming with glee at the speed I was getting and when I approached something, I either steered away from it or in worst case, rolled off the sled.
The Snow Wing was my sled of choice. Lower CG like a saucer, but you could steer it.
Young lads who grow-up never having careened out of control on a sled turn out to be Pajama Boy.
I witnessed some saucer and those rolled up plastic slide damage - broken legs.
The worst was a kid on a toboggan slammed a tree- busted face, legs and pelvis.
One of my more "not so bright ideas" was to use the hood of old car as a sled; we would ride it standing up and holding a rope like it was chariot... the cold and snow kept my friend from bleeding too much as we went to the hospital for stitches.
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