The story isn't exactly crystal clear on what happened. If the kid was riding on the right side of the trail and moving fairly straight, no problem. I have been skating slowly (because I watch out around kids) and all of a sudden the kid turns and blocks the trail while I'm right there. Or, a kid will be off the trail and pull out perpendicular to the trail and stop. There's nothing that I could do but collide with the kid or go off the trail, which sometimes is painful.
The standing object is not always in the right if the object doesn't have the right-of-way.
And if he was swerving crazy like and out of control, you would be just like the woman and yell "Get out of my way" and barrel through?
"The standing object is not always in the right if the object doesn't have the right-of-way."
Would you sue a 7 year old if you slammed him? Whether or not it was his fault?
That's right, and the driver of a vehicle being hit from behind does not always win a lawsuit.
Example: if a driver slams on brakes and stops very suddenly while driving on an interstate and is hit from behind, a jury might find that the driver created a "sudden emergency". It would be unreasonable to expect the second driver to stop just as suddenly.
It's hard to win with this defense, but it can be done. It's usually necessary to show that the plaintiff did not stop suddenly for a good reason (like another car stopped in the road), or in realistic terms, have a plaintiff that the jury hates and is looking for a reason to find against.
When I was a trial lawyer (yes, (hanging head in shame) I used to be a trial lawyer) I won a case where my client hit a lady from behind. I did some checking on her background, found out she had pulled the sudden stop stunt before (and gotten some bucks out of it) and managed to get all that in evidence before the jury.
It helped that she was an obnoxious federal employee.