[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

Several decades ago a man set off dynamite to remove a tree stump, but also posted warning signs in that area beforehand. A few miles away a farmer was milking a cow, but the guy who was going to blast did not post signs that far away. The cow was frightened by the noise and kicked the farmer, causing an injury. The farmer sued the guy who blasted, but the judge ruled he could not have foreseen that the cow would react in that way. The cow incident was in the US, the climate protest was in the UK, and I don't know if the climate protesters posted warnings. A key difference is that the climate protesters intended to disrupt traffic. Local laws might make a difference.

[Eleutheria5]

The cow incident was judged by Common Law doctrine of foreseeability, articulated in an old NY Court of Appeals case, Palsgraf vs. Long Island Railroad, 248 NY 339, decided in 1928. I don’t know if the cow and the dynamite was in New York, but that local high court ruling has been used as precedent in multiple jurisdictions for nearly a century.