Off-Topic But Funny!

[Parsad]

I'm glad this girl is ok, but I still found it funny.  What's disturbing is that the parent blames the city and not that her daughter was too busy texting to pay attention.  Cheers!

 

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/07/13/wabc.sewerfall.texting.wabc

[bookie71]

It's easier to blame someone else, than to take responsibility for your own actions.  ;D

[nodnub]

When something like that happens in a country where litigation is a favored resolution mechanism, any potential plaintiff will see dollar signs. The mother obviously is posturing to keep her legal options open, regardless of who she truly believes is at fault.

 

This was a screw-up on the part of the workers but I think in many other countries you would be S.O.L. if you fell in an unmarked, open manhole and died.

 

IMO, the fact that she was texting only makes her partly responsible.  Let's be fair, have you ever walked on a sidewalk or around a corner while looking across the street and bumped as a result into a person or a pole.  This happens pretty often.  

 

Would you leave a washed out bridge unmarked and unsigned and blame a driver that died after failing to notice that the bridge was missing?  I think we have an expectation in North America that dangers are mitigated by warnings and flagging and barricades everywhere you go.

[nodnub]

To make myself clear. I generally believe very firmly in personal responsibility. 

 

However, our North American society trains us from a young age to rely on warning signs and safety measures rather than common sense. 

[dual_bid]

Reminds me of a funny story from a great old book (Petzinger's Oil & Honor) on the famous Texas trial lawyer Joe Jamail (relative of the Jumayel Lebanese family, BTW), who once managed to convince a jury that the city of Houston had negligently created an 'optical illusion' by placing a tree in the middle of a boulevard - a tree that happened to get in the path of his client's husband, who was drunk, while he was driving home.