It seems not a day go by these days where I don't read or hear on the news about something that has happened in this great land of ours & I start shaking my head!
It seems that some of the people we have chosen as leaders, policy makers, judges & magistrates & so forth have gone stark raving bonkers. I understand that its hard to please all the people all the time but some of the things that go on these days are almost beyond description.
Today I read about an Australian woman who sued a Taxi Driver. A very brief summary of the case goes like this. The woman & her Husband head out for a night out with friends. Everyone is drinking & having a good time. The wife goes home early but the husband continues on with the friends and in doing so becomes well intoxicated. His friends call a taxi & give his home address to the taxi driver & off they head. Some time later, the taxi driver who is having trouble locating the home of the drunk man, stops near to the mans home, where the man gets out (obviously a fare is exchaned) & the taxi driver is on his way, having done the best he can do. The intoxicated man then tries to cross a road in his endeavour to get home & is run down and killed.
The court hears the case & the presiding judge awards against the taxi driver for $750,000 to the wife of the deceased.
I accept that there is obviously plenty of other evidence that hasnt been conveyed through this post, nor perhaps through the media but since when did a taxi driver become a baby sitter. At what point do we actually become responsible for our own actions? Who poured the alcohol down the throat of this poor man, my guess is his intoxification was self administered? Theres a squillion and one questions that I would like to know the answers to regarding this case but on the outset, the decision seems absolutely stupid.
Interestingly, in some states its actually against the law for a taxi driver to convey an intoxicated person (I know, go figure) & I'm wondering if one of those sort of stupid laws worked against the taxi driver in this court decision.
Anyway, isnt it about time people started taking responsibility for their own actions and stop trying to blame everyone else. I've got a sore finger from typing on this forum, should I a.) Take a rest for a while, OR b.)Do irreversable damage to the finger by continuing on with reckless writing then sue the forum owner ?
I basically started with that grey nomads story on camping in Tassie & then something else and then that one above & thats what got me going.
My point being, whether its about Caravanners stopping overnight somewhere or High court judges making multi-million dollar payouts for people stubbing their toes, there just seems no end to it all.
I guess also, each and everyone of us needs to be more careful as we move about. Perhaps someone trips over one of your annex guidelines & takes you to court over it. Thats probably already happened.
And this definitely has a huge relevance with all aspects of life, including travelling, I'm always making comments to my wife, Last time we were here we could do this but now rules are against it. And I've seen this in many different places.. They put a lot of these rules in place, not with the sole purpose of peoples protection, But because there is so many people not willing to take responsibility for there own actions...
I think you are right Gubby, theres always the people that are out there spoiling it for the others, but seriously, we are not children & I take exception to being treated like one.
I always thought that if you did something wrong, you could be caught and punished for it. These days, somebody does something wrong & the rest of us are punished for it. Now I don't know about the taxi driver, I doubt very much he had a lazy 3/4's of a million laying around, so I assume that his insurance company will cough up OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. As these stupid decisions are being made we are all paying for it thru higher insurance premiums.
We live in an over-governed country because of the idiots who have gone before us. We can't protect people from themselves. The duty-of-care thing works all ways. We have to take a duty of care to protect ourselves. Business operators have to take duty of care to protect themselves, employees and customers. It applies to everything, everywhere at all times. Changing laws and imposing more limitations will not protect us from the idiots, nor the idiots from themselves. Then the innocent become victims of these idiots. It may not be you who caused the car crash, but you become the victim of the other idiot. It's not just against the law to drink and drive IF you get caught. It's against the law to drive drunk. The trend to blame someone for our misfortunes has come from the good old U S of A, again. Once upon a time, if we fell on the footpath we picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off, smirked with embarrassment and walked away. Now we sue the council for putting the footpath in the way of our clumsy feet, or something like that. It's a crazy, crazy world.
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20ft Roma caravan - Mercedes Benz Sprinter - SA-based at the moment. Transport has no borders.
Management makes the decisions, but is not affected by the decisions it makes.
1. Man sues McDonalds for being obesse, "He eats there every day for years and "blames" them for geting fat and obesse" Wins the case?
2. Man sues Winnegago for NOT telling him he cannot go and make a cup of coffee in his motorhome while it is travelling at 50mph on a motorway in cruisecontrol? Wins his case.
3. Kid sues her parents for "poor parental control?" Wins the case
And yes, I am positive that if someone tripped over your annex/tent guide rope in the middle of the night, they would sue you and win. Even if they where drunk.
The most disgusting one I have heard of was here in Hobart when a "lawyer" pleaded at his clients request that the victim he killed, deserved it because when he went to pick her up at the hotel, she went with him?
Please, don't get me started on the sentencing that the courts are handing out.
You can't always sue if you fall over on council pavement. About 18 months ago I flew through the air after catching my toe on a raised crack in the pavement. I broke my left arm in 2 places upon landing some metres away, and am sure did some damage to my right arm as still suffering with both arms. Council was notified and kept in touch to see how I was. So I asked as had been told I should be able to get something out of them for pain and suffering. They said they had sent someout out to the spot the next day and pavement was so smooth they couldn't tell where I had fallen. I didn't take it any further as didn't see the point but they did say if they can tell they had some responsibility in causing the accident they will pay damages.
2. Man sues Winnegago for NOT telling him he cannot go and make a cup of coffee in his motorhome while it is travelling at 50mph on a motorway in cruisecontrol? Wins his case.
Come on !!!!! this has to be in the Urban Legend category.
2. Man sues Winnegago for NOT telling him he cannot go and make a cup of coffee in his motorhome while it is travelling at 50mph on a motorway in cruisecontrol? Wins his case.
Come on !!!!! this has to be in the Urban Legend category.
Mike
Yep just been checking this out.
It's been doing the rounds since the Seventies. Different sex, names, nationalities, added to fit the story to the time and place
Agree 100% Jack . And there's plenty of relevance for caravaners . It's happening in all walks of life , and we are not immune .
The case a few years ago now , when a bloke , full of alcohol and drugs went surfing at Bondi at around 3am , got dumped by a wave , and ended up in a wheelchair . Got a huge payout .
Apparantely the council should have had somebody there ( at 3am ) to stop him going in the water .
Bloody ridiculous !
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Nappies and Politicians should be changed often . For the same reason .
2. Man sues Winnegago for NOT telling him he cannot go and make a cup of coffee in his motorhome while it is travelling at 50mph on a motorway in cruisecontrol? Wins his case.
Come on !!!!! this has to be in the Urban Legend category.
Mike
Sorry about that, Mike.
I have known this "urban legend" for years and it sounded just like what the "yanks" would do.
But yes, I have now "Googled" it and it is a urban legend.
But, in looking it up I found out there is a book about ridiculous law suits.
You can't always sue if you fall over on council pavement. About 18 months ago I flew through the air after catching my toe on a raised crack in the pavement. I broke my left arm in 2 places upon landing some metres away, and am sure did some damage to my right arm as still suffering with both arms. Council was notified and kept in touch to see how I was. So I asked as had been told I should be able to get something out of them for pain and suffering. They said they had sent someout out to the spot the next day and pavement was so smooth they couldn't tell where I had fallen. I didn't take it any further as didn't see the point but they did say if they can tell they had some responsibility in causing the accident they will pay damages.
Sometime ago Councils were advised by the dept of local govt to complete full risk assessments of their assets to determine the accident potential . In particular footpaths came into focus so they wrote policy to declare that unless their was a level differential of more than 20 mm in the surfaces then there was no trip of fall hazard . Similar to road work signage at work sites that's why you see them accurately pre-measuring the distance and marking where the various signs are to be place . There was a mega $ case involving a NSW Council where it was proven that the sign was 3 meters short of where the rules required hence the judge found it contributed to the accident, regardless of the fact that the driver was exceeding the speed in a restricted zone and driving a defective vehicle (Bald Tyres) They say use common sense but if it was that common everyone would have it and as shown very little seems to be out there
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Pets are welcome but children must be leashed at all times
Coles/Wesfarmers paid me compensation for injury sustained when one of the young staff accidentally slammed one of the large cage trolleys into my ankle, because, as he said "I backed into him". He just wasn't watching where he was going, and when I took half a step backwards, he moved the trolley toward me. He was so close behind me I didn't even know he was there. The bruising took 6 weeks to go away, by which time the cheque arrived. Not a huge amount, but it would have covered the doc and the xray. It always pays to speak up. It's in your best interest to speak up, at least to report an anomaly, even if nothing comes of it.
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20ft Roma caravan - Mercedes Benz Sprinter - SA-based at the moment. Transport has no borders.
Management makes the decisions, but is not affected by the decisions it makes.
Amen to all that.
Sorry about that, Mike.
Dusty
