Car vs skateboard?

Interesting case on 'Judge Judy' today in which a 15 y.o. child was riding
a skateboard in a parking lot and was hit by a female driver who was on a
cellphone and speeding.

I always thought that such an accident would always be resulted in favor of
the pedestrian, but strangely, the judge said the kid shouldn't have been
riding in a parking lot. No evidence that he was tricking - just riding.

According to the diagrams the kid had a lane and was going through an
intersection when the woman hit him and then claimed he hit her. She sued
for damage to her car.

Fortunately for the kid he had a witness, and got his claim for ER charges.
The woman nothing on her car damage (the windshield was shattered). She had
pictures of the repaired vehicle, with arrows pointing to the side panel,
apparently an afterthought to 'strengthen her case'.

The thing that got me is what if it had been a biker? Why is a skateboard
any different? Some people use these as transportation and IMO, have as
much right to the road as a bike, even if not specifically covered by law
like bikes are.

The only thing that got the kid off the hook for damages is not that the
woman hit -him-, not that she was doing by her own admission 20mph in a
5mph zone, but that the witness had seen her on the cellphone during
driving. The judge didn't like this, but was nowhere near stern enough.

The woman kept claiming that the kid hit her, T-boning her left
quarterpanel, which it may had been, but the witness drew it that she hit
the kid. The angle of hitting the windshield seemed to support the kid
getting clipped near but to the side of the headlight.

The woman tried to lie claiming she got out of the car and then returned to
get the cell out of her purse and call 911. The witness and the kid said
she got out of the car waving the cell and screaming at the kid who was
lying in the road bleeding from roadrash to the side of his head that he'd
damaged her car.

Apparently the Judge doesn't think speeding and breaking the law is worthy
of a fine. In fact in every jurisdiction I've seen, going 15 miles over the
limit is reckless driving.

Amazing how pedestrians, bikers, boarders are relegated to 'second class'
citizen when faced with the almighty automobile!

-B

Badger_South wrote:
Interesting case on 'Judge Judy' today in which a 15 y.o. child was riding
a skateboard in a parking lot and was hit by a female driver who was on a
cellphone and speeding.

I always thought that such an accident would always be resulted in favor
of
the pedestrian, but strangely, the judge said the kid shouldn't have been
riding in a parking lot. No evidence that he was tricking - just riding.

snip

Apparently the Judge doesn't think speeding and breaking the law is worthy
of a fine. In fact in every jurisdiction I've seen, going 15 miles over
the
limit is reckless driving.

Amazing how pedestrians, bikers, boarders are relegated to 'second class'
citizen when faced with the almighty automobile!

Important point of information. Judge Judy is not really a court, but a
civil arbitration. She doesn't have the authority to levee fines or impose
jail sentences. She did everything she could, except write a letter to a
DA.

Austin

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 23:55:31 GMT, "AustinMN" wrote:

Badger_South wrote:
Interesting case on 'Judge Judy' today in which a 15 y.o. child was riding
a skateboard in a parking lot and was hit by a female driver who was on a
cellphone and speeding.

I always thought that such an accident would always be resulted in favor
of
the pedestrian, but strangely, the judge said the kid shouldn't have been
riding in a parking lot. No evidence that he was tricking - just riding.

snip

Apparently the Judge doesn't think speeding and breaking the law is worthy
of a fine. In fact in every jurisdiction I've seen, going 15 miles over
the
limit is reckless driving.

Amazing how pedestrians, bikers, boarders are relegated to 'second class'
citizen when faced with the almighty automobile!

Important point of information. Judge Judy is not really a court, but a
civil arbitration. She doesn't have the authority to levee fines or impose
jail sentences. She did everything she could, except write a letter to a
DA.

Austin

Well she denied the kid money for 'pain and suffering', and said it was b/c
he had no right to ride in a parking lot, which I'd dispute.

Yeah, I know she's not a real court. My commentary was meant to be also
about societal attitudes that seem to favor automobile drives and disfavor
others, I guess.

-B

Badger_South wrote:
|| On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 23:55:31 GMT, "AustinMN"
|| wrote:
||
||| Badger_South wrote:
|||| Interesting case on 'Judge Judy' today in which a 15 y.o. child
|||| was riding a skateboard in a parking lot and was hit by a female
|||| driver who was on a cellphone and speeding.
||||
|||| I always thought that such an accident would always be resulted in
|||| favor of the pedestrian, but strangely, the judge said the kid
|||| shouldn't have been riding in a parking lot. No evidence that he
|||| was tricking - just riding.
|||
||| snip
|||
|||| Apparently the Judge doesn't think speeding and breaking the law
|||| is worthy of a fine. In fact in every jurisdiction I've seen,
|||| going 15 miles over the limit is reckless driving.
||||
|||| Amazing how pedestrians, bikers, boarders are relegated to 'second
|||| class' citizen when faced with the almighty automobile!
|||
||| Important point of information. Judge Judy is not really a court,
||| but a civil arbitration. She doesn't have the authority to levee
||| fines or impose jail sentences. She did everything she could,
||| except write a letter to a DA.
|||
||| Austin
||
|| Well she denied the kid money for 'pain and suffering', and said it
|| was b/c he had no right to ride in a parking lot, which I'd dispute.
||
|| Yeah, I know she's not a real court. My commentary was meant to be
|| also about societal attitudes that seem to favor automobile drives
|| and disfavor others, I guess.

In that case this all makes perfect sense....obviously you know that most
car drivers think the roads and parking lots are just for cars. Anyone else
on anything else ought not to be on the road....Talk about ignorance....

||
|| -B

In article ,
Badger_South writes:

Amazing how pedestrians, bikers, boarders are relegated to 'second class'
citizen when faced with the almighty automobile!

One becomes used to it.

Then comes the angst.


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Some of those TV judges actually seem to understand the law--Judge Judy is
not one of them. She seems to be most interested in forming personal
opinions about the litigants, and then screaming at them.

Badger_South wrote:
snip

Yeah, I know she's not a real court. My commentary was meant to be also
about societal attitudes that seem to favor automobile drives and disfavor
others, I guess.

I understand the overall comment, but I've seen Judge Judy tear new ones for
people who let their dogs chase bikes.

She's not anti-bike, necessarily.

Austin

Mon, 23 Aug 2004 17:32:27 -0700, ,
(Tom Keats) wrote:

Amazing how pedestrians, bikers, boarders are relegated to 'second class'
citizen when faced with the almighty automobile!

One becomes used to it.

Then comes the angst.

.. . .then the powder and then the fuse.
--
zk

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 20:13:27 -0400, Roger Zoul
wrote:


In that case this all makes perfect sense....obviously you know that most
car drivers think the roads and parking lots are just for cars. Anyone
else
on anything else ought not to be on the road....Talk about ignorance....


Quite correct.

Once behind the wheel, car drivers seem to suffer from amnesia regarding
how they got there in the first place...

....Perhaps they stand by the sliding doors of Wal-Mart, concentrate really
hard on the line 'Beam me up, Scottie!" and then, as if by magic, appear
in the seat of their cars?

Because, after all, parking lots are made for cars, are they not?

In that case this all makes perfect sense....obviously you know that most
car drivers think the roads and parking lots are just for cars. Anyone
else
on anything else ought not to be on the road....Talk about ignorance....

||
|| -B



the car, like the NG, or anywhere else one can hide without worrying about
being accoutable for one's actions is a place where people exercise their
alter egos. i cant believe how normally rational people become raging
lunatics when behind the wheel - but this behaviour is sanctioned and
condoned because the car is supreme in our society, we are hopelessly tied
to these infernal machines. now bow to the lords of oil -oh holy trinity
exxon mobil bp!

__o
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