Exercising Land Rights vs Snowmobiling Accident

[JohnMiller3]

12/30/2002 5:59 AM
By: Capital News 9 web staff

One teen is killed and another injured after a late night snowmobiling accident in Rensselaer County.

Authorities say the accident happened near Lindeman Rd in the Town of West Sand Lake around 10 PM last night.

Two teens, who's names are not being released were involved in the crash. A 17- year-old male was killed, and a 15 year old girl suffered injuries, no word this morning on how serious her injuries are.

Police say the two ran into a cable that was strung across the trail.

~~~from the web~~~

What do you think? [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[RichZ]

John, I think that cable trick is pretty sick. If I wanted to keep snowmobilers off a trail on my property, I'd put up a VISIBLE fence or barricade. I may not like trespassers, but I sure wouldn't try to kill them!!

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Rich,

I think you might be assuming a lot here. I didn't get from the article that the cable was there with the express intent of harming anyone. What I did get was that it was 10 PM, which probably means it was pretty dark out there. As far as what we know from the article, it could have been on the snowmobilers' property or public land.

While I certainly sympathize with the families here, I'd just hate to think this tragedy was the result of an intentional act. I just don't want to be quite so quick to indict without knowing a lot more about this. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[RichZ]

You may be right Gary, as I haven't seen the article. I was just assuming based on John's post. And you know what happens when you assume.[img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]

[Gatorboy]

I have two posts with a cable across my stream crossing to the main portion of my property. It has a sign hanging on it that should be visible during the day, or at night with headlights shining on it.

This is to prevent people from just driving up onto my land and vandalizing my equipment -- it is not intended to hurt anyone.

[RichZ]

Dave, I think your cable is very visible, but as I said before, I guess I got the wrong idea from John's original post.

Sorry!![img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]

[dummy]

With everyone so sue happy, would adding some flagging tape to either side of the sign be out of the question? Wouldn't hurt to increase the nighttime visibility and that stuff is cheap.

[wingnut]

<font color="blue"> Wouldn't hurt to increase the nighttime visibility and that stuff is cheap. </font color>
based on the lastest accident (that I'm aware of) here in Michigan .... wouldn't help either.
Case # 1 ... local guy killed last weekend in a snowmobiling accident ... ran into a dock in the dark ... alcohol and excessive speed involved.
Case #2 ... 3 different accidents where guys ran off the trail and ran into trees .... alcohol and high speed involved.
Case # 3 ... several snowmobilers have gone thru the ice, in at least one case ... high speed and alcohol.

key words: alcohol speed .... and in my totally non-pc opinion .... a total lack of common sense (or brains of any kind!)

kleig lights won't help in these cases! And there's very few of the cases that started this thread ... which is why it's news.

pete

[dummy]

Definitely don't disagree with what you guys are saying. You just never know which way the lawyers, judges and INSURANCE companies are going to view the different scenarios. A lot of times my views and opinions are biased towards the outdated ways of doing things (personal responsibility, asking permission, respecting other peoples property, etc).

[earthmother]

I would think the land owner is libel for the death of those kids. Even if the cable was not intentionally placed to hurt anyone, the court may see it that a "prudent person" could assume that a cable across a right of way or trail, can be injurious. Just like if someone falls on your property. You may not have known that there was a crack in the walkway (or whatever) and you didn't mean to injure someone, but it happened. You are libel. That's why we have homeowner's insurance. Although that landowner may not have put that cable up to actually hurt someone, by putting it up, there is always that potential, especially because the landowner would have had to place the cable low in order for the snowmobiles to run into it, and did not make it visible. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]