Insurance and Liability

A (not so) short bit of info from Who Skates? about insurance and liability and why using that to not build a skatepark should be a non-issue. Snipped from the Skatepark.org forum:

I agree ... regarding the fence creating more of a hazard. In Massachusetts a kid climbed an 8' fence to skate a park (after hours) only to break his leg inside the locked fence. The fence, like many others, did nothing to stop this kid from climbing it to skate nor would a supervisor have prevented the injury. Kids can scale an 8'er as easily as a 4'er and the only difference being the danger of the climb. And, of course, the perception by the kids that they are criminals."

The real question, however, is what other uses of public land are locked, require pads and helmets, waivers and a fee? Not playgrounds where very young kids can EASILY fall 6 feet or more. Not ball fields, walking paths which may be situated adjacent to rivers or steep embankments and not even bike paths where motorists whiz by only inches from riders. Kids are not required to wear helmets let alone sign in to Town hall to ride their bikes on publicly-improved and funded paths and they certainly aren't fenced and monitored. The irony is that all of this bureaucracy not only fails to keep our kids safe it actually INCREASES the municipality's liability..."

So, my questions to every city attorney and fear-teacher who wants skaters treated like criminals-in-the-making;

A.) Please cite specific examples of any other use within the municipality with such strict rules and safety requirements and please cite examples where these measures have had a statistically positive impact.

B.) Has the municipality ever had any calls for an ambulance at any other sporting field or public place. This would be important to prove that although most cities receive daily or weekly calls for the ambulance there are no similar rules or supervision in place which would have prevented that injury.

C.) Has the municipality EVER had a claim of negligence brought against them by a participant in any other sport.

D.) Please give a statistical reason for such rules. The reason should not be based on speculation or conjecture and should be backed by statistical data showing children are at an elevated risk of harm if these measures are not in place.

E.) Please provide detailed analysis showing that a paid supervisor, generally an untrained teen or young intern, will keep kids from injuring themselves or others. We all know teens do NOT react well to peer supervision and history has shown us that the pad nanny will actually increase tension and problems at the park. History has shown that when a pad nanny is at a skatepark they spend all of their time on their cel phone or reading, NOT watching the kids. Further, the nanny is not going to run out and catch a kid who is in the process of falling.

F.) Statistically, skate injuries come in the form of broken wrists and arms, sprained ankles and bloodied faces (chins, noses, teeth) none of which are a common source of litigation. Because skate injuries are generally self-inflicted it is all but impossible to prove negligence on the part of the municipality in an injury claim.

G.) The aforementioned list of common injuries suffered by skaters is NOT preventable by pads or a pad nanny. No fence, supervision or rules are going to stop kids from rolling their ankles, breaking their wrists (statistics show that wrist guards cause breaks of the Radius and Ulna) on a little tiny 2-set or landing on the tail of their board and breaking a tooth. Parents need to raise their children, even the stupid ones, and leave the Cities to the task of balancing their budgets.

We built parks in Yonkers, Saugerties, Queens and the Bronx in 2010 and NONE of those parks have pad rules or nannies. Saugerties and Yonkers have small ornamental fences and are closed during the winter and Yonkers is locked at night. The NYC parks are wide open, 24 hours a day and have no rules... I think if the inner-city skaters can handle it the 'burbs should be pretty safe...

Over and out...