Family outings and friendly gatherings at the local sled hill are no more thanks to human stupidity, frivolous lawsuits, and fearful city councils. According to ABC News, more and more towns throughout the American Midwest are banning or limiting sledding activities.
A study by Columbus, Ohio-based Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that between 1997 and 2007, more than 20,000 children each year were treated at emergency rooms for sledding-related injuries.
In meetings leading up to the ban, Dubuque council members lamented the move but said it was the only responsible choice given liability concerns and demands from the city’s insurance carrier. They pointed to judgments in sledding lawsuits in the past decade, such as a $2 million judgment against Omaha, Nebraska, after a 5-year-old girl was paralyzed when she hit a tree and a $2.75 million payment when a man in Sioux City, Iowa, slid into a sign and injured his spinal cord.
Years from now, you’ll sit down with your children to watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation for the first time as a family. Everyone will laugh on cue, and you’ll beam with pride. But when Clark Griswold flies across the screen aboard his uber-waxed sled, your offspring will turn to you and ask, “What’s he doing?” With defiance, you’ll answer, “Breaking the law, kids. Breaking the law.”
Via ABC News