Who Is To Blame?

[cabinetman]

Teenage girl falls into open manhole while texting.
.

[crokett]

She is to blame but unfortunately she will probably win a settlement since there apparently were no cones or anything.

[Thalermade]

She will probably want to go after the cell phone manufacturer for not having a warning label on the phone.........................and what the heck might as well include the service provider for not providing a warning.............she might even want to report her parents for child endangerment, as they apparently did not protect her well enough.......

sheesh, what's next? - no, I don't think I want to know
Russ

[cgallery]

The teenage girl.

And BTW, on a recent trip from Milwaukee to Madison (WI), I noticed no fewer than three people (there and back) that were TWD (Texting While Driving).

Something has to be done about this. My first thought was disabling texting if the phone knows it is moving at speeds above walking. But that would disable texting for passengers, too. But I'm almost willing to mandate that if this is what it takes to get people to pay attention to the road.

[dbhost]

The teen girl is responsible for her own actions.

As far as TWD goes. I tend to notice them while next to them and hit the horn kind of long... Works much better in the truck than the Saturn... Stupid puny horn.

Anyway it gets their attention at least for a second...

I had a former boss that would text on his Blackberry while driving.

He rear ended another truck on Houston beltway 8 with me in the truck...

I insisted on taking my own personal vehicle since that incident.

[Mr__Bill]

I think there is a shared responsibility here. Just stop and think, the last time you stepped in a fresh pile of dog turd, did you say 'my bad should have been watching where my feet were stepping' or did you curse the dog and it's owner for leaving the mess for you to step in? In the news article on this the utility workers pried up the cover and set it off to the side and went to get the cones. The twit happened along and stepped in. Any normal person walking would have seen the activity ahead and avoided the hole. It seems that all the other pedestrians did do that. However we expect the sidewalk to be there, the workers should have had the cones ready before lifting the cover. I would say 70% the girl, 20% the workers. What happened to the other 10%? That goes to the parents for having raised such a twit.

Perhaps I am overly sympathetic having once walked into a light pole while talking to a friend, in person and not on the phone. (I don't count the times I turned to watch the pretty girl and walked into something )


Bill, and yes, he saw the pole coming, said nothing and laughed like.....

[DaveS]

I walked into a sign post one time while trying to walk and read a map. I could have just as easily fell into a manhole.

This isn't just a "texting" problem.

[LinuxRandal]

Bill, I don't think the dog turd argument is the best one. I have no dog, and responsible owners, don't let their pets run free (can't help escape attempts).

The crew already admitted that they were going to get the cones, and left the manhole unattended. I think the cities lawyers aren't happy with them (based on my experience being hit by a city vehicle).
That ISN'T to say, as either the discretion of the Judge (yeah, right) or the Jury (it will be a Jury case), couldn't/shouldn't split the blame between the city/girl and her parents (slap them upside the head). In my view, the city (from the tv spot I saw) should pay the medical expenses, and that is it. The girl will have to replace her shoes and anything else she damaged (phone, I hope) and her parents will have to cover their own legal expenses.

[tfischer]

Yes people should watch where they are walking, but also people should have the right to expect that giant holes not be in the sidewalk. So while it's in vogue to blame teens and texting (which I hate), I think it's at least partially not her fault.

If you were driving, looked down to adjust the stereo, and suddenly found yourself driving into the river because the swing bridge was open without any warning signals or barricades, is it your fault for not paying attention, or should the signals have warned you?

[pelligrini]

I agree with the last few posts, it's not totally the girls fault, but she does bear the majority. If there is a suit the city shouldn't pay for anything above medical expenses.

What if it was someone with a vision impairment, would "Why weren't you watching where you were going?" be a valid argument?

[DaveS]

What if it was someone with a vision impairment, would "Why weren't you watching where you were going?" be a valid argument?

Only if the seeing eye dog was texting....

[Pappy]

Got to side with the girl on this one. Yes, she is an idiot and should have been paying attention, but city workers created an abnormal hazard that was left unmarked and unattended.

The examples were given of a mother with a stroller or an elderly person. What if it had been a blind person? Thier cane sweeping the area in front of them would have hit a safety cone but could easily have missed the open manhole.

[Thalermade]

Guess I will be the PIA on this one.

Two wrongs don't make it right.

City workers screwed up - City pays for medical - no problem.

Girl screws up- she ain't "entitled" to anything extra. She can foot the bill for the new phone, shoes and clothes.

If either one doesn't screw up, no problem?

The odds are the folks with disabilities would be more aware, just because they have to be and are used to living that way.

Russ

[dbhost]

Got to side with the girl on this one. Yes, she is an idiot and should have been paying attention, but city workers created an abnormal hazard that was left unmarked and unattended.

The examples were given of a mother with a stroller or an elderly person. What if it had been a blind person? Thier cane sweeping the area in front of them would have hit a safety cone but could easily have missed the open manhole.

Having several blind friends, I can tell you what they say about the situation... Which is the Girl's an idiot. There is no WAY the cane would have missed an open manhole.

Yes city workers created an abnormal situation, but the again, what if for example she had stepped out into traffic from between a couple of cars and been struck, would it be the drivers fault?

If there is ANY shared responsibility here, it would be something like 85% the girl's fault, 5% the city crew for not having barricades or cones around the open hole, and 10% for those miserable excuses for parents raising such an inattentive child.

Case in point. Back when I was early on in puberty and noticing girls, I lived in a college town, and had a paper route that served "Greek Row".

Early one monday morning when running my paper route, I was tossing papers when a particularly attractive red head coed hit the sidewalk next to and in front of me and started jogging. To say the least I was young, full of testosterone, and, well paying attention where I shouldn't have while operating a bicycle.

Long story short I KNOW that V.W. Microbus was there. It was lime green and BIG for Pete's sake. So how on earth you might ask could a 13 year old boy run smooth into the back end of the parked van?

Yeah you read that right, I ran smooth into the back of the old VW bus. No damage to the van, or my bike, and thankfully due to the big bag of papers on my shoulders, very minimal damage to me other than pride...

By the way, Chellie was a very nice young lady and stopped to see if I was okay. I seem to recall probably coming across like I'd just had a stroke because I couldn't talk...

She's probably a grandmother by now...

So that begs the question. Was the bike wreck my fault, Chellie's for being so attractive, the frat boy that parked his van on the street, the city for allowing on street parking, the university or??? I think it was MY fault for being young and stupid.

[cwsmith]

Unquestionably, IMHO... it's the city's fault! While we might consider the girl to be an irresponsible idiot has very little to do with a dangerous situation created by those workers. One simply does NOT open a manhole cover and leave it open with no barriers, warnings cones, or whatever.

What if you were playing ball in the lot facing that sidewalk and you backed up to catch a fly? Or, a bunch of little kids were playing in the area, or a kid was riding down the sidewalk on his bike, or the manhole was in the street and a driver damaged their car by driving into it? All kinds of scenarios come to mind and that is the reason why any obstacle or danger presented along a public conveyance must be properly guarded.

Personally this whole cell phone talking/texting thing drives me crazy and if I were King, I'd apply technology to render any such device useless while it was in motion... but that said, it does not allow for others to do less than necessary to protect the public from hazards.

For what it's worth,

CWS