What do kids (and even some adults) love to do on snow days? Build snowmen, make snow angels, go sledding down a freshly powdered hill...
Soon enough, sledding won’t be an option.
Last night on The Kelly File, talk show host Megyn Kelly reported that more and more towns and cities across the U.S. are banning sledding due to liability concerns.
“Thanks lawyers!” Kelly joked, a former law practitioner herself.
Dubuque, Ia. is one of the most recent cases, outlawing the activity in all but two of its 50 public parks.
The towns of Dubuque stated that issuing such a comprehensive ban was the only responsible choice given the liability concerns, Kelly noted.
“We have all kinds of parks that have hills on them,” said Marie Ware, Dubuque’s leisure services manager. “We can’t manage the risk at all of those places.”
Dubuque had also referenced a couple of judgments in sledding lawsuits, one of which involved a $2 million judgment against Omaha, Nebr. after a 5-year-old girl was paralyzed when she slid into a tree.
Some cities—including Des Moines, Ia., Montville, N.J., Lincoln, Nebr., and Columbia City, Ind.—have opted to prohibit sledding on certain slopes or areas as opposed to implementing an all-out ban, reported Fox News.
“By banning sledding on certain slopes or posting signs warning people to sled at their own risk, cities lessen their liability if someone gets seriously hurt,” Fox News said, “but they’re still more vulnerable to lawsuits than if they had adopted an outright ban.”
Kelly commented that such bans make sure “that winter fun doesn’t involve anything more dangerous than perhaps pressing your nose against a chilly window pane.”
“The ban’s not gonna change anything,” personal injury attorney Mark Eiglarsh said. “People are still gonna sled.”
Criminal defense attorney Mercedes Colwin chimed in,
“It boils down to those lawyers suing.”
“If you look at these injuries, it’s unbelievably staggering. 20,000 kids get hurt a year, and out of the those are traumatic brain injuries, fractures, permanent disabilities… Why are we even risking this at all?”
“It’s a miracle we’ve lived to be as old as we are,” Kelly quipped.
“If we’re gonna ban everything that’s bad for us or for our kids, let’s get rid of hot dogs, let’s get rid of mozzarella sticks, no more swimming in the ocean. The list could go on.”
Watch the rest of the segment above.