Sledging bans - coming to a town near you?

[space-time]

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-30720801

Children take note. As winter sets in, a growing number of US cities are banning sledging - or sledding, as Americans say - on public property.

The Associated Press reports that municipal officials in places like Iowa, New Jersey, Nebraska and Indiana are worried about lawsuits when children are injured in sledging accidents. They often cite a 2000 incident in which the family of a girl in Omaha, Nebraska, won a $2m (£1.32m) judgement against the city after she was paralysed while sledding in a local park.

[chopper]

Sounds like a total Skut Farcas deal.

[Racer X]

A neighbor child, whose family I was close to, died from a head injury while sledding. I sledded every year on the same hill she crashed on.

I think that if people use snowboarding helmets, or even a bicycle helmet, that sledding should be reasonably safe. Its the closed of roads with hills that have signs, light/power poles, curbs, and fences/rockeries close to the street that are dangerous.

[mattkime]

That was most of my childhood. I agree that a helmet might be a good idea.

....how the heck would you stop kids from sledding??

[Rick-o]

> ...injured in sledging accidents.

Ok, hold it right there, mister! You're in The United States of America now. We DON'T say sledging here!

Got it? :mad2:

[Grateful11]

I've never heard of a sled being called a sledge. So I looked it up and sure enough they are for the most
part the same thing. I've done my share sledding and sledging over the years but my sledge looks like this:



Sledge

noun
1.
a vehicle on runners for conveying loads or passengers especially over snow or ice, often pulled by draft animals.
BRITISH
a small lightweight vehicle, either on runners or having a smooth bottom surface, used for sliding downhill over snow or ice.
verb
verb: sledge; 3rd person present: sledges; past tense: sledged; past participle: sledged; gerund or present participle: sledging
1.
carry (a load or passengers) on a sledge.
"the task of sledging lifeboats across tundra"

[cbelt3]

While children will continue to get injured in various ways, it's a bit in the nature of children and their inquisitive minds and general lack of fear. As a parent, much of my time was spent explaining exactly how I got THAT particular scar, and then quivering in fear as my children did the same dumb stuff. Fortunately not to the extent that I did... only one of them had a single concussion, ever unlike Dad's count of 5 during childhood.

Let's face it, people. This pushback has NOTHING to do with 'protecting the children'. It's all about keeping the bloody lawyers at bay and protecting the bureaucrats as they sit, cackling like hens, on the public coffers. Shakespeare was quite right. Well,,, excepting my mother... but she's not that sort of lawyer.

[Speedy]

Slip, sliding away.

[srf1957]

This politician might vote for a ban.

Local paper

[BernDog]

My sister and I used to go sledging all the time. After all, we're family.

http://youtu.be/oMVe_HcyP9Y