Car vs skateboard?

08-23-2004, 03:33 PM

Interesting case on 'Judge Judy' today in which a 15 y.o. child was riding
a skateboard in a parking lot and was hit by a female driver who was on a
cellphone and speeding.

I always thought that such an accident would always be resulted in favor of
the pedestrian, but strangely, the judge said the kid shouldn't have been
riding in a parking lot. No evidence that he was tricking - just riding.

According to the diagrams the kid had a lane and was going through an
intersection when the woman hit him and then claimed he hit her. She sued
for damage to her car.

Fortunately for the kid he had a witness, and got his claim for ER charges.
The woman nothing on her car damage (the windshield was shattered). She had
pictures of the repaired vehicle, with arrows pointing to the side panel,
apparently an afterthought to 'strengthen her case'.

The thing that got me is what if it had been a biker? Why is a skateboard
any different? Some people use these as transportation and IMO, have as
much right to the road as a bike, even if not specifically covered by law
like bikes are.

The only thing that got the kid off the hook for damages is not that the
woman hit -him-, not that she was doing by her own admission 20mph in a
5mph zone, but that the witness had seen her on the cellphone during
driving. The judge didn't like this, but was nowhere near stern enough.

The woman kept claiming that the kid hit her, T-boning her left
quarterpanel, which it may had been, but the witness drew it that she hit
the kid. The angle of hitting the windshield seemed to support the kid
getting clipped near but to the side of the headlight.

The woman tried to lie claiming she got out of the car and then returned to
get the cell out of her purse and call 911. The witness and the kid said
she got out of the car waving the cell and screaming at the kid who was
lying in the road bleeding from roadrash to the side of his head that he'd
damaged her car.

Apparently the Judge doesn't think speeding and breaking the law is worthy
of a fine. In fact in every jurisdiction I've seen, going 15 miles over the
limit is reckless driving.

Amazing how pedestrians, bikers, boarders are relegated to 'second class'
citizen when faced with the almighty automobile!

-B