Sledding Bans Spread; Who Knows if They Actually Work (Nanny of the Month, Jan '15)

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Sledding Bans Spread; Who Knows if They Actually Work (Nanny of the Month, Jan '15)

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Sure flattening monkey bars, shortening slides, and rubberizing pavement may not actually make kids safer (and it may leave them less prepared for the real, bubblewrap-free world), but the march to make kid's lives duller continues. The latest target: sledding.

Poor kids. Everyone's browbeating them to burn more calories, meanwhile cities and towns across the land are outlawing one of winter's most beloved outdoor activities. City officials will do anything for the children(!), but even most of them seem to acknowledge that sledding bans are more about protecting cities from lawsuits than protecting kids from injuries.  

In fact, bans might actually make sledding more dangerous. They could prompt kids and teens to head to more perilous sledding spots to avoid getting busted. Some cities ban sledding in all but a couple of spots, which could lead to overcrowding and increase the chance of collisions.

1 minute, 33 seconds.

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Nanny of the Month is written Ted Balaker (@tedbalaker) and produced by Balaker and Matt Edwards (@MattChrisEd). Edited by Edwards. 

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Comments

[Notorious G.K.C.]

In other, unrelated news, the obesity epidemic among kids is getting worse!

Michelle Obama urges more exercise!

[Drake]

Mysterious how kids who spent snow days having snowball fights and pulling sleds up a giant hill weren't fat.

[Drake]

Mysterious how kids who spent snow days having snowball fights and pulling sleds up a giant hill weren't fat.

[Nikomave]

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[Fist of Etiquette]

The guy doesn't want sledding banned and he doesn't want lawsuits from busted up kids? MAKE UP YOUR MIND, BUDDY.

[Pope Jimbo]

When I was a kid and we still lived on the farm, the best hill to sled on was right next to a highway. If no cars were coming you could get some good air when you shot up out of the ditch. If you were lucky you could keep it going across the hiway and down some more hill.

Sometimes if a car showed up, you had to ditch it. I agree with Tundra, the danger of all that was what made that hill so fun.

No session on that hill ever ended without somebody going home crying because of a wild wipeout. But even the kid crying was willing to go back the next day because it was so much fun.

[mad.casual]

Agreed. The phrase, "increase the chance of collisions." is ridiculously passive.

Putting more kids on the same hill, inentionally or unintentionally, causes more collisions.

[DrZaius]

You never had the downhill demolition derby?

[mad.casual]

Nope. I have been hit while playing 'gokart tag'.

I didn't mean that the collisions were intrinsically a bad thing, just that 'increases the chance of collisions' ignores plain particle kinetics and is ignorant of kids' penchant for hitting each other with and on moving objects.

[Drake]

We used to sled down the steepest hill on the public golf course. At the end there was a little uphill section that ended with a sand trap. When the snow melted a little, the sand came through - hilarious watching kids come to a nut-crunching stop when their sleds hit the sand.

[Curtisls87]

We had a hill we used to sled on that had a sharp left turn in the road half way down. If you didn't make the turn, you either bailed out, or ran into the guard rail, or a big rock. My experience was similar in that invariably, someone went home crying because they didn't make the turn. What the hell, it would have been no fun if there hadn't been danger in it.

[John C. Randolph]

Fucking hell. Why can't they just post a couple of "sled at your own risk" signs?

-jcr

[mad.casual]

This is what our village did. Hilariously, I don't see these signs up at the skate park.

I keep my mouth shut in case it's an oversight rather than elected officials exercising a modicum of sense.

[RealCrankyYankee]

Hopefully the towns who've enacted this ban will not really enforce it. This way the town is happy because they feel like they're off the hook for lawsuits and the kids are happy because they can go sledding in an "off limits" area, making all the more fun.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Attractive nuisance! They knew the area was dangerous, but turned a blind eye to kids sledding there! Your Honor, my client demands...One. Million. Dollars.

[Steve G]

Current events in NOVA are not helping matters...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

[Bgoptmst]

I hope that someone increases my tax burden to hire more public officials to enforce such a ban.

FOR THE CHILDREN!

[Longtail]

Libertarians can rail all they want about nanny municipalities outlawing sledding but you would have to have laws passed requiring insurance companies who come up with this stuff to continue coverage and I doubt you want those laws.

[mad.casual]

Or you know, judges and lawyers could be less tolerant of trivial suits.

I can see plenty of situations where making plaintiffs responsible for court fees, the defendant's defense, etc. for bringing a crummy case would make sense.

Getting a knock on the head for picking up the cudgel of law doesn't offend my libertarian sensibilities in the slightest.