A: sledding

Fear of Being Sued Leads Some Cities to Ban or Limit Sledding

The fear of being sued has led a growing number of cities to be killjoys when it comes to winter fun by limiting or outright banning sledding in their parks. A study from the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Ohio’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that more than 20,000 children were treated at emergency rooms for sledding injuries each year between 1997 and 2007, according to AP, which also noted two big-money judgments in sledding lawsuits in the past decade: one for $2 million against Omaha, Nebraska, after a 5-year-old girl was paralyzed when she hit a tree, and another for $2.75 million for a Sioux City, Iowa, man who slid into a sign and injured his spinal cord. Some cities don’t got as far as others, however, either by banning sledding only on certain slopes or hills, or posting signs warning people that they sled at their own risk.