Snow Preparedness and Lawsuits

We often hear about how society has become very litigious. People live in fear of being sued for this, that or anything else.

People race out to shovel snow off and spread copious amounts of salt and other ice melting miracle chemicals on their walkways as soon as there’s a sprinkle of snow. After all, you don’t want some stranger to slip and fall while walking near your home. You might get sued!! 

See a wet spot on the floor in a shop? Send out a squad of staff to clean it up and post warning signs because the floor might be slippery.

Buy a cup of coffee and there’s a warning on the cup of coffee saying it’s hot. No shit. I’ll tell you, there should be a warning on the cup of coffee if it isn’t hot. If I buy a cup of coffee and it isn’t hot, there needs to be a warning issued to the person selling me a lukewarm cold cup of coffee when I’m expecting a hot cup of coffee. But I digress. 

I knew a guy who owned a ladder making company. He told me his shop stopped making ladders that were less than 20 feet tall because he said there wasn’t enough room to put all the required warning labels on a ladder if it was less than 20 feet tall. 

I think we should turn this around. If people are too stupid or unprepared for life’s little challenges, they should be sued for screwing up someone else’s day.

For example, after the recent snowfall people were slipping and falling in mall parking lots. The mall management were very concerned and sent their first aid attendants out to make sure the people were taken care of. In the case of a broken body nes, ambulances were called to haul their broken body to the hospital. 

Someone said, the customer “should bring forward a suit against the mall because the parking lot was slippery.”

No shit it was slippery! It was snowing!! And below zero, so it was also freezing. You didn’t notice that on your way from your house to your car or while you were driving to the mall? Seriously? It wasn’t until you stepped out of your car with your fancy little leather sole shoes nd landed with your stupid ass on the ground that you thought it might be slippery?

I say turn this around. The businesses or store owners should be suing the people who have come to their stores unprepared for the weather and road conditions. If it is snowy outside you should be prepared to be able to navigate the snowy and slippery walkway in parking lot.

If you do slip and fall I say the business owners should sue the person who slipped and fell because they are costing the mall or business owners valuable time, money and resources. Never mind the cost to our publicly funded health care system. The cost of the ambulance, emergency room resources, and so on. 

Fact; it is actually illegal to travel into the interior of BC on a highway without having good winter tires or carrying a set of tire chains with you. There’s an understanding that travellers need to be prepared for the conditions they are likely to encounter.

Why shouldn’t that be the same if you are travelling around town in snowy or icy conditions? Be prepared or be prepared to face the legal consequences for ruining someone else’s day. 

Of course this doesn’t mean business owners shouldn’t make every effort to clear their parking lots. After all, if customers can’t get into the parking lot, that means they can’t spend money in the shops. But how about people taking some responsibility for their own safety rather than immediately thinking about hiring a lawyer? Something to think about.