Too bad. At least one Indiana city is plunging into the "somebody might sue us, so nobody is allowed to have fun" movement:
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As anyone who has grown up around snow knows, part of the fun of sledding is the risk of soaring off a jump or careening around a tree.
But faced with the potential bill from sledding injuries, some cities have opted to close hills rather than risk large liability claims.
No one tracks how many cities have banned or limited sledding, but the list grows every year. One of the latest is in Dubuque, Iowa, where the City Council is moving ahead with a plan to ban sledding in all but two of its 50 parks.
[. . .]
Some cities have opted for less drastic measures in the last several years rather than an all-out ban, including Des Moines, Iowa; Montville, New Jersey; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Columbia City, Indiana. By banning sledding on certain slopes or posting signs warning people to sled at their own risk, cities lessen their liability if someone is seriously hurt, but they're still more vulnerable to lawsuits than if they had adopted an outright ban.
It's almost impossible ti keep track of everything that's being curtailed because of demands from insurance companies that lawsuits over liability claims be avoided at all costts. Hell, schools have banned evertyhing from tag and cartwheels to dodgeball and playing catch at recess. Ever wonder what kind of progress the human race would have made if we'd always been this risk-averse?
