Thread: Coroner finds off-road park management poses danger

Originally Posted by harry

i see in my crystal ball one south of here,
no receipts, so where is the money going mr tax man, no track maintenance, 'cause the money goes somewhere else, and why do want a receipt - to show me that all is above board and there is a good chance that we are covered insurance wise.

Then there are parks like The Springs where he pours his life and funds into the place.

This just gets me so angry that I want to SCREEEAAAM.
Sure I accept that track grading will make it easier for people to know when they are going to come across tough or easy obstacles, but when wheelin in the 'untamed' environment you have no idea what you are going to come across and you have to assess each and every obstacle and determine whether you can pass safely, want to have a go and risk bending your truck and possibly injuring yourself or turn around and find another way. Why then should the park owner, who is doing the public a favour by giving them somewhere to enjoy their past time penalised for giving you exactly what you want and exactly what you would find in the national parks and state forests we drive in (when outside of QLD).

Some people really need to grow up.

rant over

There are two side to this coin as far as I am concerned.

Having never been to a 4WD Park, I can only echo the comments of those who have said that perhaps the trails should be maintained to the level that a standard or lightly modified vehicle can traverse them, and there should be seperate, signposted tracks for the wild custom trucks.

By the same token, some people need to grow up! As far as I am concerned, if you are old enough to hold a drivers licence / own a vehicle you are old enough to take responsibility for your own actions and accept the consequences of your own stupidity.

The park may well have been dangerous, but he made a choice to attempt to do whatever it was that got him killed.

Grrr...

Of course it poses a danger. Everything poses a danger. It all comes down to if it is an acceptable risk and if we are prepared to take that risk. I believe that by taking part in any particular activity we have taken an assumption of risk already and it is up to the individual taking part to determine or find any relevant amount of risk associated with said activity. It was actually a fairly stupid and naive statement for a coroner to make.

Originally Posted by CraigE

Of course it poses a danger. Everything poses a danger. It all comes down to if it is an acceptable risk ...

If people are allowed to jump out of perfectly good aeroplanes, then hands off 4 wheeled recreation.

Diana

so its not as simple as issuing an entry ticket with the normal disclaimer on the back?

or "signing in" , absolving the owners from all blame?

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

so its not as simple as issuing an entry ticket with the normal disclaimer on the back?

or "signing in" , absolving the owners from all blame?

Unfortunately no. You drive into a shopping centre carpark and they have a disclaimer, but they still have to provide a safe environment. The disclaimer covers them in case your vehicle is damaged by another or you scrape the wall. It would not work for them if say you drove off the top of the carpark and crashed to your fiery death 10 floors below because they didn't bother to put a barrier in place.

I'm curious. How many of us would really agree to sign away all legal rights for anything that happened at a 4WD park? I've been to ski areas where the disclaimer is over a full page of small print long. They also have a trail grading system, rules of conduct and employees who throw you out if you endanger others.

Personally I'd be happy to sign away my rights, as I think I can make my own decisions and be responsible for the consequences.

Also, how would you feel if 4WD parks were set up in such a way that there were no underlying assets of real value and no insurance, so that if you sued them there wouldn't be any money and no insurer to satisfy a judgement?