2015-10-07 P & R Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Check Out The Hill!—Sled Safe In Mottishaw v. Vancouver School Board a 19-year-old student,Susan, sued the school authorities for negligence in injuries she suffered in a tobogganing accident. (Note that this case discusses the foreseeability of a sliding hill accident.) A group of twenty-four students and four staff members took part in a tobog- ganing outing. Susan rode a toboggan with her friend. When it reached the base of the hill,it continued up and over a berm which had a sharp drop-off into a ` parking lot. The.hill was a designated tobogganing and tubing hill owned by the provin- cial government. There was a rope of red pennants at the top of the berm which were visible from the top of the sliding hill. There were also three signs on the top of the berm stating"Danger—Stay Back". The court indicated that school authorities,when supervising students,must 1 provide care equal to that of a careful or prudent parent,and determined that the school had met that standard as there were sufficient staff to supervise and the hill was a designated tobogganing hill. The court concluded that this accident was not foreseeable. The court said that if it had found the school authorities liable,it would also have found Susan contributonly negligent. She had kept her eyes closed while riding the toboggan,and this prevented her from perceiving the pos- t sibility of an accident and falling off the toboggan prior to its falling into the park- ing lot. In Kotke v. Sutherland Professional Corp. a seven-year-old girl, Amanda,had been injured at the Rabbit Hill Ski Area in Edmonton. The hill kept a stockpile of artificial snow in a mound near the visitor parking lot and children were allowed to play on it. EMI The court commented that: the mound was never fenced or roped off,there was no sign forbidding its use;it was obviously attractive to children;the facility I didn't consider children playing on the mound as dangerous;and no supervision I for this area was provided by the facility. Amanda had been warned by her mother to stay away from the snow pile,as her mother felt it looked too slippery. However,just before leaving the area, Amanda was standing with her back to the mound and was struck by a boy slid- ing down the mound. i The court noted that the facility had records of previous accidents involving the snow pile. The court found that the facility had not acted responsibly as required by the A Community Resource Guide Page 23