There are no accidents - everything is someone's fault!

A headline in our local newspaper made it glaringly clear. A tree had fallen on a car killing a child. The parents blamed the city for not taking care of the tree. The city said it was not responsible. The newspaper said "City claims parents are responsible."

The US legal system considers that there are no accidents, and that anything that happens is someone's fault. In this case, if the city was not responsible, it was "clear" that the parents were. Why does it have to be anyone's responsibility?

Accidents do happen. Yes, you can take steps to reduce accidents, but can't eliminate them completely. Nor can you eliminate the impact of accidents completely.

So, what is the result of these accident-prevention measures? First, any time such an accident happens where either blame can't be clearly assigned, or the entity the blame is being assigned to wiggles out of it, new laws are created. The result - an increasing complex set of laws that choke normal behavior.The second thing that changes are people's attitudes - that we are protected against all accidents, resulting in extreme rash behavior.

Let nature take its course. There will be some accidents - always. If it was through someone's error, for sure fault them. If it could have been avoided through common-sense laws, enact those laws. But, trying to legislate around every accident is foolhardy. And, let people be careful before they try doing crazy things, and blaming the system (like the woman who got burnt in the thigh with coffee that spilled from the cup held between her thighs while she was driving).