On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 22:34:56 GMT, John Fereira
wrote:

(snipped a bit)
Legally, a motor vehicle must stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk, and if
I'm in a cross walk and am run over by a motor vehicle the fault would be
attributed to the driver of the motor vehicle. Pragmatically, when a
collision involving a 2 ton motorized vehicle and a human occurs, the human
suffers the greatest amount of damage. Subsequently assigning blame isn't
as much an issue as who might be living the rest of their life crippled or
have their life ended right there. Similarly, in a collision between a
large power boat and a small paddle craft the operator of the paddlecraft is
going to suffer the greatest damage. While maritime right-of-way laws might
give the right of way to the paddle craft, those that take responsibility
for their own safety take whatever precautions are necessary to ensure their
safety rather than assume the rules of the road are going offer complete
protection.

Indeed. My rules of the road when I'm walking or paddling are to let
anything that's bigger, faster, dumber, or in more of a hurry have the
right of way. It's worked so far, with only a couple of close calls.
One of which involved the excuse, "It's been real hot out and there's
been beer." But that was in a location I found (later) was notorious
for bad power boating with beer or other beverages.

Cyli
r.bc: vixen. Minnow goddess. Speaker to squirrels.
Often taunted by trout. Almost entirely harmless.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli
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