NH , new laws regarding incompetent hikers

[the goat]

Actually, in some communities, yes. Instead of rising taxes on everyone (or in addition to), they are sending bills to people who require city services like fire and police - mostly for accident responce.

People have gotten bills for the shovels and brooms used to clean up the mess they made on the road, in addition to the labor and ware and tare on equipment.

i have a buddy who wrecked his motorcycle on the highway & wrapped himself around a guard rail in the process.

while he was still in critical care, he got a bill from the state for the repair costs of the guard rail.

[Driver8]

while he was still in critical care, he got a bill from the state for the repair costs of the guard rail.

This I can see, as state property has been damaged. Insurance will cover this.

[4eyedbuzzard]

As an analogy, people can be issued summonses and fined for many types of reckless behavior, whether or not damage to property, public or private, occurs. Examples include jaywalking, motor vehicle operation, breaking firearms / hunting laws (such as shooting across a road). People are also held civilly liable if their negligent / reckless actions result in another another party incurring costs as a result of their actions, whether or not there is physical damage to tangible property.

From the standpoint of fining someone under a regulation, S&R is a bit different, but so is the required response, unless we are willing to simply wait to apprehend the offender when, and more realistically, IF they return alive.

As a society, we have chosen a policy that we will generally not allow people to die even if they are fools. From a civil recovery standpoint, it is the negligence / recklessness of the person that constitutes proximate cause for the S&R costs, so why shouldn't they be liable? The deciding judgement factor is whether or not it is an accident or is a foreseeable result of negligence / recklessness.

As I said earlier, I think these laws (there are other states in this as well) need to be examined, but I can't say I'm against the idea of fines or civil recovery when idiotic people's reckless and / or negligent behavior runs up the bill for everyone else.

[neighbor dave]

As a society, we have chosen a policy that we will generally not allow people to die even if they are fools.

generally speaking;
only if there's money to be made, and certainly not if there's money to be lost. there are an infinate amount of examples that come to mind but probably not in keeping with the board rules

[Sly]

Since there's nothing new regarding this law, I'm going to close this old topic. Have a nice day.