A good win for MTBer and hikers (1 Viewer)

[Jay H]

http://www.dailyrecord.com/news/03/04/01/news9-park.htm

A good win for personal responsibility! If this guy was to get his way, it would mean either less trails to ride or hike on, and/or paved trails which isn't that fun. There are alot of places that are deemed private property in NY and many parks in NJ that would probably not allow biking or hiking if it wasn't for this Landowner Liability Act, protecting landowners from lawsuits from the result of either biking, hiking, etc. This guy who was out riding with his kid should not of been on the trail if he either didn't feel comfortable, wasn't skilled enough, or wasn't prepared to deal with the consequences. I've been to Lewis Morris, I've had a few races there, there are sections where it is basically a rail-trail (Patriot's Path) and there are sections which are fireroads and sections where there are more technical stuff.

There are some peaks in the Catskills and NE that happen to be on private property. This law if properly enforced should allow these lands to be available for us hikers or bikers and protect them from frivolous lawsuits.

Jay

 

[Andrej Dolenc]

Amen to that.

Andrej

 

[KyleS]

Rice said he will discuss an appeal with his client. He had argued against use of the statute by saying that Lewis Morris Park is situated in suburbia and does not fit the law's criteria of being in a rural or semi-rural area.

1150 Acres of Suburbia? You have to be kidding me that they don't consider almost 1200 acres NOT Suburbia. There is good reason for not allowing lawsuits for situations where a land owner opens large plots of land for people to use. Interesting that in Oregon most of the National Parks or land owned by the state/government has started to charge a daily use fee for hiking, camping, etc. I wonder if that land use was law was nation wide. If so then it would seem that by charging people to upkeep the trails that Oregon could be opening themselves up to lawsuits where if they didn't charge they would be exempt.

KyleS