Dunno about down there, but there are liabilities associated with being a land owner where I come from. Your walkway for instance, in winter time must be free of ice and such. If you don't maintain it properly and someone slips and falls, even just cutting across your land uninvited, you are liable.

I would be nice to count on other humans to be sensible when riding on someone else's land, and taking it easy enough that if something does change, you notice it before it's too late. Sadly it's the human condition to do things without thinking about the consequences. I'm sure the landowner in this case (at least I'd hope to think so) didn't think that by stringing up a cable someone would get hurt or killed. Just the same as the kid on the ATV didn't think that someone might put a barricade across the trail he was riding on.

It's always a good idea as a land owner to know what your regional by-laws and regulations are in regards to what you do with your property. C.Y.A, you know.

Sad that this happened, and it's unfortunate that now this land owner, through ignorance, is responsible in part for the death of a youth. It's too late to tell the kid to slow down and be mindful of riding on private land un-invited. A tragic end that has done no good for anyone.

 

I knew some one that happened to in the early eighties, on a snowmobile, He is pretty much brain dead at the present time, due to the accident. They cought the a:s"h+l/, he was a juvinile so he did'nt have to do time. The jerk is now in his thirties, and he has been in and out of jail, real bad news. He really f-uped some ones life, the poor guy has no perception at all, his parents take care of him, he needs to be fed and he wears adult diapers so he has to be changed. What a messed up life for him and his relatives, all because of a Dick ____, I would have rather be killed, and I would have haunted the JERK for the rest of his life.

 

im from mass also slynchee is pretty much right. but its something stupid we are fighting about, so settle it and yah know make peace act mature most of us are adults [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]. The point of the matter is here is a kid died and the person who is responsible should be persecuted to the fullest extent.

 

Boy am I glad this piece of property is not in Mass. It would cost me a fortune to post signs and mark all gates fences chains accross paths and such. I talked to a guy once who got messed up bad by a chain put up by a landowner, when the cops showed up they wrote him a ticket for trespassing. I can see where the landowner would not be held liable if trespassing was the root cause, if you don't belong there don't be there. As for the wires and such people are said to be finding accross legal trails, are you reporting this to the authorities? As with this case, if it is an intentional incident, I believe the cops would want them caught also.

 

I can't believe the attitude in some of the responses on this thread. Some of you are basically saying that someone who is severely hurt or killed when they are tresspassing deserves it because hey, they shouldn't have been there to begin with. Give me a break. It's called compassion. Learn to have some.

This landowner was clearly outside the law of the state he is in. You may not like that law but that is the law and he broke it. Hopefully he will pay dearly, because someone was killed, and it was his fault.

 

I'm not interested in making a judgement about what happened in the case of the man killed when he hit the obstruction across the "cart path". I wasn't there and have not seen the investigative report of the officers involved.

The point I would like to bring forward is ATV riders, like me, need to know the laws of the area they are riding in and what they can legally do. Much has been made about the moral aspects of this matter. What about the moral responsibility of we riders to ask permission prior to invading another persons property. Your living room should not be open to anyone that cares to come in and the same courtesy should be extended to those who own the property we wish to ride on. I have no idea why the obstruction was put across that trail. Perhaps it was just a malicious act by someone other than the landowner. It may have been because the land owner was sick and tired of his property being violated. There are endless possibilities and speculation is without value in a discussion of this nature. When the facts come out then will be the time to make a reasonable decision on a point of view.

I do know that incidents of this type are instrumental in landowners making decisions about allowing the open use of their property. We happen to own property in Washington State and it is becoming more and more expensive to allow the general public access for recreational use. Insurance, cleanup, crop damage, land damage and fence repair are out of pocket costs. Hidden costs show up in the hours spent keeping an eye on visitors to be sure damage is not being done.

In this state it is your responsibility to know whose property you are on and to have permission to be there. We seldom post any land and have had way more good experiences with visitors than bad but the fact remains it costs a lot of cash to be a good host.

I would urge all here to avoid making any quick judgments in this matter and wait for the facts to come out.

Incidentally, years ago we had some traps set on our property by unknown persons. They put fishhooks in low branches and strung out some trip wires. Since this was near a spring I suspect they were thinking about putting in a grow operation. We never saw anyone come back to follow up on this if that was the plan.

 

I live on the Palmer/Ware line, where was he riding? I heard about it but all they said was in Ware... Thanks for the reminder on being careful while flying down some of the trails.

I always thought about something like that happening, but for all the riding I do it has never happened to me so I tend to let my guard down and not be as careful. That is a very sad story.

 

It happened on a trail off of Cummings Rd. If you live on the Palmer Ware line, then we probably ride the same trails. Be careful......................

 

Yeah I will be careful. I am going riding this weekend in Belchertown we are heading up to Facing Rock in Ludlow...