Our attitude toward Austin’s Proposition 1, currently in early voting and up for non-early voting on May 7, is set forth here. Click here for a somewhat more, er, aggressive argument against the opponents of Proposition 1, in case your voting inclinations tend toward the “enemy of my enemy” school.
We also note this story about a lawsuit against Lyft, which surely qualifies as an example of our culture of liability run amok.
Basically, the plaintiff’s now deceased husband was riding a motorcycle on a residential street, following a pickup truck. The truck suddenly swerved, and the dude on the motorcycle slammed in to a standing car pulled over to the side with its flashing lights on. In other words, the linked story suggests that the motorcycle was tailgating the truck which in turn was driven by somebody not paying perfect attention to the road ahead. Now the widow of the motorcycle dude is suing Lyft, because the parked car with the flashing lights in to which her husband slammed was waiting to pick up a customer, allegedly in violation of the ordinance that would be overturned by Proposition 1, notwithstanding the determination of the Austin police that the standing car was “legally stopped.”
So, in other words, the plaintiff’s claim for $1 million rests on her husband having had the good fortune to drive in to the rear of a stopped car owned by a Lyft driver instead of, well, anybody else. Yeah, that makes sense.
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