From: paul@mmotion.com (Media In Motion)
Subject: [sfskaters] Section 100... "officially left alone"
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 15:25:14 -0800

The CA Assembly Bill 915, that places inline skating on the hazardous
list of activities, does help our cause immensely.  It was created to
give cities greater immunity against lawsuits brought by participants
injured on public property.

As of a few weeks ago, I was informed by the Deputy City Attorney,
that this bill has not passed the Senate floor, may be undergoing some
amendments and will not be in place until at least the first of the
year.  This is partially why our Pilot Program can not really begin
until then.

AB 915 does not address all of the legal or liability issues that the
City and the Skaters are concerned with however... it is specifically
written for recreational skating and requires the "public entity" to
notify participants of "hidden dangers", i.e. unusual road conditions
or other conditions that are not reasonably assumed by the participant.
Can you imagine what type of predicament that presents for the City if
you just consider the FN Skate?!

Additionally, we have many skaters that commute to and from work -
AB 915 does not address this type of activity at all.

Where does all of this lead?  The bottom line is; we are working closely
with the City to create a program that is fair for us and for them. It's
a give and take process.  On one end of the spectrum, they could take a
hard line stance and not allow skating in the streets at all.  This
would lessen their liability greatly, because they could argue that it
is illegal based on several SF City vehicle codes... On the other end
of the spectrum, they could throw their hands up and allow us to skate
wherever we want - and open themselves up to enormous liability
exposure.  The solution is somewhere in the middle.

So, the answer is "officially left alone" at this time.. if we skate
responsibly and with respect, I believe we will remain in this category
until we have reached some agreement with the City.

Paul Pillitteri

---------------------------
Richard Katz wrote:

>Hey -- I thought that when skating was declared to be a dangerous
>activity by the State legislature, that made all this local ordinancing
>moot.  Like, it's dangerous, so we don't have to care; and that's the
>reason we are being left alone.  Everywhere -- not just "designated
>streets".  Benign neglect is cool, but it's nowhere near as cool as being
>officially left alone.  Could we get an update on that?  Richard Katz