A local update - Tuesday
GuruAtma said:
I got a call from a lawyer representing the State of California because a mountain biker is suing Annadel State Park. Apparantly he was riding down Spring Creek trail about a year ago when they were preparing to do trail maintainance. At the end of the trail where it merges with Canyon trail, was a pile of gravel. His contention is that he couldn't see the gravel, or didn't know he could ride around it, and went over it, crashed, and got hurt.
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It is with great disappointment and concern I’ve been watching this thread evolve. I am a MTB’r local to Annadel and frequent the park trails regularly, since 2000.
Tonight (Tuesday) I decided to have a look at the “incident site” and was astonished to find a film crew setting up presumably to attempt to reconstruct the scene. The good news is that I believe this was the case for the defence. I had the opportunity to speak to a very nice Park Ranger at the trailhead. They appeared very professional and very organised. I’m sure the defence lawyer will be one of the good guys! (I wish posters would stick to the point!)
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In my opinion the reconstruction was very generous ie the mound that had been deposited was close to 4ft tall and placed fairly centrally to the trail exit, though still avoidable. I cannot recall the mound being so significant, nor in that exact position. Lets hope this preparation will get this case dismissed as quickly as possible. Mountain biking is an “assumed risk” sport!
The scene triggered a few questions though:
If the “rider” couldn’t see the mound what would have happened, and who would be being sued, if the huge mound was a horse & rider round the corner?
Did the “rider” not see the mound on the way up the trail?
One other thing that struck me was that there was a bicycle (which may have had absolutely nothing to do with the activity) parked among the various crew trucks. It was a fully rigid 1980’s MF Courier type with Y braced bars/stem & old canti brakes. That would have been scary coming down the trail in my opinion, let alone attempting a jump over this mound.
Now the bad news. a) This is our tax dollars at work. The team was there for at least a couple of hours. This will be an expensive exercise.
b) When speaking to the ranger it was strongly hinted that the rangers are to be being furnished with radar speed guns soon. So even if this ridiculous case is thrown out, there are negative repercussions imminent. Not that I’m advocating reckless speeding, but nor do I want to have to fit a cycle computer to ensure I stay below 15mph or be worried about turning a corner and be a couple of mph too fast and getting dinged. Shades of Mt Tam – still fun but….?
For the rest of my ride tonight – Canyon, Marsh, Lawndale and back – I carried out an impromptu, random survey. There were 31 more cyclists than walkers out tonight, interestingly there was not a single walker on the paths above the lake Ilsanjo loop elevation. I hope the State Park team recognises how & where a significant proportion of the park users get their enjoyment and recreation and support the MTB community by not reacting adversely to this case.
Here's hoping.
