At least for one Major city.
Despite the Canadian Government spending millions every year to get kids away from the video games, the decision was made to bad tobogganing because it is too dangerous and hence a possible liability to the city. Proof that at some point adults all become idiots.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/hamilton-s-tobogganing-bylaw-in-place-for-legal-protection-no-fines-handed-out-1.2892656
So, the law says "No Tobaggoning".
The City puts up a sign that says "No Tobaggoning".
Guy goes tobaggoning, and hurts himself.
Then sues the City, and wins $900K because the City didn't do a good enough job enforcing their law which he broke.
How can I get in on this action??
cities here in the US have been banning sledding on public property for a while now.. blame the lawyers and the overprotective parents that they represent..
i should take a drive out to the big sledding hill that the county owns a few miles outside of town and see how many people are out there.. it's a monster hill: close to 100 feet of elevation drop over about 100 yards or so, and sometimes people build jumps..
In reply to novaderrik:
Article doesn't say it it is a ban on sledding on public property. It says it is a ban city wide.
Oh, and apparently the "victim" was a lawyer.
He had broken his shoulder previously...tobaggoning.
You can't make up this E36 M3.
Where I grew up. we had a park hill called Thrill Hill. Steep surrounded with trees. Every year there were injuries there. I guess that it is shut down by now.
At first I was like "why would they make it illegal to put on a warm hat???" Then I remembered that it means something else to people not raised in my household...
Edit; Knoxville actually built a big hill for the purpose of sledding in one of the new parks a couple years ago, you know because it snows so much in Knoxville.
Man, we'd build a gnarly jump then snag some haybales and see how many we could jump.
No wonder we're a continent of fat berkeleys. Go inside and play your video games.
hope coal shovels and car hoods are still legal 
Banned sledding tobogoning tubing and any other form of sliding down a hill in the rural US city I live near, for the same lawyerly reasons.
growing up in southern NJ (elevation change: none) we used to sled down the sides of the overpasses. Supposedly that is illegal too, but people still do it
SVreX wrote: In reply to novaderrik: Article doesn't say it it is a ban on sledding on public property. It says it is a ban city wide.
it said "known sledding hills", didn't say anything about being on private property. i read it as applying to publicly owned property..
i don't know who owned the hill we used to sled down- known as "killer hill"- but it was fun... it went down vertically about 20 feet, then there was a little step, then down about another 20 feet or so, then into some trees and cattails on the lake, which may or may not have had thin ice at that spot at any given time.. the path thru the trees took a couple of turns, so you had to be paying attention and we would sometimes build a jump on the step halfway down... i know it wasn't city owned, and there was a fence between the hill and the apple orchard so i don't think they owned it. might have belonged to the apartment buildings it was behind... but whoever owned it never put up any signs and didn't seen to care that there might be 50 kids crashing into each other and trying to wipe each other out on any given winter day.. the 80's was just a better time to be a kid, i guess..
When I was a kid the city would block off a couple hilly streets w/ saw horse barriers. We lived w/ in a couple hundred feet from the better hill, had it made. Those days are long gone too.
Ah, and smudge pots, gotta remember them smudge pots.
In the 80's I came very close to breaking my back on a toboggan. It sucked and I have never tobogganed again, but suing someone was never considered.
Years ago it was explained to me that Reasonable people are capable of observing their environment and learning how to fit in so as to live in harmony with the environment. Unreasonable people, on the other hand, observe the existing environment and demand that it change to meet their needs and expectations at any cost. What follows is the realization that ALL human change is driven by unreasonable people. Ever since I became aware of this, I have not wasted a second wondering why, or if, the human race is going to hell in a hand-basket.
Has ISIS banned toboganning also or is this a FEMA thing? FEMA & ISIS in the same sentence, Ben must be hitting the rev limiter on his grave.
Old neighborhood I lived in had a great hill for sledding at the front of it. Unfortunately there was also a creek running across the base of it so the wrong line put you in that.
My son did the wrong line and stuffed it into a creek spraining his back (ct scan required) but we never considered it was anyone's fault but his (possibly mine).
I went sledding today with the girlfriend 
The big metro park near me has big sledding hills and a toboggan run. Sometimes I really like living where I live.
Naturally, my first inclination was something like "Crazy Canucks!" but upon reflection, it seems I've heard something about similar legislation pending locally.
Allegedly true story, at least according to the elder members of my family:
my great-great-grandfather was the sheriff in Nevada County, CA, despite having only one arm. He lost the other in a mining accident earlier in life. Supposedly was still pretty handy with a gun back when that was the main thing the job demanded.
What did him in wasn't an outlaw, but a kid sledding down what is now the town's main drag. The kid hit him, and without that arm to break his fall, it ended up killing him. Can't prove it, but this is the story that's been passed down.
That said, this ban sounds silly.
I grew up in NJ.
When snow was on the roads, we used to run up behind cars (ducking so the driver wouldn't see us in the mirrors), grab the rear bumper, and "ride" it for miles (just sliding our feet on the snow covered streets).
It always ended in a wipe out in the middle of the street.
I'm wondering who I can sue for this...
SVreX wrote: I grew up in NJ. When snow was on the roads, we used to run up behind cars (ducking so the driver wouldn't see us in the mirrors), grab the rear bumper, and "ride" it for miles (just sliding our feet on the snow covered streets). It always ended in a wipe out in the middle of the street. I'm wondering who I can sue for this...
if you were influenced by back to the future, you could sue michael j fox.
luckily we have awesome metroparks here with a massive scary sled hill, several small ones, and refrigerated toboggan chutes
One idiot lawyer ruins things for everyone.
CBC article said: McLennan said Uggenti testified he was unaware of any bylaw against tobogganing in his court case.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. What an ass.
Naturally, I grew up tobogganing. The hill near our place was huge and very popular. Still is. And of course, there are the jumps. And the creek at the bottom. But if you don't want to take the chance, you don't get on the sled.
People make way too much of things like this.
It's just the city applying a CYA law so they can't be liable.
Continue tobogganning wherever, if someone bitches, go toboggan elsewhere.
It's like the stupid tire chain laws.
Everyone up here has a minor freakout every winter when they see the tire chain signs go up and some idiot goes "hurr durr what about motorcycles?"
Then everyone loses their mind complaining that motorcycles should not require chains because there aren't any available.
Us normal folk go about our business, secure in the knowledge that we will never ride our motorcycles in conditions that are bad enough to need chains and that darwin will sort out anyone foolish enough to do otherwise.
Same goes for sledding.
If you're a big enough dumbass to sue someone because you got hurt sliding down a snowy hill in an unwanted canoe (I've done this, it's fun but I wouldn't recommend it), you deserve to be told to go berkeley yourself.
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