Litigation Block – Factor 15
Everytime I read a story like this one I wonder just how much more of our personal responsibility for our own welfare we’ll be parming off on someone else over the next 10 years or so.
I have strong views on people taking responsibility for their own actions and the resulting consequences. These may conflict with some of my other views (namely those surrounding tobacco and how the government can justify the fact that it is still legal) but thats something for another post. In this case, we have two well educated people suggesting that people may try and sue the companies who sold them holidays if they later go on to develop skin cancer from exposure to the sun.
WTF???
‘Hi there… welcome to the Englandia, the newest state of the USA. Have a nice day!’
Its getting more and more like the US every bloody day. It is absolutely outrageous. We’ve known for years about the damage caused by too much sun. And for a long time now people have been advised to cover up, bath in factor 1,000,000 sunblock and generally to avoid excessive exposure to the sun, especially during the hottest part of the day. I doubt very much if there is anyone in the UK over the age of 13 who doesn’t know that too much sun can result in skin cancer and yet here we have ‘well educated’ (I’d personally debate that) people telling travel firms that they may be liable to be sued. If this isn’t encouraging litigation culture I don’t know what is.
Its absolutely obscene. I’m going to sue the manufacturer of my car for the damage I have sustained to my hands changing its wheels when needed. I’m also going to sue the manufacturer of my soldering iron because I’ve burnt myself on it umpteen times and the manufacturer didn’t do enough to prevent me from doing so. I’m going to sue the makers of Smallville and Channel 4 for leaving the last series on such a cliffhanger… I can feel my stress increasing as I think about it. I’m going to sue the makers of my hammer for all the pain and suffering I’ve endured as a result of misuse of said heavy lump of steel. Musn’t forget the makers of my eye liner… oh the tears I’ve cried when I’ve poke myself in the eye with… completely ruined my make up.
They also make the statement that the travel industry doesn’t provide enough information in general about your health while on holiday. Erm… hello… we have this wonderful invention called a telephone… with it you can speak to people across great distances (say from your home to your GP’s surgery for example). SHOCK… HORROR… people could PHONE their GP and ask for advice themselves. They could phone BUPA and ask for advice or * GASP * NHS Direct. They could even phone the embassy of the country they are going to (although they’ll probably be biased) or the Home Office. And WOW… you can plug your computer into a phone line and connect to this thing called the internet… and search for the info yourself. Thats what I did when I travelled to Russia.
I’m sure by now, you’re starting to get the picture. Don’t lay the blame at someone elses feet. Your body. Your responsibility.
IT IS A WELL KNOWN FACT – TOO MUCH SUN = SKIN CANCER!
You sun bathe too much and you are likely to develop skin cancer. Excessive exposure to the harmful UV rays in the suns light can result in the onset of malignant melanoma (I think thats right). How many more times do we need to say it?
Oh yeah.. theres this thing… its my body, but someone else is responsible for it and its well being. Say what? Its your body. You get only one of them. Look after it, and if you don’t… don’t try suing the crap of the people you think are responsible for your condition. They didn’t force you to sun bathe with no sunblock on. They didn’t force you to buy that holiday in Ibiza and I doubt very much that they tied you down to the ground while you lay out in the midday sun and got sun burned. Guess what… you did. You made all of these choices yourself. You wanted the ‘healthy glow’ of a tan. You couldn’t be bothered with the sunblock… you want a tan and you want it NOW. And I guess you figured 3 hours in the midday sun would get your tan sorted on day 1, leaving you free to site see and party for the rest of the 2 weeks you are on holiday.
Now I know these two ‘clever people’ wrote this report and presented it to the travel industry, but it will sow the seed in someones mind about doing this. Then when one person finally wins a case, it will set a precedent and a whole load more peeps will go for it. Its bloody ridiculous the amount of people suing for injury etc. these days.
From a consumer point of view, lets say this did happen. What do they think will happen? Do they think the travel industry will just soak up the huge costs of this kind of action? Do they think their holidays will cost the same as before? What about travel insurance? The only outcome is that jobs will be lost and ultimately holidays will cost more. The consumer will end up carrying the can for those morons who seem to think that its everyone elses responsibility for ensuring their personal wellbeing and safety.
This sort of litigation is crucifying our country. Its already meant the removal of a lot of park playground equipment… I used to love the old roundabout in the closest park to my home in Leicester, but nowadays the kids are unlikely to experience the simple fun of things like that. Instead of parents saying ‘Oh well, you shouldn’t have been so bloody stupid’ as they did in my day, they seem to have a tendancy to say things like ‘Oh my baby… we’ll sue the bastards’. And who suffers as a result? The normal people who realise its their body and their responsiblity to look after it and keep it in good shape no matter where they are and what they are doing.
I have to ask myself everytime I see these ‘Have you been injured at work?’ ads or I read a story on the beeb about people suing for this and that… where will it end? To be honest, I don’t have a clue. But with idiots like these two (married couple by the way, just so theres no confusion about it) suggesting that the travel agents should be responsible for telling the traveller EVERYTHING they need to know, its going to get much much worse before it gets better.
Story Links:-
BBC News
