Croc

Why in the hell would you think this would have happened in LA? Are you two both so out-of-touch with reality to forget that nobody walks in LA? We drive! Always have! Missing Persons even wrote an iconic song about this truism. For car enthusiasts, you guys don't know much about the capital of car culture.

You volunteering?

What transmission is in the Aztek? Solenoids go bad pretty easily; trans flush most likely coincidental.

Wow, THAT won't be obvious or anything.

Exactly. Thank you for not being insane.

That's arbitrary and capricious, and no sane judge would issue that judgment. Get real.

http://www.aztekfanclub.com/

Good call.

Nope. Doesn't pass muster. And while I can see why you/your mother felt threatened/intimidated...but that's largely because of what you know, not what he actually said. Heresay is inadmissable.

Well, I more than likely would be embarrassed as well, but if I suffered spinal injuries I'd sue. Plus, so she got cuts and scrapes...but she's falling into a sewer. Obviously there is a high risk for infection here.

Exactly, they were negligent. Their negligence resulted in injury to someone who would not have been injured otherwise. Whether or not the girl was negligent by texting is irrelevent; her negligence did not result in injury to anyone else. Her friend walking with her obviously didn't see the open hole, either. In a court of law, all that's needed to prove a civil case is that a party was negligent, another party was injured/suffered damages, and that the injured party was not recklessly endangering themselves. Using a cell phone to text while walking down a residential street would never count as "recklessly endangering oneself."

Now you're just making stuff up. I have NEVER seen the cover right next to the hole when the city is doing any dredging/maintenance operations. NEVER. It is usually propped against the curb. Why? Well, knowing the disc-like shape of a manhole cover, what's far easier to pick up? A cover lying on the flat sidewalk, or one propped against the street curb? You can't use a crowbar to pick it up off the sidewalk, but obviously you can when it's covering a hole. And startling someone isn't grounds for a lawsuit, anywhere.

And the video also said she was walking to the store with a friend. Friend obviously didn't see it either. Finally, she certainly didn't walk around a corner as the video shows fences and front yards...so the DWP workers most certainly should have seen her approaching, or at the very least, heard her and her friend as they were walking. Also, her doctor has apparently decided that she needs an MRI to check for spinal damage. This is serious.

What evidence do you have of this? I have a very hard time seeing how he would have had the opportunity to do something funny to your White Castle food, but far more believable to me is that you were served an undercooked burger or something, and he was not...hence why you were sick and he wasn't. Unless you went to the hospital, and have a medical report showing you were drugged, I'd stop that train of thought immediately, because at best it's tin foil hat territory, and at worst, it will make you seem mentally unbalanced in front of a judge. Slander? Don't be an idiot, here--you MUST maintain a calm, level head to maintain the upper hand. Slander is incredibly hard to prove. You should research this yourself, specifically what the steep burden of proof consists of, and honestly decide if you have anything close to it. As for terroristic threatening...unless you have solid, doubt-free proof of this, I'd recommend you not bring this up either. Stay calm, cool as steel--that's the only way to handle these kinds of things.

There are plenty of manhole covers on the sidewalk. In Indiana, Los Angeles, New York, or any other place I have been to. See, storm water sewers are generally located in the curbs, and their access is nearby, usually on the sidewalk. Having an open manhole cover in the street is even more egregious, since vehicles travel at much faster speeds, require much more stopping distance, and can have very expensive accident repair bills.

Of course. This is just common sense. Blu and others just seem to want to make a soap box case against wild, out-of-control, ditzy, texting teen girls...do they dress too sexy? Maybe this should be a Jenny Jones segment...Equally devoid of logic and reasoning...

You are slipping. What kind of person walks into an open manhole? Someone who does not see it and does not expect it. Whether BLIND (the walking stick mainly checks for raised elevations, and may or may not be effective at noticing an open hole), or distracted, or just walking around a corner and having no time to react to the presence of something unexpected, the area should have been cordoned off, posted, and monitored.

The standard pedestrian walking rate is 4 feet per second (this is the rate used for determining crosswalk timer lengths). Obviously, this would be slower when text messaging, so let's say it's 3 feet per second in this case. How do you define "mere seconds"? I'll use a conservative estimate of 10 seconds, that these workers were otherwise on-point, dilligent workers who literally turned their backs for just a matter of seconds. So, by the calculations, she was within 30 feet away. And they didn't see/warn her? You say she may have just come from around their truck...nowhere does it say she was walking in the street, and why would she? That's a stretch. But, she may have come around a corner, which actually places MORE blame on the negligent workers. If the manhole were located close to a corner, even with big orange cones and barricades, many pedestrians would be startled and in danger of falling in due to the blind spot. So having a completely unattended, uncovered manhole cover right around a corner...just stupid. Now ocn, unless you really don't get out much, when you walk down the street, you glance around at people, at billboards, maybe receive an email or phone call, and YOU KEEP WALKING. Eyes are open, but worst case scenario, you maybe laugh at yourself for tripping on the raised edge of an uneven sidewalk you didn't see. You're not expecting open trenches/holes in the middle of the sidewalk.

I don't eat at McDonald's. But if they ever served me something unsafe, damn right I'd sue. You always bring this case up, and like the rest of America you seem willfully ignorant of the facts. The only reason the woman won was because it was served to her at an unbelievably unsafe temperature...one that would cause 2nd degree burns on contact. McDonald's also intentionally served the coffee so hot in an attempt to cover up the inferior quality of the coffee. This was documented in company memos. Also, by serving coffee this scaldingly hot, they were endangering customers and employees in the event of a spill. Coffee should be served warm, not so scaldingly hot that it leaves 2nd degree burns on immediate contact.

Exactly. Legally, it comes down to responsibility and expectations: what is the expectation that you are walking down the street and there is a hole in the sidewalk? Next to none. For a city agency to knowingly create an unexpected, hazardous condition, and not provide warning/notification...that's just negligent. Also, if the manhole was uncovered for "mere seconds" before they did get the cones, you're telling me they couldn't have seen the girl walking down the street and verbally warned her? Because I can't imagine a teen girl on her phone powerwalking onto the scene (AFTER they left a cover open on a deserted street), falling down and hurting herself, all in "mere seconds." Someone's fibbing, and I doubt it's the injured party.

I assume you were present when the police report was being filed, so what role did you have in condoning the police report to be falsified? Just trying to bring up all possible points against you so you are able to account for yourself thoroughly (and win).

Sorry, but whether or not she was texting is irrelevant. Manhole covers should be secured, or they should be marked and/or attended while unsecured. Would it be any different if, instead of a texting teen, she were a blind person? NO! This is negligence on the city's part. Someone should have been attending it for the "mere seconds" it took to get the cones...or better yet, the cones should have been around before they even opened the cover up.

He did well, but certainly not Susan Boyle-esque at all. This type of singing is a lot easier than Susan's material--one must have range, vocal strength, and a developed lung/diaphram capacity. He's above-average, at best, honestly. If he's going to ever be successful, he's going to have to polish himself up a lot.

Second one is irrelevant. You are correct. I've seen enough Judge Judy to know that authorizing someone to drive a car doesn't exculpate them from responsibility for damages incurred during their stint of driving...even if they only did it as a "favor," ESPECIALLY since there was clear, demonstrable evidence of negligence on his part.

Not really. I highly doubt they'll get the magcal 3/4s. House is on 2-yr term limits, so this is just for political show. Senate won't do a thing, and Congress won't override the veto by 3/4 vote.