Making Collision Course Less Crowded : Newport Beach Is Protecting Taxpayers From Liability Lawsuits With Skateboard Ban

News item: “The Newport Beach City Council, despite receiving vigorous protests from skateboarders, banned the sport entirely from the city’s boardwalk on Nov. 9 to avoid more collisions--and more lawsuits.”

Now there’s a uniquely Orange County story of competing lifestyles literally in collision. It is also a testimony to the litigious times we live in. Even the places people go to escape the tensions of everyday life turn out to be pathways fraught with liability.

The council’s decision might have appeared, to some and on the face of it, excessively harsh. The decision was prompted not by skateboard accidents at all, but by an award last year that ordered Newport Beach to pay $277,000 to a pedestrian who was struck by a bicyclist on the oceanfront sidewalk. And then there was another suit still pending in which a roller skater fell when a dog jumped in her path. There also is a third lawsuit involving a bicycle accident.

But this is an “expensive lesson” as City Atty. Robert Burnham noted, even if the council did single out the skateboarders. And having everybody cry “victim” doesn’t seem particularly fair to the city, either. What could it possibly do to prevent a dog from jumping in the path of a determined cycler?

So it’s hard to argue with the calculation of cost on a narrow boardwalk of competing pleasure-seekers. The city had little choice but to endure the disdain of those who regard it as a spoilsport. Who can blame the city for trying to protect its own taxpayers?

The normal rules of civility inevitably are tested along the boardwalk. The right-of-way can get awfully narrow when boards and bikes compete with pedestrians and runners--especially if somebody on foot has to stop to tie a shoelace. Maybe to restore a sense of good will, the city can do something for the skateboard crowd--perhaps create a special park as some other cities have done.