Opinion on Matthew McHugh
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PARAGLIDER SUES BECAUSE IT WAS DANGEROUS
http://www.hotheads.com.au/stupid-lawsuits.htmFormer Nova 96.9 radio weekend breakfast presenter and novice paraglider Mathew McHugh, 33, had his left leg amputated below the knee after he hit a rock face at "free-fal"” speed while paragliding at Cook Terrace, Mona Vale Headland in 2014. He is suing a northern beaches council and the sport's governing body for more than $2 million, saying that they failed to warn him that the site was dangerous. McHugh was not insured, had only 30 hours flying experience and had never flown at Cook Terrace when he crashed into the rock face. He fractured his spine in four places, shattered his pelvis, broke his right ankle and foot and waited two hours for a rescue team to untangle him from a tree branch.
McHugh claims that the Hang Gliding Federation of Australia (HGFA) website should have classed the headland as a site for intermediate and advanced paragliders and warned that novices should not try to fly there. He also claimed Pittwater Council should have placed a sign at the site warning of past paragliding accidents. Insurers for the council and the federation both plan to strongly defend the claim. The HGFA has hit back by launching its own investigation, claiming that McHugh was flying "illegally" because he was not being supervised by a senior safety officer or a duty pilot.
McHugh's lawyer John Kambas said that they were not denying paragliding was dangerous. "What we are saying is that if he had a warning sign, if the website said this is an intermediate site, not a novice site, he would not have gone."
This is another one of those completely unjustified lawsuits, where a person who was allegedly a responsible adult, took a very obvious risk by jumping off a cliff while hanging from a piece of canvas, severely injured himself and is now blaming his foolhardiness on somebody else. Even an imbecile would realise that paragliding comes with risks and there are no guarantees of safety whatsoever. Even the most experienced paragliders in the world have been killed while engaging in this activity and McHugh would have known this. It's a dangerous pastime.
But McHugh is suing the HGFA and Pittwater Council for his own negligence. Why the hell should Pittwater Council erect a sign saying something like "Jumping Off This Cliff Is Dangerous" and why should the HGFA somehow take responsibility for McHugh's foolishness? HGFA had absolutely no requirement to class any places as dangerous or safe - this is entirely up to the fool who is thinking of jumping off those places to assess the risk. And does McHugh expect every place and every thing to carry warnings? Does he expect every razor blade to carry a placard stating that it is sharp? Does he expect a meal in a restaurant to have a sign stating that the food was dangerous because he tries to eat it, he might inadvertently choke on it and die?
However, the HGFA is very wrong in claiming that McHugh was flying "illegally" because he was not being supervised by a senior safety officer or a duty pilot. The HGFA is nothing more than a private association and it has no jurisdiction over anybody and has no rule-making authority. What McHugh did was completely legal. However, McHugh is doing what Hotheads calls "Extortion By Lawsuit", where somebody commits a stupidity and is injured, then tries to extort money from others by claiming that it was their fault. This sort of lawsuit should not only be immediately disallowed and all costs awarded against the plaintiff, but in fact the plaintiff should be charged with attempted extortion.
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- Form a national hang gliding organization without paragliders in it -
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