Track incident or someone's fault?

Meh, perspective. Like I said, I'd be the first one to pay for an on track incident I caused. But wind/storm damage from a canopy that was tied down? Probably not.

 

Yep, people have different opinions. Nothing new. If the canopy had gotten loose earlier in the day, or was in disrepair and a part flew off etc I'd agree. But again, from what he said he took normal precautions we all would. Weather happens. It's still cool he helped pay the dude, but from my experience he was under no obligation to do so.

 

so put it this way, who put the canopy up? God or someone else?

Like a tree, if it falls down during a storm, Act of God. You couldn't close the tree before the storm, or cut it down every time there was a storm.

But a canopy is a temporary structure put there by someone. If they did not put it there, it would not exist, but it does exist, therefore it is the person's responsibility should anything happen to it. And OP said they did not tie down to the their best of their ability. So as a former adjuster, was everything 50/50 to you?

Well the rest of us know who to park next to at the track, and we know not to worry if your vehicle gets damaged. So Mr. Ass you may have a lot of vehicles and canopies near you at the track in the future, at least you won't get sunburned

 

[QUOTE="HPPT, post: 5606509, member: 1617 Just look at the poll here. It suggests that most responders see "reasonable" differently than you do.
.[/QUOTE]

I wonder how many voted before we got all the facts... seems like the opinions got a lot more divided after that.

 

Thoughts deeper than the Marianas Trench right here! Howsa bout if some of my neighbors shingles blew off his roof scratching up my minivan??? Act of Jesus (the roofer)?

 

Louisiana is a comparative negligence state, so if I wanted to piss someone off I could find them 7% at fault for not using their blinker

Reality was most everything was 100/0 as far as liability, with the occasional 50/50 for people who backed into each other or something.

There is no fault for a comprehensive claim. Wind, even wind blown objects, would be an act of God. Now, if you fail to secure a load in the back of your truck and it damages someone's vehicle, then there is liability.

You're getting hung up on "natural". If an earthquake had shaken his truck into another vehicle, would that be his fault? Same idea. Whether the object was natural or not doesn't matter, it's what caused it to move.

 

It's a large sail that is easily moved by any wind
and if you have any experience with them in an
open area then you should be aware how easily
they get blown over or carried away.

If an unusual wind event took place then I would
agree on the act of God reasoning, but if you haven't
secured it against wind speeds that might normally
occur, including gusts, then you rolled the dice and
if you take a chance and lose then you should pay.

You could have tied it down better and prevented the
damage but there's nothing the guy with the damaged
truck could have done to prevent the damage.

 

That goes back to the "reasonable" part. Most of us weigh them down with rims/tires, tool boxes, straps etc. If he didn't, then I would be inclined to assign him some blame. I just don't agree with people saying that because he owned the canopy he was immediately liable. Again though, JMO.

Anybody remember the Yoshimira canopy that sent 100lb of concrete flying through the air a few years ago?

 

You think they can successfully defend a civil suit in America if that falls on someone and kills them? I have some serious doubts.

 

The point is tying one side of your canopy down to a trailer and putting a decent amount of weight on the other side is reasonable on a day when winds are fairly light and not predicted to be strong. In reality it sounds like his canopy was tied down better than many in that same paddock, so I would say that is reasonable. Part of this goes back to how close the vehicle was parked to the canopy and which one was there first. Park 1" from my canopy and any scratches from it are on you, not me. I wouldn't set my canopy up within a foot of someone else's vehicle, unless it was an already all scratched up POS, then maybe a 6" minimum. Maybe this wasn't that close, as we didn't get those details.

 

Again, reason comes into play. Can you expect anyone to forsee 80mph winds that pop up out of nowhere from a supercell? I can't even pretend to predict what a jury would do, but if I'm assigning some arbitrary liability value it would be very very low. Again, act of God.

 

I remember at a 95 or 96 WERA endurance road at Memphis. It wasn't that windy but it was gusting a bit. JU had a 10 by 20 canopy set up on the wall when a huge gust hit. Theo Lockwood (Team Hammer mech. who is a big guy) grabbed the frame as the wind kicked in. He and the canopy went easily 8 or more feet straight up, and his feet were at least 5 feet off the ground. Then he and canopy slowly settled back on earth, it was like magic.

So if your using four 5 gallon buckets of water that's only 41 pounds per corner or 166 lbs., and that's not enough weight. Since you have 4 buckets 4 more will store/stack into the others so at least put 2 buckets per corner IMHO for over 300 lbs. to hold the thing. OR tie two corners to the trailer, truck, fence, or whatever and use the buckets on the other TWO corners.

 

I get what you're saying. What I'm saying is that if you feel that you're going to need that much weight to hold it down, maybe the reasonable thing to do is not to put it up. Or to secure it with something that really can't move.

 

Just show how lease returns can go. BMW charged $550 for this scratch on the bumper. (thanks Mr. Valet) and I mean for a car that was street parked in NYC for most of it's life or at my wive's parking garage, that was the only thing on the bumper.

 

If it's going to storm, and you know it, don't put it up. I think we can all agree on that. But that's not what we are talking about is it?

 

Right, we're discussing the phantom gust out of nowhere on an otherwise completely calm day. I forgot.

 

I don't even know what you're arguing any longer. Carry on.

 

1500$ doesn't go far in a body shop if you've ever been to one btw..

 

This:

Do onto others as you wish others to do onto you.

 

unto