One of the major benefits to COVID – 19 is that our neighborhoods have come alive with people interacting with one another again. I have gotten to know nearly all of my neighbors well (And I like them, to boot!) They are great people and we have all helped each other out.
One of the trends we see developing at GriffithLaw are more and more pedestrians and kids on bikes being hit by cars. In some of these cases, cars are going way too fast in crowded subdivisions with limited sight distances, overgrown vegetation, and with children …well… just being children. You know when you are driving in a subdivision that it presents challenges that are different than driving on main thoroughfares and highways.
In a recent case we were just chosen by a family to work for, their child was riding his bicycle in a neighborhood where there was a narrow portion of the roadway, in a curve, with heavily overgrown vegetation. The car driver was going way too fast, came around the curve and hit the 7-year-old child on a bicycle with horrific injuries. Unfortunately, the car’s driver and family member owner does not have enough insurance to cover the 2 week long Vanderbilt Trauma Center stay alone, much less money for the permanent injuries this child will have. Forever.
In our research, we looked at the HOA to see what they knew about the area. Here is what we have found so far (and this is from the HOA’s OWN WEB SITE!)
- Speeding is a continual problem in this specific area;
- There have been 2 other incidents at this same spot in the roadway in the past 12 months;
- The problem was brought up to the HOA at a board meeting by a concerned homeowner 6 months ago;
- Two years ago the HOA addressed the same issue, yet did nothing;
- Overgrown vegetation in the area directly controlled by the HOA is a continuing problem that the HOA has totally ignored;
- The HOA presented several safety measures to curb this type of incident, yet never acted upon them.
We strongly believe in personal responsibility and being accountable for your own actions. This applies to corporations, and to HOA groups. Somebody has to be overseeing and minding business in order to protect the safety of their member and guests from all dangers they know about. There is ZERO question that the HOA knew of the dangers and stated ideas to curb the danger.
The obvious question is… How many more kids have to get hurt or killed in this location before the HOA lifts a finger to do anything about this?
Our children are our future. They are worth doing the bare minimum steps to protect them from needless harm. Please!
Protecting Your Family…. It is more than our slogan. It is what we do.
John