Blackduck Valley Bike and 4WD part in the poo

[Doc]

Just saw a news report about a bike rider dying at the Blackduck Valley complex. A very sad thing indeed but what I find annoying is the family of the man are sueing Blackduck for what's called a lack of 'duty of care' that would ensure the riders safety. She admits 'he was there having fun' but says 'there are no speed limits imposed nor is there any rider testing beforehand' what tha!! Since when was there a speed limit on a practice or race track!! It was a flippin' accident!! It's tragic but what's also sad is now it seems like Blackduck will be forced to shut as well due to this lawsuit. Another person has also been killed in a 4wd that rolled and the family of this person are also jumping on the wagon. If they want to cut the road toll with younger people then there should be more of these parks and not less!! Closing it will achieve nothing. 

[Nathan S]

You're completely right, Doc.... Not that it changes anything, of course.

It would seem that there's a nice little system that serves primarily to support itself:
1. Person gets hurt/killed.
2. Lawyer gets into the ear of the person who's suffering*.
3. The Sufferer then sues the organiser/land owner/who-ever.
4. The Organiser/Land owners/Who-ever's insurance company rolls over, and pays out the claim, not matter how unreasonable.
5. The insurer then refuses to re-insure the O/L/P because they're too high a risk.

Alternatively, it does go to court, a whole heap of highly unrealistic expectations are applied, and there's a greater than average chance that the insurer will pay out anyhow...

I hate it all. The sooner we have a state-run fund to pay the expenses of people who are accidentally killed or seriously injured, the sooner our legal system and insurance market can return to some form of sanity.
And yes, I'd be more than willing to pay more tax to cover it.

*I refuse to use the word "victim" in this context - undoubtedly some people are victims, but equally, some people are also greedy, selfish morons too.

[Wombat]

A bloke wrote to the paper a while back and it went something like this:

If we fall off a chair in the kitchen at home, we pick ourselves up and feel like a bit of a dill.
But if we fall off a chair at a Shopping Centre we attempt to sue for thousands of dollars!

and he's correct; I work in Shopping Centres and the stories I hear and the incident reports I fill out are amazing.
I think so much of the Solicitors work is to split hairs and dissect every possible outcome for every possible event and twist it to show 'more should have been done' to protect his Client.

It will only get worse; I can't see it going backwards as all incidents and payouts are now precedents for the next one!

[GMC]

I hope Chad doesn't sue the AMA then.

I don't believe their were any speed limits posted at the Detroit supercross

[mx250]

Sad news all round.

Couldn't comments on the rights or wrongs without all the facts but it one of the sad facts of being in business.  You can run a perfect business for ten years and have thousands of satisfied and well serviced customers, and then lose $100,000 in legal fees without been found guilty, just to prove you run a world's best practice safe business.

[090]

Black Duck has an accident waiting at every corner. Its the nature of the beast. It frustrates the hell out of me how someone can go to a high risk place and participate in high risk activities and cry foul when they get bitten. I guy died last year when his quad's rear end collapsed while landing off a 100 footer. Its a 4th gear flat out on a 250f. I watched a guy a month ago jump a 130 ish footer while at Black Duck while wearing the usual freestyle attire , helmet ,boots, shorts and singlet. Its a top gear almost topped out on a 250f kinda jump. They also have freestyle ramps. Gee i wonder what will happen if a gumby hits one of those let alone a skilled freestyler trying a difficult new trick. Its all a roll of the dice.All the dangers are there plus you then add the dickhead element as well. As much as i like the place , it was only a matter of time. I will be shattered if it closes.

[211kawasaki]

when the guy on his 525 KTM overtook me on the back wheel in the car park it pissed me off but when I realised he had his 3 year old on the tank with no protective clothing - nothing, not even a helmet, I decided never to go back, no matter how much I like track 2 it just isnt worth the risk the place is has great potential but in the absence of any regulation its a disaster just waiting to happen.

I agree if you go and participate in a dangerous sport, do the big jumps, ride past your ability and wipe yourself out then so be it but if your there and some dick head takes you out while traversing the car park or similar then its a different deal.
211

[090]

Too true!

[Maico31]

Yeah dave i nearly had a head-on driving into the place with some forkwit coming round a corner on his bike on the wrong side of the road with his kid sitting in front of him and neither wearing a helmet. The tracks are good but the place is a real forkwit magnet and it's got me buggered how they get away with absolutely no policing and wankers racing round in every direction.
Brad i was there not long after they put the ramps in and the cops were there and the freestyle area closed cos a guy had died jumping a ramp the previous day.

[evo550]

There have been a number of fatalities over the years, How does he get insurance??

[firko]

You guys could all be talking about Pacific Park near Windsor, just out of Sydney. It's a free for all for dickheads in flannelette and thongs doing everything obnoxious you could think of on a dirt bike.  I almost ran over a little 6 year old girl on a Pee Wee in the blinding dust on the main MX track while I was going for it on a 610 Husky. I was so upset I was shaking uncrontrollably and when I eventually calmed down and approached her parents to ask why they had let a little girl on to the main track, they upped me, telling me that they had perfect right to let her ride where they chose and that I should have been looking out for her, conveniently overlooking the fact that there is a perfectly good pee wee beginners track adjacent to the main track. I was dumbfounded by their stupidity and loaded up and have never been back. People have been killed there as well but the owner still keeps the place open.
 I hate these places.

[Doc]

yeah Firko I too agree, I have not and will not ride at Blackduck due to reports of similar dickhead antics. I'd rather take my chances on isolated fire trails and powerline rides if I am to ride away from the race track. Problem is if they shut the place the antics will carry over onto the street or somewhere else..at least we knew where collectively most of the nut cases ride and we could stay away

[dkupf]

It's nice good to hear someone has died  But I rode at Blackduck a couple of years ago and decided that I'd never go back due to the dickhead factor. My niece and her boyfriend are ambo's in Gatton. They think I shouldn't ride there while I'm down there. So they ring me just about every week-end and tell me they have to go out to Blackduck again and save someone and how it should be closed down. They told me 2 weeks ago  that Blackduck was having trouble with  public liability insuarance. The trouble is if they close it down is all the dickheads from there are going to go out riding around the back roads and realy piss the general public off as well as fall off out there somewere were, they won't be missed until they don't come home. So then we have another bike statistic on our hands .  Darcy

[vandy010]

yep! lets close all these places down and put all the wankers in our local bushland around suburbia. after all, with the low decibel level our sport is to undergo, surely all the comotion will be no louder than the good old rover mower.

it's been a while since i've been to blackduck. from memory, i had to sign a rather indepth indemnity upon entry to the place. unfortunately, a lot of dickheads can't read so they skip straight to the signiture part then piss off on thier bike in whatever direction at whatever speed they please.
i liked the place but when theres literally hundreds of acres, i'm sure it's hard to police and death is never a nice subject to have to endure.
lets hope dickheads learn how to read and comprehend.

[Nathan S]

Interesting that there's no policing.
I thought that the (now defunct) Bike Farm was a dickhead magnet, but I saw plenty of people kicked out for dickhead behaviour.... Certainly didn't have the serious injury/fatality rate that Black Duck seems to have.

So maybe the solution is simply a bit of policing?