Who's fault?


alwaysjerricky

Senior Member
Mar 30, 2013
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Just like any other Saturday, I was playing at a street soccer court at a nearby park with some friends and a few Malay strangers (boys). The street soccer court was fenced up but there were a few bars which have already fallen off (prob due to age) and some balls could pass through the gap.

While we were playing, a Malay boy kicked the ball too hard and it went out of the court, hitting a female jogger on the head (SO COINCIDENCE IKR). The first reaction of the boys (primary school I believe) was to laugh but my friends immediately stopped them. The Malay then went out and apologise but it told longer than expected as the victim was still not feeling well and kept clutching her head. I then went out to attempt to rectify the situation, only to see her female companion told us, "you say sorry no use, she is giddy you need send her see doctor)." At that point of time, we were literally at a loss of what to do, glancing around if there's anything we can do. There was a middle-aged man inside playing with us but he saw the situation and merely continued playing with the ball, ignoring the situation. The boy, being a boy, went back to play soccer as there was nothing he could do. I wanted to stop him as the victim has yet to recover but I was strangers with him so didn't want to do anything so just stood there waiting. Not long after, the victim recovered and she shouted (to my horror), "who's the IDIOT who kicked the ball?" I was quite shocked and went back to ask the boy to come out again so he came out, looking unhappy. The victim reprimanded him as to why he went back without waiting for her to recover and said that he was "irresponsible". She also asked what if she had internal damage, blood clog, etc. She then demanded his IC number, contact number, name and particulars and bla bla bla. At that time, my friend asked us to go back already as he did not want to invite any trouble. The funny thing was that he told us he saw a woman pulling the other's hand and telling her, "don't go in, don't go in" in chinese.

Anyway, my question is, if the woman were to really pursue the matter, who should she look for, boy, boy's parents, town council? Or should she even pursue the matter, knowing that he's just a schooling boy who accidentally kicked the ball out of the court? If you were her, what would you do?
 

The boy who kicked the ball will ultimately be responsible if the woman is injured from the incident. The boy can then counter that the town council did not ensure the integrity of the fencing therefore contributing to the accident. Both party will have to share the responsibility and any compensation.
 

wow. she didn't have to use all those words on a little boy. guess she's an elite. :bsmilie:
 

The boy could sue the lady for defamation for being publicly yelled at being an "idiot". Hehe
 

Deliberate malicious intent? No. Accident.

Negligence or reckless behaviour that cause harm to others? On the part of the boy; no. Accident. On the part of Town Council's lack of maintenance, maybe.

She can sue Town Council if she wants.

Like all cases trying to sue government or related bodies, it is a uphill task.

If a girl falling into MRT tracks losing both legs can lost a suit, how about getting hit by a soccer ball while jogging?
 

There are a lot of BS people that think the whole world owe them something.

In the end, an accident is an accident.
 

Deliberate malicious intent? No. Accident.

Negligence or reckless behaviour that cause harm to others? On the part of the boy; no. Accident. On the part of Town Council's lack of maintenance, maybe.

She can sue Town Council if she wants.

Like all cases trying to sue government or related bodies, it is a uphill task.

If a girl falling into MRT tracks losing both legs can lost a suit, how about getting hit by a soccer ball while jogging?

but TS never stated if the Ball went up over the fencing, or went through the gaps in the fencing.

if it's the former, it's not a maintenance issue. if it's the latter, it is.
 

but TS never stated if the Ball went up over the fencing, or went through the gaps in the fencing.

if it's the former, it's not a maintenance issue. if it's the latter, it is.

Then sue the boy. Adult person suing primary school boy. Engage a lawyer and take the boy to civil court.
 

How hard did the ball hit the woman's head? Did the Malay kid apologise first or did he simply ignore her and instead focus on retrieving the ball? Did the kids continue laughing or even jeer even when it was obvious she was hurt?

Too many uncertain facts here. It's impossible to say whether she was genuinely hurt or whether the kids behaviour aggrieved her and thus triggered the angry reaction or whether she was just being a b*tch. Frankly unless she suffers some lasting injury from the incident no lawyer or ombudsman would even view this case.
 

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cane the boy lar, public caning lor. so simple....he is a boy, what do you expect ? send him to jail ? funny leh, u people...
 

It really sounds sick how a simple accident is answered by calls for lawyers and whatnot. Is this the only answer this society has..?
 

It really sounds sick how a simple accident is answered by calls for lawyers and whatnot. Is this the only answer this society has..?

seems to me that Singaporean society is following American society :)
 

To me it is an accident, in this case someone got injured. If necessary, she should consult a doctor and if serious enough, seek compensation from Twon Council for poor maintenance. I don't think injury is so serious but the players should apologize. It does not mean the kicker is the only one at fault as he is playing with a group. Apologize is feeling sorry and not necessarily mean you are wrong.
 

It's an unfortunate case but interesting to discuss.

Firstly, I think there shouldn't be anything wrong with the lady if she had no pre-existing medical conditions. It's probably just shock that got her. And if she's a female who might not have any experience in contact sports, the impact caused her momentary giddiness.

But supposed she has some medical condition. And let's say she suffered some injury. If she bought insurance, that's fine. But if she wants to pursue the matter, the situation can become tricky.

Anyway, from my own experience, I find the law in Singapore to be very biased. Unless you have a lot of money and time, even if you are a victim, most of the time it is not worth taking a legal suit. The law here does not favour the commoner. Even if you win the suit, you can't get 100% of your money back in legal fees. And unlike in the US, you can't claim for damages like time wasted, trauma, etc.

In my opinion, I think it's irresponsible for the players to just walk away or continue playing. So the earlier report about Singapore being an "emotionless society" is right. It's commonsense, no matter how young the player is, to attend to the lady first and foremost. It doesn't matter if you don't know what to do. Just stand there at least. Ask her how she is. And if she needs medical attention, take her to the nearest clinic. This kind of thing you don't need to learn from textbooks. It's all about proper upbringing and a considerate society you live in, which Singapore lacks most of the time.

If the lady decides to sue, then I don't think the boy is at fault. That's because he was playing in a proper designated area. He could argue he was not flouting any law. The lady can try to sue the Town Council, of course. But this being Singapore, you want to take on the government, I think better forget it.

If the ball went through the metal railing due to poor maintenance, then the lady has a case. Even if the ball went over the railing, the lady could argue in court that the authorities didn't do a proper measurement of how high a ball can go. But like I said, in Singapore, it's not worth to pursue this in a legal manner.
 

...the victim recovered and she shouted (to my horror), "who's the IDIOT who kicked the ball?" I was quite shocked and went back to ask the boy to come out again so he came out, looking unhappy. The victim reprimanded him as to why he went back without waiting for her to recover and said that he was "irresponsible". She also asked what if she had internal damage, blood clog, etc. She then demanded his IC number, contact number, name and particulars and bla bla bla.

Sounds like she was upset first by getting hit by the ball in the head (unpleasant for anyone), and secondly also upset by the lack of apologetic response (you know, like if the person who kicked the ball apologised profusely from the start, stayed with her, offered to bring her to see doctor, etc, but his reaction was understandable, given if he was a young pri sch kid.), so perhaps in the heat of the moment, she just needed to vent a bit to show how hurt she was/felt, and elicit some empathy or guilt in whoever hurt her.

Of course, I wasn't there and this is pure inference/speculation based on your description of the incident.

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For further discussion along these lines, might be interesting to consider a slightly different scenario — Not bodily injury, but damage to personal property? What if someone had been in the area, and had our camera/smartphone knocked out of our hands by a stray ball while taking of a photo of something (this is CS afterall ;p) in another direction and thus unable to avoid the ball, and it unfortunately led to some level of damage? Would we bother seeking compensation? How would we go about doing that?
 

Another perspective would be to put the entire scene into a different country. What would happen? At first, the entire silly topic of suing each other is gone. The medical insurance of the person suffering injuries would cover the the costs, initially. Then they would get the costs back from the third party liability insurance of the person who caused the accident. Neither of the two persons has to fork out a single cent. They both can shake hands and smile.
 

Another perspective would be to put the entire scene into a different country. What would happen? At first, the entire silly topic of suing each other is gone. The medical insurance of the person suffering injuries would cover the the costs, initially. Then they would get the costs back from the third party liability insurance of the person who caused the accident. Neither of the two persons has to fork out a single cent. They both can shake hands and smile.

in another country, there would be dead bodies afterwards :)
 

in another country, there would be dead bodies afterwards :)

Especially if the boy who kicked the ball doesn't look sufficiently local, or somewhat different in any other way...
 

The victim would probably have to file a civil suit against the young boy. Then it will go to court and everyone will laugh at her.