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| Stahl v. Metropolitan Dade County, 438 So2d 14 (1983). A 13 year old boy was riding on a side path January 20, 1980. The asphalt side path was 5 feet wide and separated from the roadway by a parallel grassy area also 5 feet wide. It had been built in 1971 and since then had received no maintenance whatsoever. Tree roots had grown up underneath the path and caused bumpy pavement. On the day in question, the bicyclist was riding on the path and encountered the bumpy pavement. He went off the path and onto the road (there were trees in the grassy area between the path and the road, and the bicyclist may have gotten onto the roadway in an effort to avoid the trees). He was struck by an "oncoming" car and killed. (This is not made clear in the opinion, but it seems to imply that the boy was riding on the left side of the right-of-way, against the flow of normal roadway traffic.) The bicyclist may have been previously aware of the bumpy pavement and may have decided to travel on the roadway up to 1/4 of a block before being struck; the court held that this would not be an independent, intervening cause of the accident but that the county would have had no liability if the boy had deliberately chosen to ride on-road in the vehicular fasion. the court also held that a bicyclist cannot be expected to stop on a dime as a pedestrian can, that the path was otherwise "perfectly usable" and that Dade County was negligent in failing to maintain it. | ||||
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