Reckless behavior should carry legal liabilities

Reckless behavior should carry legal liabilities

Accidents happen, but what happened on Lake Erie last weekend wasn’t an accident.

About 134 ice fishermen were stranded on an ice floe that drifted a half mile from shore.

They were rescued by boats and helicopters. Those were expensive rides. Just how expensive, no one can say. Eleven fire departments, two sheriff’s departments and the U.S. Coast Guard responded to the emergency.

But what can be said is who will be paying for those rides. It’s you — the taxpayers — not the fishermen.

They took a risk

And that just isn’t right. Those fishermen had to be rescued because of a combination of foolishness, recklessness and bravado. It wasn’t an act of God, it was an act of stupidity.

The fishermen didn’t walk out to their fishing holes over solid ice. They had to step over a gap in the ice to get there. Wooden pallets provided a bridge over the widening crack.

Prudence would have told them that they were no longer on a safe, solid expanse of ice. They were stepping on a surface that at any moment could be come an ice floe and be swept out into vastness of Lake Erie. And that’s exactly what happened.

They not only placed themselves at risk, they placed the safety professionals and volunteers who came to their aid at risk.

An Associated Press story reported: “Many of those rescued made sure to save their buckets of fish, but had to leave the rest of their gear behind. Mike Sanger of Milwaukee said Saturday he was most upset that he missed a day of fishing. ‘It’s always a little dicey, but it’s excellent fishing, so I plan on coming again,’ he said.”

That’s the spirit, Mike.

But by the time Mike returns to Ohio for some more excellent fishing next season, we hope the General Assembly takes action to allow local communities to recoup their losses when people do stupid things that endanger first responders and drain local police and fire budgets.

Consider the circumstances

Such a law would not kick in every time someone needed to be rescued. As we said, accidents happen. But the Lake Erie ice floe of 2009 was no accident.

Civil and criminal laws recognize the difference between an accident, negligence and recklessness in other instances. State legislators should be able to craft a statute that distinguishes between reasonable behavior and reckless disregard and holds responsible those who cross the line.