The blame game

Imagine if you fell on a shop floor and a few months later, the shop paid you a million dollars. Would you think that was fair? It might be fun to have a million dollars but what do you think would happen to the shop and the people who work there? What if everyone who fell in a shop sued for millions? Worse, what if people started to fall down in shops on purpose just so they could sue too?

Here in the US it seems that anytime someone has an accident – whether it’s real or fake - they look for someone to blame. This week I read about a teenager called Alex Good who is suing a golf course for $3 million because he hit himself in the eye with a golf ball. The week before that I read about a woman called Cathy Marrero who is suing workers at a mall for laughing at her when she fell into a fountain while texting on her phone.

Of course sometimes companies and professional people are to blame for accidents and should pay compensation. But often accidents that happen to people result from their own bad luck or stupidity, in which case they need to take responsibility, learn from the experience and move on.

Watch Cathy fall into the fountain while texting at the Berkshire Mall in Wyomissing in Pennsylvania - and decide who you think is to blame: