It's not always Govt's fault
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Jul 12, 2010 - ST Forum
FALLING TREESIt's not always Govt's fault
MR MARK Khor ('Car struck by falling tree during storm'; July 3) said his car was hit by a tree along the Central Expressway during a rainstorm. I do not know the extent of the rainstorm, but if it was a very violent one, then it could be classified as an 'act of God'.
It is easy to blame the National Parks Board (NParks) for such accidents. Although NParks has a duty to maintain trees, it is also hampered by budget, manpower and equipment constraints.
Is it feasible for NParks to spend large amounts of money each year and employ an army of workers to inspect every tree lining our roads and highways?
NParks can be liable for only recognisable flaws in trees that pose a threat to people or property.
To prove negligence, there must be a legal duty requiring NParks to conform to a standard of conduct to protect motorists against unreasonable risks. There must be a breach of duty and a connection must be established between the action or inaction and the resulting injury or damage.
Mr Khor should bear in mind that it would be an impossible task to employ a big team of arborists to inspect every tree on properties adjacent to highways. Acts of God are beyond the control of NParks and its team of employees.
Heng Cho Choon
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always somebody's fault.
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reminds me of the stupid woman i saw at a swimming pool which had lots of greenery around it..
she saw there were some bees and other insects, she went to accost the lifeguard and demanded that the whole place be fumigated so that there are no insects at the place...
stupid woman..
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One must understand the term "Acts of God" before we can understand the circumstances.
"An event that directly and exclusively results from the occurrence of natural causes that could not have been prevented by the exercise of foresight or caution; an inevitable accident.
Courts have recognized various events as acts of God—tornadoes, earthquakes, death, extraordinarily high tides, violent winds, and floods. Many insurance policies for property damage exclude from their protection damage caused by acts of God"
I am not sure if not clearing choked drains and pruning trees is covered under acts of God. Unless, God equates to PAP.
Whether NParks is hampered by budget constraints or manpower is irrelevant. Why? If the windows in my HDB is rusty and I don't have the budget to have it repaired and a breeze caused my window to fall injuring someone. Is that an act of God?
It's more like negligence.
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if you know your window is about to fall off and a breeze makes it fall off, it's negligence and you are responsible...
however, if a tree looks okay, but it isn't, due to the sheer number of trees in Singapore, NParks overlooks one due to it looking all right, it falls over during a storm, NParks is not culpable...
and if a healthy tree falls over during a storm, NParks is even more not culpable..
but if they are told of a tree which is about to fall over, riddled with termites and half dead, they don't do anything about it over an unreasonably long time, and it falls over causing damage, NParks is culpable...
alas.. seems that common sense is not that common anymore and no one is willing to take responsibility for their own actions...
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Having a large number of trees doesn't preclude one from liability.
If you look at other democratic countries in the world, a falling tree doesn't preclude the government from any liability.
Do you consider the rainfall to be of storm category on 3rd July?
I give you the definition of the term "storm".
Tropical Storm
A tropical cyclone in which the maximum sustained surface wind speed (using the U.S. 1 minute average standard) ranges from 34 kt (62 km/h,17.5 m/s) to 63 kt (117 km/h, 32.5 m/s). The convection in tropical storms is usually more concentrated near the center with outer rainfall organizing into distinct bands.Were there any 62 km/h winds won 3rd July?
It was just a heavy downpour.
I suppose the lamp post that dropped on some kid some years ago was also not the responsibility of the town councils, because there are lots of lamp post around.
Trees are not only subjected to termites, they can also be attacked by fungi or any other internal abnormalities.
What makes you think that the tree involved has not been attacked by fungus or termites?
I wonder why common sense is not that common anymore, perhaps hampered by authoritarian rules.
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Let's face the facts, anything that happens that has any linkage to the government is always not the government's fault.
It's either an honest mistake, a 50 year freak event, some little guy in the organisation's fault and an act of god.
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the trees and the flood are different matters...
like that, people need not take personal responsibility for their own safety...
there is a limit to how much the gabrament is responsible for.. they were not responsible for the winds.. and yes, sometimes surprisingly, they do reach that force...
and healthy trees have fallen down before...
like that, is the gabrament also responsible for woman who fell off the bridge after the crane that hit the bridge considering that the bridge is under the care of some unit?
show some spine for crying out loud..
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Originally posted by the Bear:
the trees and the flood are different matters...
like that, people need not take personal responsibility for their own safety...
there is a limit to how much the gabrament is responsible for.. they were not responsible for the winds.. and yes, sometimes surprisingly, they do reach that force...
and healthy trees have fallen down before...
like that, is the gabrament also responsible for woman who fell off the bridge after the crane that hit the bridge considering that the bridge is under the care of some unit?
show some spine for crying out loud.
So did the wind on 3rd July reached 62 km/h to be categorized as a storm?
I hope you an introduce some logic in your reasoning, not having the budget or manpower does not exempt anybody from responsibility if responsibility is due.
For the case of the bridge, I would think that the driver and the company employing the driver is responsible, not the government as so comically suggested by you.
One has to be impartial when making judgements. Wait a second, maybe the driver or the company wasn't responsible, it's an act of god, there were dust blown into the driver's eyes and it prevented him from seeing the bridge. Or maybe, an act of god means he has lower than normal intelligence that prevented him from seeing that the crane is too high for the bridge. Maybe the company doesn't have the budget to employ more drivers and the driver is working under alot of stress. Maybe the company has too many cranes and it's impossible for them to keep track of all the cranes.
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Actually the title is best changed to "Since when is it ever the government's fault, the government is omnipotent and never will be at fault".
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I also like how the author phrased the liability as "unreasonable risk".
To prove negligence, there must be a legal duty requiring NParks to conform to a standard of conduct to protect motorists against unreasonable risks. There must be a breach of duty and a connection must be established between the action or inaction and the resulting injury or damage.
Mr Khor should bear in mind that it would be an impossible task to employ a big team of arborists to inspect every tree on properties adjacent to highways. Acts of God are beyond the control of NParks and its team of employees.
If you have a tree planted in your back yard, the likelihood that the tree will fall at some point in it's lifetime is considered "unreasonable risk".
Impossible task to employ a team of arborists to inspect trees?
This statement is retarded. It is not impossible.
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The government didn't even exempt themselves from responsibility, it's the stupid people of Singapore who thinks that they are not responsible for falling trees.
"The defence of Act of God provides NO excuse unless the "act" was so unexpected that no reasonable human foresight could be presumed to anticipate its occurence."
I suppose the act of precariously grown tree branches falling is beyond reasonable human foresight of occurence? Maybe that's what you meant by common sense is no longer common.
http://www.cod.gov.sg/uploads/ipam/LegalLiabilityofthegovernment.ppt
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Not sure if it's Nparks or SLA now.
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always somebody's faults.
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Singaporeans love to complaint this... complaint that.... go out of Singapore ( for a world tour ) then... you will realised that home is always sweet...