Don wrote in article
.. .
Hey there, got an unusual question:

I live out in the country and part of my front yard is on a curve.
Constantly when it is wet outside, cars go too fast around it despite
signs being posted and end up sliding in my front yard. There is a
small ditch along the road that they go through and into my front
yard. Yesterday, someone even took out a bush I had planted at the end
of my driveway.

ANy bright ideas on what I could do? I thought about taking a tiller
and making the ditch deeper where it would be harder for cars to go
through. I even though of welding together some sort of guardrail to
but on my side of the ditch.

Any help woould be greatly appreciated!


In the town I grew up in, one guy had a similar problem with cars failing
to make a curve at the end of a high-speed stretch of road, and ending up
in his back yard.

He placed some seven to ten-foot tall boulders in the path.

Problem is, in today's litigous society, anything you place in the possible
path of a car just might make you libel for injuries that might not have
occured if the obstacle was not there, and the person's car simply came to
a stop in your yard with no man-made obstacles placed in their path -
especially since there is a history/precedent of people walking away
uninjured from forays into your front yard prior to you setting up any
barriers, etc.

We've all read about burglars suing homeowners for unsafe conditions
causing injury while they were attempting to commit a crime. There are
lawyers who are willing to launch just about any sort of lawsuit -
frivolous or not.

I would lobby the local government for some sort of guardrail, or
government-placed barrier - which should absolve you of any responsibility.

I also think a visit to your lawyer to determine what you can do without
placing yourself in jeopardy might be a good first step. Get his opinion in
writing, if you can.