[TheThinkTank] Rides, Alley Cats and Liability...

[Jonathan Morrison]

Our insurance allows for legal rides (not races or illegal races).  Due to
the lack of route, permits, and the behavior of alley cat riders the y are
usually too illegal to argue in court.  So play their game....

1) Make sure that the alley cat organizers are not directly affiliated with
your organization.
2) Make sure the organizers don't have a penny to their name.  No house, no
car, no trust fund, no wealthy parents.  Because waivers mean nothing in
court, the fact that someone has "nothing" is the best insurance going.
3) Structure the event like critical mass so it is hard for people to figure
out who the organizers are.
4) Have those organizers donate the proceeds to your organization.
"Proceeds will benefit..."
5) In the case of an incident (someone gets hit) become the most amazing
support network that person has ever seen.

On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 3:36 PM, joshua muir <muirjoshua at gmail.com> wrote:

> American Specialty does cheap club insurance that involves club events.
>
> As far as orgs doing events, I think that would be a good way to do it, but
> more often it's just individuals putting events on, sometimes using
> facilities of places like the Bike Church.  My model is keeping it informal
> and yes, hoping for the best.
>
> josh
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 1:49 PM, Velocipede Bike Project <
> info at velocipedebikeproject.org> wrote:
>
>> Hey all--
>>
>> I've noticed a bunch of groups out there sponsoring events that include
>> alley cats and such.  All the people I've talked to about liability have
>> always said that we, as an entity couldn't sponsor a ride with out paying
>> a ton for insurance.  I know that some groups use bike club insurance to
>> cover rides, but I've always assumed that most insurance companies
>> wouldn't cover an event like an alley cat.  Am I wrong?
>>
>>  How have you guys dealt with the issue of liability for rides and alley
>> cats?  just ignore it and hope for the best? other sneaky things?  I
>> always feel like such a stick in the mud when people want us to do alley
>> cats and we say we can't cause of liability....
>>
>> -beth
>> velocipede bike project
>> baltimore, md
>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Joshua Muir
> joshua at santacruzhub.org
>
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