What has happened to commonsense and personal responsibility?

A friend flipped a Bond Bug years ago and the emergency services requested a payment from him but recouped from his insurance. Seems a good option, for me

I can’t believe some of the incidents of idiocy I’ve just read on here! “What has happened to common sense and personal responsibility?” Quite.

We came across a warning sign by the sea in California - " Drowning is a once in a lifetime experience" I fear a lot of people here wouldn't get it!

There are hundreds of seals on many beaches around the Norfolk coast at the moment. In full moult so they're not as waterproof and just lounging around trying not to go into the sea too often. One dad was seen trying to sit his toddler onto the back of one to take a picture. Another hit one in an effort to make it move and drove it into the sea. These are big creatures with a big bite. There are signs saying to stay off the beach and give them a wide berth as they can move fast when need be yet there are idiots wandering amongst them. The common sense gene obviously passed them by.

All dogs should be on leads when they are near cliffs, fields with sheep in.
If there a wood nearby or an area such as a commen then they can run free. We never let our dogs off where farms are.
I have noticed lately it seems that a lot of people just don’t put leads on dogs even when walking along the road, we had a gentleman that used to ride his horse with a small cart around our little B roads, a dog not on a lead ran out barking at the horse who reared up and then bolted the poor man fell if and died from severe injuries, not the dogs fault it’s down to the owner.

Years ago s friend ‘flipped’ his bond bug. Someone called an smbulance. He was checked at scene but not taken to hospital.
A few weeks later he got a letter requesting a set payment which, the letter said, could be claimed from his insurance.
Maybe in the event of ANY accident the insurance could pay?

Eloethan

The countryside (and indeed towns and cities) is becoming ugly with signs everywhere. Notices, parking, directions, diversions, warnings, must not, do not, stop/go, ads and sandwich boards cluttering pavements.
We don't need a nanny state where, if we're not told NOT to do something, we assume that we CAN do it, instead of using our own logic and reason.
It all comes down to the OP's headline - personal responsibility.

I agree that there is a regrettable shortage of common sense, but I’m not convinced that it’s any worse now than it used to be.
Looking back sixty years to when I was a small girl, I can rememember frequent ‘tuttings’ about the stupid things that were done under the pretext of “Well, I didn’t know!”, and of course “ Young people these days!” has been doing the rounds since Noah was a lad.
I do think that there is more of a sense of entitlement around, tho’. Blame has to be apportioned, and no one will admit that they were silly and have paid the price.

Recently I saw some episodes on TV, of a series about the brave people who volunteer for the RNLI. They were tremendously circumspect about people who had needed to be rescued after going for a swim while drunk (eg), but I was furious about the risk they endure for idiots!!

No one seems to have any common sense nowadays!

Some years ago two boys dug a deep hole on a sandy beach while their father watched. They then let their 3 year old sister climb in. The sides collapsed and the little girl suffocated.

The complacent watching father - until the collapse - was a teacher.

You cannot legislate for stupidity. although nowadays we keep trying. All it does is make people more stupid.

Katek, I don't know what's happened to common sense and personal responsibility. It's so obvious that a dog might chase a bird, a rabbit or just get over excited and leap off a cliff edge that it should be on a lead.
Everything seems to have to be the responsibility of "them" or "they" who should put signs up and prevent any of us getting into difficulty anywhere.

As for x breeds. That's a whole other thread. I won't start it because I own two them, volunteer with a rescue charity that re-homes the many that turn out to be, well, dogs, rather than a ball of fluff that looks nice, doesn't moult, is always easy to train and good with children, plus can be left for hours on its own without eating the skirting boards.

To make absolutely sure that no-one could say "I didn't know", how far apart would you have to put notices warning that cliffs and tides are dangerous? Every fifty yards? (people might approach the coast at right angles and miss it otherwise.) Britains coastline, including islands, is said to be anything between 10,000 and 19,000 miles long. At about 350 per mile that would be at least 3,500,000.

At least it would make work for sign-writers and post-erectors.

Life is very dangerous. 100% of people who are alive now will die at some time in their lives!

The natural world was not designed by a health and safety expert, and it doesn't come with a user manual with a chapter on "Troubleshooting". If you venture outside an air-conditioned, thermostatically controlled environment where poisonous creatures and unguarded edges are banned you have to first either research online every hazard you are likely to encounter or use that lump of grey matter inside your skull to think about what will happen if you prod an adder or let your dog run pell-mell over a cliff edge.

And how many dogs can read whilst their owners gaze at the butterflies and birds

I wonder what it would cost to put up notices saying things like "Cliffs are dangerous", "Beware of tides", etc.

I'm getting to a fuxake moment. Better baggy off.

Also outgoing, the sort that sweep people off their feet and carry them out to sea. My dad told we kids about stuff like this whenever we went to a beach.

There are fast incoming tides all around the UK. Perhaps people need educating more about the forces of Nature. Nature isn't all warm and cuddly. I do feel people should know that without needing to be told.

I'm just glad the little dog was all right. Maybe the owner should have had more sense but I can't see the problem in putting a warning notice somewhere - but not a fence, obviously.

I agree asking a young boy to poke a snake with a stick is a stupid thing to do and the father is being unreasonable in blaming anyone other than himself.

Apparently the tide at Camber Sands sweeps in very quickly and can leave people stranded on sandbanks, surrounded by deep water and strong currents. In my view, there should have been notices and a lifeguard.

Sadly everything is someone else's fault these days. People are very self obsessed. They do what they want and no one can say then nay

The human cost of some of these rescues is incalculable; can you imagine the trauma resulting from digging out dead bodies from under tons of earth? Our rescue services face untold dangers needlessly.

From the Glencoe Mountain Rescue website:
"Q: Should climbers and walkers be made to pay towards the cost of their rescue?
A: No. A simple cost/benefit analysis shows mountaineering generating a massive tax take through v.a.t and fuel duty as well as millions of pounds spent within the local economy. Set against this the cost is very small. Hill goers tend to be fit and do not put high demands on the health service. Those we help usually financially help us."
I was surprised to read that.

It would be the Peterhead Lifeboat then, not his. Still taking Men and Women away from the jobs and families, highly trained volunteers putting their lives at risk because of STUPID people.
Sorry I feel strongly about this subject, no I am not sorry, could we put fines for stupidity.
The courts would be overflowing

I agree that dog walkers should pay to have their animal rescued, people are risking their lives because of thoughtless owners.

We have several thousands acres of ancient parklands locally, much of it covered in bracken. In certain areas the public are advised to keep to the main paths and keep their dogs on a lead because of adders.
Well one dad and his 11 year old lad decided to go " off piste". The lad did come across an adder basking in the sunshine, his dad told him to poke it with a stick to see what it would do.
Well you can guess what it did. The lad was taken to the local hospital and treated with anti-venom serum and discharged.
The following day the local papers were full of the dad demanding to know what the park were going to do about it? Beggars belief.