This isn't a legal case, but there are some similarities.
A woman I used to work with had her knee completely blown out by a simple prank that a guy played on her. She was standing, lock-kneed, talking to someone when this guy used his own knee to tap hers from behind.
I'm sure you've all seen this, done this or had it done to you. The trick is supposed to work that it "unlocks" your knee, causing your leg to collapse a bit...a startling, kind of "gotcha" surprise.
In this case, the woman's knee buckled, tearing her ACL, ripping up her patellar tendons, damaging her cartilage, etc. It was major damage requiring significant surgical repair.
The woman HAD been active in sports (volleyball, softball, etc.) at a fairly competitive level, but the damage to her knee was bad enough that she had to give most of them up.
All the guy could do was say he was sorry. And he was. Devastated by the horrible impact of his stupid prank.
Now, in his defense, he had no way of knowing that he would blow out her knee. It was a freak accident that could only have been foreseen in twenty-twenty hindsight. Still his responsibility, though.
But after that happened, I quit doing that prank. I used to pull it on people from time to time, just for something stupid to do. Not anymore. The accident was (and still is) the only time I've ever heard of anything like that happening and would likely never happen again, even if I continued to do it. But the possibility that it could happen far outweighs any potential chuckles I might get from the gag.
More interestingly, pretty much everyone I've ever told this story to has also quit pulling the prank. I'm not militant about it. I usually tell a short version of the story only once and let it drop at that. Most folks are like me and simply don't want to risk it.
THAT'S an effective deterrence, IMO. The woman's suffering and the man's guilt/shame are all the example I needed to decide not to pull that particular prank. I'll stick to hand lotion on the telephone handset. ;) |
