My family went out to eat the other night at a fondue restaurant. My sister, who works in the insurance industry, kept wondering aloud about the restaurant’s exposure to risk.
Scalding-hot metal pots on high-heat burners were the centerpiece of our table-a requirement for fondue. Each time the waitress appeared to bring us more eats and drinks, she warned us not to touch the pots and to make sure we cooked each piece of meat thoroughly. Was she telling us this out of concern for our well being or because it was an insurance requirement?
That fear of lawsuits also is driving the “Don’t use your cell phone while you pump gas” brouhaha taking place in gas stations across America. It’s ridiculous that so much attention is being devoted to an item that (as far as anyone can document) has not ever happened-except that insurance companies and lawyers regularly deal in the realm of the ridiculous.
BP Amoco, Chevron and Exxon now issue statements that electronic devices, including cell phones, should be turned off when pumping gas because the devices could spark a fire. No one can actually point to an instance where cellular-phone use has caused an ignition at a gas station. Nevertheless, the oil companies say they are just following the lead of some phone manufacturers, which also warn that cell phones could spark an ignition.
The irony is that CTIA has had to dismiss as urban legend something its own members started.
I am much more suspicious of the person smoking a cigarette pumping gas than I am a cell-phone user-not because of the sign that says extinguish your cigarette, but because I know that lit cigarettes burn and gas also burns.
If society is going to continue to be influenced by insurance costs and lawsuits, we should develop a rating system based on the likelihood of something happening. (Cigarette smoking at gas pump could rate 50; cell phone use could rate 1 or so). If you ran a business in downtown Denver, in the last two years when the Broncos won the Super Bowl, there was a good chance your business might have experienced some vandalism as an unfortunate side effect of the victory celebration. However, this year, chances are pretty good your business won’t experience any Super-Bowl-victory vandalism.
A risk rating system won’t stop any lawsuits-just like a waitress warning a burner is hot is not going to stop a scalded patron from filing a lawsuit-but at least it would put issues in their proper perspective.
