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Legal settlement for on-field soccer tackle
A player in the English soccer competition has settled a legal case of assault and battery on the football field by agreeing to pay the player he injured £250 000 pounds (US$480 000). The tackle that resulted in the case occurred six years ago. Although it did not result in a penalty in the game, it left the tackled player with a steel rod in his left leg and skin grafts from his buttocks to repair a hole in his ankle. His lawyers said doctors initially feared his leg might have to be amputated. It was claimed that the event ended the player’s career. The settlement, to be paid by insurers, represented 10% of the claimed amount plus costs. The tackling player, categorised as someone who went beyond the boundaries, argues that he is innocent of extreme action. The settlement was made without admission of liability (submitted by Caroline Finch; from The Age (Melbourne), February 2004).
Reflective camels
Western drivers may moan about road humps, but motorists in Saudi Arabia have a more arresting kind of hump to cope with—the type attached to a camel. Half a million camels roam the Saudi deserts and a high speed collision with one is a serious matter. They cause 600 accidents a year, killing about 150 people, mostly at night. Although there are warning signs where camels often cross the road, Ali Al-Ghamdi and his colleagues at the King Saud University, Riyadh, will report in Accident Analysis and Prevention that the standard triangular sign with a pictogram of the beast has no effect. But by doubling the size of the sign and giving it a reflective background, they have persuaded drivers to shave 7 km per hour off their normal average of 86 km per hour (submitted by Peter Jacobsen).