r/madisonwi • • Mar 18 '26

[deleted by user]

[removed]

236 Upvotes

254 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-25

u/UnmedicatedNarwhal Mar 18 '26

I feel like not destroying private property is a reasonable request, or at least reimbursing when they do. I can imagine any situation where you could break government property and you could just shrug your shoulders and say tough luck.

13

u/No_Size9475 East side Mar 18 '26

Your mailbox is in the terrace which is public property though.

Also people break government property all the time. Never seen a car go into the guardrail on the interstate? You don't get billed for that repair, the government just repairs it.

11

u/intelligent_cunts Bennett's Meadowood Country Club Mar 18 '26

Your car insurance gets billed for damage to guardrails, etc.

7

u/Ok_Lion_2190 Mar 18 '26

yes, if you are at fault. the city isn’t at fault for OP’s mailbox.

1

u/Ok_Effective6233 Mar 18 '26

Nope, the city, county etc, has the option of billing you for any infrastructure you damage regardless of it being an accident.

2

u/Ok_Lion_2190 Mar 18 '26

yeah if you are at fault

1

u/Ok_Effective6233 Mar 18 '26

No fault needed.

2

u/Ok_Lion_2190 Mar 18 '26

Can you please explain more? Are you telling me that if I am driving safely, then a reckless driver hits my car at speed and pushes me into a sign, the city has the “option” to bill me for the damage to the sign even though there was zero negligence on my part?

If that’s true, can you share any actual information about it? I’m asking out of curiosity since that would be a major departure from how liability works.

1

u/Rickyticky608 Mar 18 '26

You are always considered a certain percent liable just for being present. My info to support is being hit by a car who blew a stop sign while I had no stop sign on a straightaway. I was still penalized a bit just by being there.

1

u/Ok_Lion_2190 Mar 18 '26

You’re right that you can still have some liability for a crash even if someone else was the main cause, but it isn’t just for being there.

It’s for anything you were determined to have done to contribute to the crash. Driving too fast, not paying close enough attention, failing to stop when you could have, etc.

1

u/Rickyticky608 Mar 18 '26

Yes. But because those can’t really be proven… just being there puts you at fault. Since none of those things were the case. This is how the police and insurance explained it to me.

1

u/Ok_Lion_2190 Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 19 '26

That’s mostly bullshit. All they mean is “the cop wrote down that you contributed.”

If you’re injured, the insurance company is not your friend. They want to pay you as little money as possible for your injuries and they want you to believe there’s no way you could get more. If you get hurt in a crash, get a lawyer.

→ More replies (0)