Comments by "deezel_fairy" (@deezelfairy) on "WNYT NewsChannel 13" channel.

@RustyZipper It's a fair point. Personally, I think it is why the homeowner is calm because he knows he shares some culpability. I know I'd be saying something if a crane was about to put its outrigger down on what is essentially a big hole under my lawn. One thing's for sure - the home owners and the tree surgeons insurance companies are going to be battling this out for a while.
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 @Wildman-zh8lg A walk around isn't going to reveal a buried septic tank. I think quite a few people are going to have some shared culpability for this one.
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@NomenClature-o8s Errm, that's what public liability insurance for a business is for. Most accidents are due to some sort of negligence. If you rear end someone in your car it's because you were either following to close or not paying attention - that's negligence, your insurer still pays out. It can be different in some circumstances such as if the crane had been inspected recently and found to have had a dangerous defect, was tagged out and used before it was repaired but not just for an operator messing up. What will happen if they deem it to be negligence is their premiums will go through the roof or may refuse to reinsure them at the end of the term.
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@RustyZipper I'm not sure what your arguing 😂 I agree with everything you've said. As for your examples: 1) If you rear end someone's car because they stamped on the brakes for no reason when you were both travelling in the same lane at the same speed then that's 100% on you. You're supposed to leave enough braking distance for that circumstance. Whether they slam on the brakes for no reason or a genuine reason is irrelevant. If you drive something like a pickup that stops slowly that's for you to make the allowance for your vehicles braking ability. Now, if said little sports car suddenly pulled into your lane, into the braking space you'd left as a responsible driver and then slammed on his brakes that's a different story. 2) Depends on what you mean by not 'disclosed by the homeowner'. The crane operator should definitely have been asking the question. If the home says "no, you're good there" I'd say that the accident would be on the home owner. If he'd said "I'm not sure" things start coming back a bit more on the crane operator because at this point you should be stopping and reassessing. If no one said anything to anyone I'd say it's a shared culpability issue.
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 @steven4315 Not always, they're frequently completely buried and septic tank guys have to frequently dig them up to empty them.
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Even crane mats/cribbing aren't going to help if you unknowingly put an outrigger down over a septic tank. The big argument between the two insurance companies is going to be if the crane operator knew the septic tank was there and if not, why not.
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