PVCC Puma Press: April 2006

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	Photo by Megan Thornton
	In less than a two-week period in February, the Puma Press picked up 15 stray golf balls in and around the new parking lot.
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By Megan Thornton
News EditorWhen parking in the new parking lot on the east side of campus be sure to notice a yellow sign that stands on the right side of its entrance. This sign reads “Caution flying golf balls...Use Paradise Valley facilities at your own risk.”

The problem?

The parking lot borders the Paradise Valley Golf Course, making the new lot vulnerable to stray balls flying over a chain link fence. From Feb. 2-14, the Puma Press found 15 golf balls in and surrounding the new parking lot. Their locations ranged from inside planters bordering the lot to the drive next to the M-East office building.

The warning sign set in place by the college advises drivers to use the lot at their own risk. In terms of law and liability what does this mean?

This sign is shifting the risk and the responsibility from the golf course or college to drivers and pedestrians. This is called assumption of risk, and it is defined as “taking a chance in a potentially dangerous situation.” In the case of a negligence case, it means the defendant, which in this case would be the college, claims that the situation was so obviously hazardous that the injured plaintiff should have known that there was danger.

Attorney Robert Pastor of Haralson, Miller, Pitt, Feldman and McAnally, P.L.C., of Phoenix, says that a lawsuit against the campus concerning damage due to a golf ball in the new parking lot would most likely not hold up in a court of law.

However, it all depends on the number of golf balls that land in the lot and the severity of damage. For instance, the defense for one shattered car window would most likely not hold up in a liability suit. However, if someone suffered permanent physical damage, the golf course or campus could be responsible for a percentage of the negligence.

Pastor says, “Perhaps this example shows why scales are used to symbolize justice. It’s a constant balancing test.”

The new parking lot opened Saturday, Jan. 13, offering drivers over 300 new and much needed parking spots—without the safety of a net to catch stray golf balls from the neighboring course. However, PVCC plans to erect a net that will stand 40 feet high and stretch 1,700 feet around the perimeter of the parking lot, administrators say.

Why the delay?

The PVCC leadership council in its Capital Development update has found the net to be extremely costly at an estimated $400,000. Therefore, PVCC is reducing the cost by having faculty and students from CGCC’s Electric Utility Program erect the poles and net as part of a training program. The students will not be paid for working ; instead, they will earn course credit hours, saving the school and district money.

The college is also trying to share the costs of the net with both the Maricopa Community College District and Maricopa County (since it is the county’s golf course next door). In the meantime, the warning sign has been posted.

English faculty, Karen Kabrich, says that in the 2002-2003 school year, a stray golf ball shattered her office window. Her office, M183, is close to the middle of the M-East building on the first floor, bordering the far west side of the new parking lot.

After this incident, the college put a protective film on all the M-East office windows facing the golf course much like the film on a car windshield. The film reduces damage done by shattered glass.

Despite the warning sign, enough drivers are risking stray golf balls to fill the new parking lot during the campus’s busiest hours. Casey Durandet, physics faculty at PVCC, says, “Yes, a golf ball could do significant damage (such as break windows, or dent car metal), and it could potentially kill someone. To put it bluntly, I won’t park my car in the new parking lot.”

Jesse Munch, an information services computer technician at PVCC, is also concerned with the safety of students.

“Unfortunately there is the possibility of people intentionally hitting golf balls into our campus,” says Munch. He says that essentially the main concern is people’s safety. “Everyone needs to work together, so no one gets hurt. Money isn’t the principle; the principle is that people are safe.”