At least that was Thomas Guhl’s theory as to why the ball struck his windshield with high velocity while he was driving near the Eagle Oaks Golf and Country Club, injuring him. His $725,000 settlement is based on the theory that the golf club was negligent for not installing netting along Asbury Avenue that would have kept balls from landing on a neighboring homeowner’s lawn, and that Canfield Lawn and Landscaping was negligent because it hadn’t checked that lawn for golf balls before mowing. (“Man injured by golf ball gets $725K”, AP/Newark Star-Ledger, Jul. 31).
One Comment
This is another relative velocity case. The lawn mower company told me that injuries do occur when stones or other objects are ejected from a mower. It’s like a paint-ball gun. But most stuff stays in the yard. For a golf ball, the impact from the blade has to be enough to fling the ball, but not too great as to chop the ball in half. I can’t see how the ball would have high velocity. The impact of the ball on the car would be dominated by the speed of the car. Windshields are pretty strong, so there is probably more to this story.