Res ipsa loquitur

Please note that this post is from 2007. Evaluate with care and in light of later events.

If you’ve ever taken a Torts class, and wanted a better example of res ipsa loquitur (“the thing speaks for itself”) than a barrel falling out of a warehouse, how about this?

A 1,500-pound wrecking ball broke free of a crane and careened through downtown streets in Meadville on Monday, bouncing off cars before coming to rest in the trunk of a Ford Taurus.

Along its nearly mile-long journey, the 3-foot sphere damaged 13 vehicles and injured three people. It appeared that the cable used to attach the ball to the crane arm snapped, police said.

– From the Pittsburg Tribune-Review, photo by Susan Fenton for The Tribune-Review