But how do you hit a billboard?

The other morning, while I was out walking, I witnessed something strange, weird, funny, curious, interesting, etc unfold right in front of my eyes. 

A boda boda was coming down the road, riding on the right-hand side, which of course is the wrong side of the road, but that is normal here in Uganda. He was riding along normally until, for reasons I still cannot explain, he rode straight into a billboard. Yes! He hit it, fell off the motorcycle and landed on the ground.

His motorcycle, however, did not fall with him. It continued on its own. For a few quick seconds, there was a motocycle moving down the road without a rider. Unfortunately, there was a woman ahead, and the motorcycle continued towards her, hit her and she fell down too.

Within the space of a few seconds, the boda rider was on the ground in one place, the woman was on the ground further ahead, the motorcycle had completed an accident without its rider.

Thankfully, nobody was seriously injured. After establishing that everyone was okay, I continued my walk replaying the whole thing in my head, because tell me, what exactly had I just witnessed?! More importantly, who was at fault here?

At first, the obvious answer seems to be the boda man. After all, he was riding on the wrong side of the road, except that had nothing to do with the accident. He could have been riding on the correct side, and he would still have ridden straight into that billboard. I have walked into a glass door before, so I don't want to judge anybody too quickly, but glass doors are understandable. They are transparent, which makes them trick you. A billboard, on the other hand, has one job: to be seen. That is literally why it exists.

So then we need to talk about the billboard. Why was it that low? Surely a billboard should be high enough that people and motorcycles can comfortably pass underneath it. If you erect one at a height where it can remove a man from his motorcycle, surely you must accept some responsibility for what follows, no? But then again, the billboard was not moving. It's the boda man who was.

This now brings me back to the biggest question of all... how  do you ride straight into a billboard? What was happening in his head? Was he thinking about money? Breakfast? Rent? Love? Life? Had somebody annoyed him that morning? I mean you have to be very far away in your thoughts to ram into a billboard.

And bambi the poor woman. How do you explain that you were knocked down by a boda boda that, technically speaking, had no rider?

If she decides to sue, whom does she sue? The boda man? Technically, the man did not knock her. By the time the motorcycle reached her, he was no longer on it. He was off it, on the ground, most likely also wondering where his boda was going. Does she sue the owner of the billboard? Does the boda man sue the billboard owner first, and then the woman sues the boda man? Does the billboard owner then argue that hundreds of people have passed underneath or around the billboard without riding into it? What about the motorcycle itself? If we are being completely factual, that is the thing that actually knocked the woman.

There are quite a number of parties in this matter. The boda man has a case against the billboard. The woman has a case against the boda man. The billboard has a fairly strong defence that it was stationary throughout the entire incident. The motorcycle is the only one that actually hit the woman, yet it had no rider at the time.

I don't know! How would you judge this one?