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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As anyone who has grown up around snow knows, part of the fun of sledding is the risk of soaring off a jump or careening around a tree. 
  
 FILE - In this Dec. 11, 2013 file photo Zoe Reisen,10, of Dubuque, Iowa, sleds down a hill at Allison-Henderson Park on in Dubuque, Iowa. Faced with the potential bills from people who are injured sledding,... (Associated Press) 
  
 But faced with the potential bill from sledding injuries, some cities have opted to close hills rather than risk large liability claims. 
  
 No one tracks how many cities have banned or limited sledding, but the list grows every year. One of the latest is in Dubuque, Iowa, where the City Council is moving ahead with a plan to ban sledding in all but two of its 50 parks. 
  
 "We have all kinds of parks that have hills on them," said Marie Ware, Dubuque's leisure services manager. "We can't manage the risk at all of those places." 
  
 A study by Columbus, Ohio-based Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital found that between 1997 and 2007, more than 20,000 children each year were treated at emergency rooms for sledding-related injuries. 
  
 In meetings leading up to the ban, Dubuque council members lamented the move but said it was the only responsible choice given liability concerns and demands from the city's insurance carrier. They pointed to judgments in sledding lawsuits in the past decade, such as a $2 million judgment against Omaha, Nebraska, after a 5-year-old girl was paralyzed when she hit a tree and a $2.75 million payment when a man in Sioux City, Iowa, slid into a sign and injured his spinal cord. 
  
 Some cities have opted for less drastic measures in the last several years rather than an all-out ban, including Des Moines, Iowa; Montville, New Jersey; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Columbia City, Indiana. By banning sledding on certain slopes or posting signs warning people to sled at their own risk, cities lessen their liability if someone is seriously hurt, but they're still more vulnerable to lawsuits than if they had adopted an outright ban. 
  
 And then there's the small central Illinois city of Paxton, where park district officials removed the sledding hill in 2013. 
  
 It was more of a dirt mound, created years ago to cover a pile of concrete, metal and other junk, recreation director Neal McKenry said, but given how flat the area is, the 20-foot rise often was crowded with sledders. There was concern someone would slam into trees that had grown on the mound. 
  
 "Obviously, many people used this area to sled in the winter, but the park district never promoted it as a sled hill," McKenry said. "It was simply a built-up mound of dirt that people happened to sled on." The area is now being used as a dog park. 
  
 In Omaha, the city banned sledding at a popular hill as a test one winter after losing a lawsuit, but decided to allow it again after most people ignored the restriction. 
  
 "It wasn't practical," assistant city attorney Tom Mumgaard said. "People wouldn't abide by the ban." 
  
 Instead, the city has posted signs warning of sledding risks and workers at the site of the failed ban put pads around posts and hay bales around trees. Mumgaard said courts in Nebraska have decided cities must protect people, even if they make poor choices. 
  
 Most people realize that cities must restrict potentially dangerous activities to protect people and guard against costly lawsuits, said Kenneth Bond, a New York lawyer who represents local governments. In the past, people might have embraced a Wild West philosophy of individuals being solely responsible for their actions, but now they expect government to prevent dangers whenever possible. 
  
 "It's a great idea on the frontier, but we don't live on the frontier anymore," Bond said. 
  
 That doesn't sit well with Natasha Koss, 40, who frequently sleds with her 5-year-old daughter Elsa in Marquette, Michigan. 
  
 Koss sometimes requires Elsa to wear a helmet. When they try a particular hill for the first time, her husband does a few runs solo as a precaution. She said she'd report any safety issues to city authorities but couldn't imagine filing suit over a sledding mishap. 
  
 "I would most certainly take personal responsibility," she said. "You need to have a mindset to make the best decisions for your own safety." 
  
 However, Steve King, who runs a website that promotes sledding, said he understands why cities impose restrictions. He notes that most sledders don't wear helmets and it's near impossible to steer away from trees, rocks or signs. 
  
 "We live in a lawsuit-happy society and cities are just being protective by banning sledding in areas that pose a risk for injury or death," King said. 
  
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 Associated Press writer John Flesher in Traverse City, Michigan, contributed to this report. 
  
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 Follow Scott McFetridge at https://twitter.com/smcfetridge ||||| DUBUQUE  The Dubuque City Council passed the first reading of an ordinance that would restrict sledding to two areas: the sled hills at Allison-Henderson Park and Bunker Hill Golf Course. 
  
 City leaders say the ban will help protect the city from a lawsuit in the event of injury. They say they can inspect and control the conditions at the two popular parks, but it would be too much to cover every single city park. 
  
 Members of the city council say they understand the near-rite of passage status going sledding down a snow-covered hill holds for kids and their parents, but say protecting people also protects the city’s bottom line. 
  
 I think we have responsibility to the taxpayer to cover ourselves against this kind of settlement, said city council member Kevin Lynch. 
  
 The push for change comes after park users in other Iowa communities sued  and won. A Sioux City man settled with the City for $2.75 million after he slid backward into a parking sign in 2012. 
  
 A woman in Boone claimed negligence after she hit a concrete cube while sledding on city property in 2008. The City of Boone agreed to pay her more than $12 million. 
  
 That’s the kind of liability the city council doesn’t want to worry about. 
  
 Yeah, [restricting sledding] stinks, but if we get hit with one of these. It’s a lot of money for our citizens, city council member Joyce Connors said, 
  
 Opponents to the proposed ordinance change say limiting sledding to two city parks will cause congestion at Bunker and Allison-Henderson. 
  
 The signs are going to be at these places anyway. There’s going to be a less chance of collision if there is more space for people to enjoy these activities, argued city council member David Resnick. 
  
 It sounds like we are going to have the most beautiful parks in the city of Dubuque as long as nobody goes there and does anything except walking through them carefully wrapped in Bubble Wrap, added city council member Karla Braig. 
  
 The ordinance also would put a complete ban on the use of inner-tubes at any park. 
  
 City Manager Mike Van Milligan pointed out the proposed ordinance doesn’t apply to private property. 
  
 A billed failed in the Iowa Legislature in 2013 that would protect cities from being liable if someone is hurt while sledding on city property. The City of Dubuque plans to lobby in favor of the bill should lawmakers reintroduce it. |||||
Output:
When a childhood pastime comes with a million-dollar price tag, sometimes the pastime loses out. In recent years, a 5-year-old's sledding injury led to a $2 million lawsuit against Omaha, Neb., while another case saw Sioux City, Iowa, paying $2.75 million. Such cases are prompting cities in states from Nebraska to New Jersey to crack down on sledding, banning the practice on many hills, the AP reports. Dubuque, Iowa, for instance, is poised to ban most sledding, allowing it in only two parks. The planned ban "stinks," a city council member tells KCRG, "but if we get hit with one of these (suits), it's a lot of money for our citizens." In other cases, city signs note that sledders do so at their own risk. The city of Paxton, Ill., even physically removed a sledding hill. It wasn't a natural one: The city had basically used dirt to hide a pile of concrete and junk. Trees were growing at the site, and some feared that sledders would hit them. "We live in a lawsuit-happy society, and cities are just being protective by banning sledding in areas that pose a risk for injury or death," says a man who runs a sledding website. That risk is very real: One study found that in the decade ending in 2007, sledding-related injuries landed some 20,000 kids a year in the ER. But one mom tells the AP she thinks individuals, not the government, should take responsibility. "You need to have a mindset to make the best decisions for your own safety," she notes.