§ 75.0022.Limited Liability of Certain Electric Utilities

A 2013 provision addressing utility corridors used as trails.

An electric utility, as owner, easement holder, occupant, or lessee, may enter into a written agreement with a political subdivision to allow public access to and use of the premises for recreation, exercise, relaxation, travel, or pleasure.

Note the wider list of purposes — exercise, relaxation, travel, or pleasure alongside recreation. A utility corridor used as a commuter cycle route is covered though commuting is not recreation.

By entering the agreement the utility does not: assure the premises are safe; owe a person entering a greater degree of care than is owed to a trespasser; or assume liability for bodily injury or death, property damage, or an act of a third party on the premises, regardless of whether the act is intentional.

The third-party clause is broader than elsewhere in the chapter and expressly covers intentional acts, which matters for long linear corridors a utility cannot police.

Subsection (e) is the limit: the protection does not extend to serious bodily injury or death proximately caused by the utility's wilful or wanton acts or gross negligence with respect to a dangerous condition existing on the premises. "Serious bodily injury" is defined as an injury creating a substantial risk of death or causing serious permanent disfigurement or protracted loss of function.

Subsection (g) disapplies attractive nuisance, and subsection (h) permits the agreement to require the political subdivision to provide or pay for insurance covering the utility's defence and litigation costs.