We learn when a cow squatting down is kicked by a passing cow, the case is evaluated as unusual action.
Can this be applied to cars causing normal and unusual damage? For example, if a bumper falls off a moving car causing damage to a car or person; a bumper falls off a parked car causing damage to a person or property; a bumper falls off while a person is leaning on the car (but not the bumper). Might these be comparable to cows walking and lying in a market place.
yehuda leib ben eliezer halevi, st louis, mo.
Let's understand the rule that you are referring to regarding the squatting cow. The Gemara (Bava Kama 24b) says that if an animal does something unusual - like squat in the middle of the road - and a second animal comes along and does something unexpected to the first animal - like kick it - the owner of the second animal is exempt (instead of having to pay the half or full damages of Keren). Tosafos (Bava Kama 27b, DH Amai), however, tells us that this rule only applies to animals and not to humans, i.e. if a human kicked the squatting animal he would be obligated to pay full damages. This being the case, I don't believe this rule would be applicable to any of the scenarios you mention. These would all be treated as cases of Bor b'Reshus haRabim or perhaps Adam haMazik. Please set me straight if I misunderstood the cases you gave.
Kol Tuv,
Yonasan Sigler