A reason not to stop and help

[Garys]

Murder on the Highway in Texas

http://xavierthoughts.blogspot.com/2007/08/murder-on-highway.html

I've stopped at any number of accidents while on my way in or home from work, but if I'm not in uniform I generally don't stop for a number of reasons.

Of course contrasting that with my earlier post "Interesting Reading", I always wonder if calling the MSP on the cell phone is enough.

Gary

 

[Jose]

I stop for NOBODY I do not know. No exceptions.

I've even been removed, at my request, from the first aid responder list at work.

The world is a cold place, better pack some heat.

 

[Jaxon]

Maybe its just me, but the link too me to an account about 9/11?

 

[Garys]

Actually, it's me although this story has some of that too.

Here is the link I intended to post.

http://xavierthoughts.blogspot.com/2007/08/murder-on-highway.html

 

[Marcus in the Darkus]

I stop for NOBODY I do not know. No exceptions.

I've even been removed, at my request, from the first aid responder list at work.

The world is a cold place, better pack some heat.

Compassion for your fellow man isn't weakness or folly, and it usually isn't dangerous. One of my best friends lost his wife last April after she flipped her ATV on the beach at Padre Island, Texas and was pinned and crushed by the ATV. There was another rider there within minutes who could have helped yet, like you, chose not to. I hope you never find yourself lying beside the highway, bleeding to death, wondering how many people share your outlook on giving aid to others.

Shame on you.

 

[ranger4-7]

I can't understand an attitude that ignores someone in need. Sure there is a chance that what looks like a person in need is really a trap, but the odds are it's someone like my wife or mother in need of help. I wonder how many women have fallen victim to predators because people passed them by without having the guts to stop.

 

[pipmaster1971]

I can't understand an attitude that ignores someone in need. Sure there is a chance that what looks like a person in need is really a trap, but the odds are it's someone like my wife or mother in need of help. I wonder how many women have fallen victim to predators because people passed them by without having the guts to stop.

Agreed. I'm sure that in 99% of cases it is an authentic case of someone needing help and not a bad guy.

 

[Jose]

Compassion for your fellow man isn't weakness or folly, and it usually isn't dangerous. One of my best friends lost his wife last April after she flipped her ATV on the beach at Padre Island, Texas and was pinned and crushed by the ATV. There was another rider there within minutes who could have helped yet, like you, chose not to. I hope you never find yourself lying beside the highway, bleeding to death, wondering how many people share your outlook on giving aid to others.

Shame on you.

Experience has a way of hardening the heart. I do what I do and I make no apologies nor do I care for sanctimonious crap.

 

[Western Man]

Agreed. I'm sure that in 99% of cases it is an authentic case of someone needing help and not a bad guy.

Of course. I generally wouldn't stop to assist anybody since everyone has a cellphone nowadays and I'm just plain too busy. I especially wouldn't stop at 2AM to assist someone broken down.

 

[reinbeau]

Experience has a way of hardening the heart. I do what I do and I make no apologies nor do I care for sanctimonious crap.

Sanctimonious? Not really, sometimes truth hurts. And I do hope you aren't the only one around if I'm ever in an accident. It's good to know you'd keep going. I'd stop for you.

I couldn't live with a heart like yours.

 

[Jose]

I couldn't live with a heart like yours.

One of the best survival mechanisms is a hard one.

 

[jkelly]

I couldn't live with a heart like yours.---Reinbeau

Wow, very very powerful!

Respectfully,

jkelly

 

[Neptune Cat]

One of the best survival mechanisms is a hard one.

True, very true. But then, what's the point of survival.

 

[Admin]

Please remember folks not everyone has the same opinion.

It only takes one event for an opinion on a topic to change dramatically.

 

[Chris]

I'm sure there is a man in his late 20's out there somewhere that is glad I stopped.

Shortly after 2am on Christmas Morning 1998 (maybe 1997), I was driving home from Marblehead on Rt 128. it was a year where we had a lot of snow on the ground for Christmas, and it was VERY cold with temps near or below zero. Just before the Rt 2A bridge (I was heading south) I saw what I thought were the lights of snowmobiles playing just off the other side of the highway.

And then, suddenly, the lights vanished. Just didn't look right. I took the Rt 2a Exit, swung around, and started looking off the side of the road. Didn't see anything.

I almost kept on driving, but something told me to stop.

I did, grabbed the big flashlight and looked off the road.

The side of the road drops below the roadway surface a good 6-8 feet and there was a large berm of snow at the side of the road. And there, on the other side of the berm, jammed into a small tree half covered in snow was a gray car.

Called 911, told them what I saw and that they needed a wrecker and possibly an ambulance.

I climbed over the berm (I remember just how cold that snow was - I was wearing dress clothes and shoes as I had just come from a Midnight Mass) and approached the car. Driver's door was against the tree and the passenger side was burried in snow. I managed to crack open the rear door on the driver's side enough to scream at the driver to wake up and to see that the kid seemed to be OK physically, but reeked of alcohol. I wasn't going to get him out without tools.

I looked to see how the car got in there and saw several divots in the snow. I walked back to the road and saw that he had just barely missed the bridge, caught the snowbank edge where it got larger after the bridge, went over the snow berm and then must have flipped end over end a few times before slamming into the base of the tree. This was the "snowmobile lights" I had seen.

I got the tow strap out of the truck hoping I could drag the car or the tree far enough to get the door open. My 20 ft strap was too short.

About this time I see flashing lights coming from the south and then stop before the rest area. I aimed my flashlight and strobed it at the lights hoping they would see me. The lights came closer.

At this point I heard the guy in the car try to start it. Using the 'Sarge' voice, I screamed down at him to turn it off. (the exhaust was buried in the snow, so who knows how long it would have taken to fill the car with deadly fumes)

Up pulled a State Police car and a tow truck. Seems the officer who took my call heard Rt 2, not 2A and they had been searching down the road. Had I not stopped and signaled, not only might the officers NOT have looked near 2A, but very likely not have seen the car at all where it had landed.

The tow truck winched the car off the tree just enough to get the driver out. To say he failed the field sobriety test is an understatement. This guy was totally blotto and you could already see his fingers were

He got a nice seat in the back of the police car and the tow truck driver was on the phone with his dispatcher calling for a larger truck that would be able to lift the car up and onto the road. I was amazed that no ambulance came. I climbed back into my truck at this point as my gloves were useless and my legs and feet were freezing.

In all the time I stood there on the side of the road, maybe a dozen vehicles passed by in both directions. How I was in the right place at the right time I'll never know.

Once the scene was under control, the recovery crew was working, and all the reporting was done, the officer took my information and sent me on my way. I never heard anything resulting from the incident.

I arrived home in Ashland about 5:30am.

All I know is that there is no way that kid would have lived until morning. Nobody would have seen him where that car landed, and he'd have either fallen asleep and frozen to death, or poisoned himself with the exhaust fumes.

Some day I might regret it, but unless things look really fishy, I'm stopping.

 

[KMaurer]

Living is a risk; being dead is the only way to be completely "safe". Everybody has to make their own decisions, but I'm only alive because other people risked their lives on several different occasions. I've done the same thing for others, including total strangers. I wouldn't live any other way. YMMV

"If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?"
-- Hillel, in Pirkei Avot

Ken

 

[Martlet]

I stop for every accident or person changing a tire alone that I come across. I'll continue to do so.

 

[6hold]

Thanks for sharing your story Chris, it is truly thought provoking. In your post you stated:

“In all the time I stood there on the side of the road, maybe a dozen vehicles passed by in both directions. How I was in the right place at the right time I'll never know.”

Could the reason you were the one that stopped to help an incapacitated motorist be what you stated in an earlier paragraph?

“ I climbed over the berm (I remember just how cold that snow was - I was wearing dress clothes and shoes as I had just come from a Midnight Mass) and approached the car.”

Just perhaps the Lord was with you and the Lad you saved, after leaving His house of worship. Or, maybe your temperament was more in the giving nature after worshiping with the congregation. Something surely helped the youngster survive a near death experience that cold night.

You have added some warmth to this thread and helped renew my faith in my fellow man. I know that Lad’s family must be forever grateful for the stranger that stopped on that cold early morning to help their son.

All this may pale in comparison to the good feeling that will reside within yourself the rest of your life. CHRIS, YOU DID GOOD!

 

[Cato]

...the kid seemed to be OK physically, but reeked of alcohol.

...To say he failed the field sobriety test is an understatement. This guy was totally blotto

I wonder if he continued his drunk driving and eventually killed someone.

 

[Jose]

I did not post my position on this to look for agreement, sympathy, or acknowledgement. I made a statement of fact. Like it or not, that's just the way it is and the way it's going to stay.

 

[jkelly]

I wonder if he continued his drunk driving and eventually killed someone.---Cato

Posts like this make me realize how valuable people like Chris truly are.


jkelly

 

[kevin9]

Bravo Chris! As the good book says "as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me".

It also says "as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me". People make their own choices. If they can live, or not, with the consequences then so be it.

 

[BruceP]

I wonder if he continued his drunk driving and eventually killed someone.

Or... maybe that had a profound effect on his life and he'll be the guy who stops some day when you're in need. Yah I know, that sounds story-bookish, but the fact is you can't judge cause you don't know. Chris gave him a second chance at life, something a lot of people never get.

 

[reinbeau]

I did not post my position on this to look for agreement, sympathy, or acknowledgement. I made a statement of fact. Like it or not, that's just the way it is and the way it's going to stay.

Your point was made - why defend it? No one else has called you out on it (except me) - or does Chris' experience twinge just a bit inside?

Chris, awesome post. You've put a nice shine on the whole thread. I agree with what you did and would do the same thing. BruceP brings up an excellent point. I could have died any number of times in my stupid youth. Live and learn is only for smart survivors, I guess - or the incredibly lucky!

 

[Jose]

or does Chris' experience twinge just a bit inside?

Not in the least. A drunk who did not kill anyone just because the road was deserted doesn't sound like a worthwhile use of my time.

Cato gets it.

 

[JRyan]

I know some first aid, I will stop and help. I hope it never gets me in trouble.

 

[jkelly]

Cato gets it.---Jose

I think most of posters in this thread “get it”, they just seem to prefer to take the high road.

It’s nice to see that there are also “ethically honest and caring” people on this forum as the egocentric “ME” posts are tedious.


jkelly

 

[Chris]

The same priest that did the mass that Christmas eve was also the one who married my wife and I. During one of our 'talks' with him I mentioned the incident and told him "So, the next time someone complains when you go late saying a mass, just tell him my story. If I had been earlier or later, I'd have never seen the light. Mass was exactly the length it had to be that night."

 

[Jose]

I know some first aid, I will stop and help. I hope it never gets me in trouble.

Better read your state's Good Samaritan law, if you even have one.

I did and that's why I asked to be removed from the responder list at work.

I know plenty about first aid, but I practice it on the people I know will not sue me: my family.

 

[JonJ]

Mass Gen Laws:

Chapter 112: Section 12V. Exemption of certain individuals rendering emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation from civil liability

Section 12V. Any person, whose usual and regular duties do not include the provision of emergency medical care, and who, in good faith, attempts to render emergency care including, but not limited to, cardiopulmonary resuscitation or defibrillation, and does so without compensation, shall not be liable for acts or omissions, other than gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct, resulting from the attempt to render such emergency care.