Forget about being a good samaritan

[scutechute]

To say "forget about being a good samaritan" is just wrong in my opinion. You should always try but not in ways that aren't smart. One of the first things I was taught when I took first responder training years ago and had to learn to crawl into car wrecks and such like was, you do NO good for your victim if you end up hurt and being another victim yourself.

I think that to say "forget about being a good samaritan" is wrong also - but totally justified given the actions of the police department. What would you have a person do? - Watch two old ladies get off a bus and get ran over? Did these two guys trying to help those old ladies directly contribute to the crash? Can you say "But for these two guys trying to help these old ladies, this crash would have never happened." Of course you can't, accidents happen all the time. There are cars on the road and people trying to cross those roads - accidents happen. I think the driver should have gotten a ticket, it should be the responsibility of the person operating a multi-thousand pound weapon/vehicle to avoid pedestrians.

I work downtown, and used to ride public transportation to work and home everyday for 3+ years. People jaywalk all the time.

I could understand ticketing these guys if say - they rushed these ladies into the street, directly in front of an oncoming vehicle and they all got hit. But no, these guys tried to be nice and help these old ladies in crummy weather...THEN, when they saw danger coming, one of them pushed the old ladies to safety and got pwned by a truck. The poor guy has internal bleeding, broken bones, and is laid out in a hospital bed, and some trooper has the :cens0r: to say to himself "You know what? I think this guy needs to be taught a lesson about jaywalking."

Cops have horrible jobs. I could see why cops might find it easy to turn into horrible people themselves. I know times are tough and cities need money, but comon! I also find it interesting how the police department is "re-examining the investigation" in the wake of this big public outcry. How complicated is a "simple jaywalking" investigation? How could they have not gotten it correct the first time? Would the police department have done a review of their investigation without this public outcry? Did the public outcry force the police department to grow a heart, or are they simply trying to save face in the wake of this PR nightmare? I bet they're going to tuck-tail and run away from this mess any day now.

Also, these two guys aren't first responders. They were just two guys. They weren't training to be heroes and save people's lives, they weren't thinking about how best to keep themselves alive so that they can continue on to help even more old people. They were just trying to be nice. Let's not confuse our apples and oranges.

I'm generally the last person to stick up for the police, but just because you get injured while breaking the law doesn't mean you should avoid any consequences. The fact that they were jaywalking in the middle of a snowstorm is probably the reason they got hit in the first place. Had they been crossing at a light I'd be willing to bet that pickup wouldn't have hit them. Can't fix stupid I guess.

The driver got cited for Careless Driving Resulting in Injury. In snow. Near a bus. Driving carelessly. That's stupid.

I was driving and someone lead another person into the path of my vehicle... I would be more than a bit upset.

I'd stop the vehicle.

Assuming I wasn't speeding....or driving carelessly...resulting in an injury. But that's just me.