The ramblings of someone trying to find the answers to life's persistent questions
Friday, December 19, 2008
Good Samaritan Gets Sued
I found this story after seeing it on ABC. Seems like it's getting harder to justify stopping to help, at least in California. There has to be more to the story, though; there always is....
6 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Most cars that hit telephone poles are not going to explode... it was likely the radiator that was steaming.
However, I think if this ruling is allowed to stand, it will have dire consequences for the situation in general and no one will want to help anyone anymore.
Look what happened in Northridge earthquake -- I woman would not be alive today had two men not stayed there for hours and extracted her from beneath the collapsed Nimitz bridge... she begged them not to leave her there.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. And I have a bad feeling that this will have ramifications for the rest of the country. I really hope I'm wrong about that, though.
Bad cases make bad law. In this case, the Samaritan had a considerable amount of ETOH on board. Impaired judgment is never good. Add to that the fact that we are talking about the California Supreme Court. Ramifications here? Probably not, since the Good Samaritan law in MA is pretty strong. I don't know about NH, though.
NH actually has a pretty decent Good Samaritan law. Actually protects the Samaritan.
My concern is that someone who is lawsuit-happy will challenge the law in another state - any state. I'm not saying it will happen, but it could. The only good thing is that up here (and I'm glad to hear that MA has a strong law - not sure how it was) a lawsuit wouldn't have any teeth because of the way the law is written.
Nervous stuff, this. Even though NH has a strong statute for "good samaritans", sadly, looking at another facet of this subject, my experience has proven it is largely dependent on which state troopers are involved if you've stopped to render aid as to how well things turn out. Some have been downright surly (one clearly out of his gourd and reeking of alcohol...I kid you not). OTOH, others have been grateful for a former medic to stop to assist victims obviously in potentially fatal trouble while they're awaiting an ambulance. A few have been really cooperative in grabbing stuff from my car for me when I've politely asked during performing CPR, while others have said "Hey...I'm just here to keep the roadway safe, ma'am". In lots of ways, it's really scary out there folks.
6 comments:
Most cars that hit telephone poles are not going to explode... it was likely the radiator that was steaming.
However, I think if this ruling is allowed to stand, it will have dire consequences for the situation in general and no one will want to help anyone anymore.
Look what happened in Northridge earthquake -- I woman would not be alive today had two men not stayed there for hours and extracted her from beneath the collapsed Nimitz bridge... she begged them not to leave her there.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. And I have a bad feeling that this will have ramifications for the rest of the country. I really hope I'm wrong about that, though.
Bad cases make bad law. In this case, the Samaritan had a considerable amount of ETOH on board. Impaired judgment is never good. Add to that the fact that we are talking about the California Supreme Court. Ramifications here? Probably not, since the Good Samaritan law in MA is pretty strong. I don't know about NH, though.
NH actually has a pretty decent Good Samaritan law. Actually protects the Samaritan.
My concern is that someone who is lawsuit-happy will challenge the law in another state - any state. I'm not saying it will happen, but it could. The only good thing is that up here (and I'm glad to hear that MA has a strong law - not sure how it was) a lawsuit wouldn't have any teeth because of the way the law is written.
Nervous stuff, this. Even though NH has a strong statute for "good samaritans", sadly, looking at another facet of this subject, my experience has proven it is largely dependent on which state troopers are involved if you've stopped to render aid as to how well things turn out. Some have been downright surly (one clearly out of his gourd and reeking of alcohol...I kid you not). OTOH, others have been grateful for a former medic to stop to assist victims obviously in potentially fatal trouble while they're awaiting an ambulance. A few have been really cooperative in grabbing stuff from my car for me when I've politely asked during performing CPR, while others have said "Hey...I'm just here to keep the roadway safe, ma'am". In lots of ways, it's really scary out there folks.
How in the world do they know that the victim of the car accident wasn't already paralyzed after hitting a telephone pole at 45 mph??
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