[Isabeau Z Solace]

Yet another example of why some kind of universal health care coverage is needed in this country.

[mvp]

But I do know more & more one has to CAREFULLY consider whether to help or not in so many different & varied situations. Being a good samaritan now days can actually get you sued...

Actually, that's not what this case implies. You, the rescuing good samaritan, won't necessarily get sued for your efforts. Rather, you can't ask the rescuee to cover any damage done to you.

Oh, and I learned here on COTH how to defraud my own insurance co. by lying about the place where an accident happened, or that anyone else was involved.

Yessirreebob. By the time I'm creating greater costs for my own insurance co. (and indirectly my own insurance), it's clearly time for single-payer insurance.

[saultgirl]

As a big rig driver, most companies I drove for said when you see an accident, keep on driving. If you stop and try to render aid, you are putting everything you own and the company at risk. So, pretend you didn't see it and keep on going. I have friends and family who also drive big rigs, they've been told the same thing.

Not stopping to help = smart in today's world.
Not dialing 911 to send aid = absolutely unforgivable.

I never, ever stop at an accident or broken down car on the highway. I won't risk walking into a robbery or kidnapping, or worse, never mind getting sued for trying to help someone. But there is NO REASON why someone can't call for help. I find that inexcusable.

[goneriding24]

Not stopping to help = smart in today's world.
Not dialing 911 to send aid = absolutely unforgivable.

I never, ever stop at an accident or broken down car on the highway. I won't risk walking into a robbery or kidnapping, or worse, never mind getting sued for trying to help someone. But there is NO REASON why someone can't call for help. I find that inexcusable.

Well, whatever works for you. The times I have called 911 on an accident, the DPS call center has had numerous calls already from people driving by, who aren't stopping either. Nowadays, with all the rules and regs out on the road and using the phone while driving, it's nigh on impossible to help out. Sorry, but, I didn't create this whole mess about taking care of myself and what I own, the powers that be did. It's a sorry state of affairs but caring about anyone else can cost you everything. So, it's either take a chance and something goes wrong or not take a chance and know for sure you still have your things. Rotten, I know, but that's the way it is.

[jetsmom]

I will always try to render aid if I am able. I could never live with myself if I passed by an accident or saw a situation where I could help, but didn't. The risk of being sued is a small price to pay for potentially saving someone's life. .

[sketcher]

I agree. I would rather risk everything I have and at the end of the day be able to live with myself rather than avoid stopping to help someone. Yes, I will not stop for a broken down car because you really don't know what the deal is and you can call for assistance but someone in an accident or imminent danger? I could never just pass on by. Imagine if it were you or a loved one, how you would feel that they may have been saved but everyone feared for their pocketbooks?

[saultgirl]

I would rather risk everything I have and at the end of the day be able to live with myself rather than avoid stopping to help someone.

That's a very nice thought, but at the end of the day, it probably wouldn't be so nice to live with yourself in a cardboard box on the street.

It would probably be better for someone to NOT try to save me from "imminent danger" if they are going to end up hurting themselves and then suing me for it. If I were to die, my estate would at least go to my husband. It sure would suck for my family to lose me AND have a lawsuit pending against my estate.

This is all so crazy. What's next, a doctor suing a patient for giving him a cold??

[sketcher]

It would probably be better for someone to NOT try to save me from "imminent danger" if they are going to end up hurting themselves and then suing me for it. If I were to die, my estate would at least go to my husband. It sure would suck for my family to lose me AND have a lawsuit pending against my estate.

I'll bet your feelings would change on this should you ever, you know, find yourself in imminent danger. And someone was standing there deciding whether you were worth the risk to their pocketbook. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't say "walk on please, nothing to see here".

And I can not imagine that your family would be more worried about the estate that losing a family member. Yep, it would suck for your family for you to die and get sued. It would suck a whole lot more for you do die because someone decided your life wasn't worth it.

And really, I do not think it would be the norm to be sued under such circumstances. It is just when someone does sue over something so unfair, it gets publicity.

I can assure you, I have had the opportunity to prove to myself that I would take the cardboard box. And yes, it was when I was old enough to have assets to lose.

[JLMet]

Don't most states have a good samaritan law to protect them from such things?

[goneriding24]

Don't most states have a good samaritan law to protect them from such things?

The story I quoted about the burning car and the paralyzed girl happened in a good samaritan state. It's been several years and I don't remember all details, of course.

Yes, I know it s*cks a big one to be this way but, like I said, I didn't create the laws (or whatever they are) which would put me in a dicey situ so that I would lose everything. A local guy to me was sued for helping out and lost big time. He now lives in the back of a concrete block building and has regretted trying to do the right thing. He gets kudos from me for being a stand up guy but I'm sure that goes a long way in his mind about losing everything.

I would want someone to stop and help me or my fam/friends if in imminent danger but, honestly, I don't expect anyone to, anymore. If they did, God bless 'em but in this day and age, they prolly wouldn't. Since I live in the country, we help each other out quite a bit, without contracts and all. A handshake will do it out here. I'm mainly talking about being out on the road, not in my backyard.

[jetsmom]

We've had people pulled out of burning cars and saved here several times in the last 2 yrs. One instance were two little kids around 2 and 4 yrs old. I would risk my life if there was a possibility of saving them. That guy in the subway might have been save if even 2 people had lent him a hand.

[mvp]

I would want someone to stop and help me or my fam/friends if in imminent danger but, honestly, I don't expect anyone to, anymore. If they did, God bless 'em but in this day and age, they prolly wouldn't. Since I live in the country, we help each other out quite a bit, without contracts and all. A handshake will do it out here. I'm mainly talking about being out on the road, not in my backyard.

Well you can't have it both ways-- you wouldn't help the other guy, know your family would be psyched for that because they would risk losing anything, but say "God bless 'em" about the person who would accept as risk to help you.

God has nothing to do with it. You decide you won't sue the poor slob who wasn't quite as canny as you.

You can, however, thank God that not everyone feels as you do, should you get the opportunity.

[cloudyandcallie]

Yet another example of why some kind of universal health care coverage is needed in this country.

I totally agree. Everyone check your state's "good samaritan" law. I think every state has one now as doctors were afraid to stop at wrecks to help out because they were afraid of being sued. These laws allow you to stop and help without having to pay if someone you helped sues you.

I've always stopped and helped because my parents taught me that it is the right thing to do. And I've always had health insurance, still do in pension.
But I have thought, like when I was reaching across a horse a few years ago to try to un-cast him, that if I got kicked in the head, I'd have permanent injuries. I got the horse up, he'd just been delivered to barn, and his two owners who stood by did not even say thanks to my friend's husband who helped me.

I once had a case where a black man was riding down a street in atlanta and saw a guy holding a shotgun on a white guy. He drove his car up into the middle of it. I asked him why he stopped to help and risk his life. He said he had once been robbed at gunpoint like that and no one had stopped to help him. I thought he was a real hero so I called Owens-Corning, where he worked, and got them to reward him since the only reward we gave was him having to sit in court for days during the trial @ $20 a day witness fee.

[Discobold]

Don't most states have a good samaritan law to protect them from such things?

That's a totally different concept. It means that if you volunteer to help someone in need, they can't sue YOU if you end up making it worse for them. There used to be a time when if, for example, a doctor tried to aid an unconscious person and the person got worse or died, the person's family could sue the doctor Of course, that's totally different from you suing the person you stopped to help.

[JSwan]

I will always try to render aid if I am able. I could never live with myself if I passed by an accident or saw a situation where I could help, but didn't. The risk of being sued is a small price to pay for potentially saving someone's life. .

Well said, jetsmom.

[Discobold]

Well said, jetsmom.

Ditto! For a genuinely caring person, that wouldn't even be a thought. But, remember, the issue here isn't even whether you could be sued (the Good Samaritan laws should protect you from that), but whether you could sue the person you stopped to help. I can't fathom a decent human being not helping because of the possibility that they couldn't later sue the person they stopped to help. I think people who are saying that this ruling will deter people from helping in the future really aren't thinking it through.

[bumknees]

see what someone who worked at the fair grounds in questin as to say on the matter. in this thead on udbb.
http://www.ultimatedressage.com/foru...p?f=9&t=234902

[cssutton]

Yet another example of why some kind of universal health care coverage is needed in this country.

And some one in DC will decide that since horses are inherently risky, horse related injuries will not be covered.

You can argue with and you can sue your insurance carrier. You have zero redress against a national health system.

[Sticky Situation]

I agree. I would rather risk everything I have and at the end of the day be able to live with myself rather than avoid stopping to help someone. Yes, I will not stop for a broken down car because you really don't know what the deal is and you can call for assistance but someone in an accident or imminent danger? I could never just pass on by. Imagine if it were you or a loved one, how you would feel that they may have been saved but everyone feared for their pocketbooks?

You heart is definitely in the right place, and I applaud that. However, speaking as someone who works in emergency services, in deciding to help someone who is in an accident or other dangerous situation it is very important to consider the whether or not your getting involved will inadvertently make the situation worse. Not only do you place yourself at risk, but should you get injured you may also be placing at risk those emergency workers who now have you to rescue along with the original accident victim.

There was a story in the news a year or two ago around where I live in which two young women were critically injured after stopping to help another driver who was involved in an accident. Emergency services had not yet arrived on scene and there was no traffic control. The driver they stopped to help was not seriously injured. The situation went suddenly from having one stable patient with only minor injuries to having three patients -- two of them critical.

I am not saying you should never help anyone who is in an accident or a dangerous situation, but it is very important to know what you are getting into and not rush in blindly.

[clanter]

Not stopping to help = smart in today's world.
Not dialing 911 to send aid = absolutely unforgivable.

I never, ever stop at an accident or broken down car on the highway. I won't risk walking into a robbery or kidnapping, or worse, never mind getting sued for trying to help someone.

I used to stop, render aid as I had been in combat and knew what to do.... in the mid 1990s I pulled an injured driver out of a car before it burned.... stopped the bleeding and was cut in the process extracting them from the crashed car.... person died.... I attempted to find out if I could get an AIDS test run on the person...their family refused... as result every six months for the next five years had myself tested for AIDS

So, given that...sorry but in the future never again.