What Kind of a World Do We Live In?
This evening after Richel and I finished eating salad after salad at the Olive Garden, we were on our way to do some shopping at Target. While I was waiting at the stop light, there was a fairly high-speed head-on collision right in front of me. One car was making a left turn and the other car from the on-coming traffic didn't slow down for whatever reason. The result? See the entry about Chicago traffic below. In any case, the 2 cars collided, spun around and came to a stop. Glass and plastic shards were everywhere, and radiator fluid was draining out of the car on the left side while the engine began to smoke.
Almost immediately, a young woman from the car on the right got out and was almost hysterical, crying and screaming and holding her head. I looked intently, searching for signs of serious trauma, having just finished reading the traumatic brain injury section in my rehab book that day. But there was no blood, she was walking around crying and upset. She seemed okay, although she undoubtedly sustained some diffuse axonal injury. I don't think she had a bleed. Her friend soon got out of the car a minute later. She appeared uninjured as well, and she was much calmer than her friend who was the driver.
No one stirred in the other car.
I stayed parked at the intersection as people began to mill about on the street. Most of the people focused their attention on the hysterical young woman, others were on their cell phones calling in the incident, far off in the distance a police siren could be heard approaching fast. I kept an eye on the car on the left, the car that no one was coming out of, trying to see if anyone was seriously injured. If so, I would spring in to action...maybe.
Finally, an elderly man got out of the other car. He was calm and appeared to be injured as well. Most of the people ignored him, though, as their attention was focused on the hysterical young woman. Another older woman approached the older man and was asking him if he was alright.
Now, not to sound completely paranoid, but I did see that movie "What Dreams May Come". In it, Robbin Williams dies basically because he's too nice of a guy; he got out of his car to help this woman who got in to a serious car accident and ended up getting killed himself because of the idiot drivers around him. Would I want to suffer that fate? Not really, not with so much at stake (not that I'm a coward, or that self-preservation is my main goal in life, but my fear is what would happen to others should I die. But that's another long story). So after seeing that both parties were alive and not critical, and that police were arriving on the scene, I drove off.
But deep down inside, I had a nagging feeling of guilt, as if I had done something wrong by not getting out of my car and helping out, or at least asking if anyone needed help. Doing so would actually put me at risk, both physical and financial; I would be risking life and limb by walking on to the scene of an accident right in the middle of a 4 lane busy street. I would also risk being the target of litigation. That was actually my greater fear of the 2. Why all the paranoia?
I remember a story that my brother told me when he was in LA. He was in a car with some friends, and they witnessed a car that caused another car to drive in to a tree. My brother and his friends got out to see if the driver was okay, and immediately the driver began blaming them for causing the accident.
What kind of a messed-up world do we live in these days? Where someone would sue you for stopping and trying to help them, or blame you for something when you were trying to help? That's pure insanity. Sure, there's the Good Samaritan Law, but that law only protects you so much and if you're in the medical profession, it won't protect you as much as you think it will. In any case, it still doesn't stop the other person from suing you. They still can, but it's likely they won't win. Either way, it's a royal pain to deal with it. Despite risking physical harm and litigation, should I have gotten out of my car to help out? Maybe living in big cities for so long has thickened my skin to the point of apathy.
Someone once said it's an unfair world that we live in. But isn't the world what we make it?
Almost immediately, a young woman from the car on the right got out and was almost hysterical, crying and screaming and holding her head. I looked intently, searching for signs of serious trauma, having just finished reading the traumatic brain injury section in my rehab book that day. But there was no blood, she was walking around crying and upset. She seemed okay, although she undoubtedly sustained some diffuse axonal injury. I don't think she had a bleed. Her friend soon got out of the car a minute later. She appeared uninjured as well, and she was much calmer than her friend who was the driver.
No one stirred in the other car.
I stayed parked at the intersection as people began to mill about on the street. Most of the people focused their attention on the hysterical young woman, others were on their cell phones calling in the incident, far off in the distance a police siren could be heard approaching fast. I kept an eye on the car on the left, the car that no one was coming out of, trying to see if anyone was seriously injured. If so, I would spring in to action...maybe.
Finally, an elderly man got out of the other car. He was calm and appeared to be injured as well. Most of the people ignored him, though, as their attention was focused on the hysterical young woman. Another older woman approached the older man and was asking him if he was alright.
Now, not to sound completely paranoid, but I did see that movie "What Dreams May Come". In it, Robbin Williams dies basically because he's too nice of a guy; he got out of his car to help this woman who got in to a serious car accident and ended up getting killed himself because of the idiot drivers around him. Would I want to suffer that fate? Not really, not with so much at stake (not that I'm a coward, or that self-preservation is my main goal in life, but my fear is what would happen to others should I die. But that's another long story). So after seeing that both parties were alive and not critical, and that police were arriving on the scene, I drove off.
But deep down inside, I had a nagging feeling of guilt, as if I had done something wrong by not getting out of my car and helping out, or at least asking if anyone needed help. Doing so would actually put me at risk, both physical and financial; I would be risking life and limb by walking on to the scene of an accident right in the middle of a 4 lane busy street. I would also risk being the target of litigation. That was actually my greater fear of the 2. Why all the paranoia?
I remember a story that my brother told me when he was in LA. He was in a car with some friends, and they witnessed a car that caused another car to drive in to a tree. My brother and his friends got out to see if the driver was okay, and immediately the driver began blaming them for causing the accident.
What kind of a messed-up world do we live in these days? Where someone would sue you for stopping and trying to help them, or blame you for something when you were trying to help? That's pure insanity. Sure, there's the Good Samaritan Law, but that law only protects you so much and if you're in the medical profession, it won't protect you as much as you think it will. In any case, it still doesn't stop the other person from suing you. They still can, but it's likely they won't win. Either way, it's a royal pain to deal with it. Despite risking physical harm and litigation, should I have gotten out of my car to help out? Maybe living in big cities for so long has thickened my skin to the point of apathy.
Someone once said it's an unfair world that we live in. But isn't the world what we make it?
posted by V-Hume at 1:27 AM
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