Helping People Stuck in the Snow

superman27344

superman27344

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2015
Location
Lexington
I am sure like most of you, when it snows its an opportunity go play with my 4x4. While out, I usually enjoy helping those that have run off the road or are just having a hard time getting up a snowy hill. I find it rewarding to help as well as a good opportunity to try out my recovery skills and gear. However, after reading about what happened to the young man in the article link below, I found myself questioning whether or not I would stop anymore to render assistance. I would like to think that I still would, but at the same time I usually ride around in the snow with my family and keeping them above ground and vertical takes priority over anything to me. There seems to be an abundance of crazies running around these days, and armed ones at that. Just curious about what this story made other people think. The link to it is below.

Family: Good Samaritan killed Friday was always there to help
 
Like others have said, I think this is an outlier. The key takeaway to me is: If you're going to call the cops on the beligerent drunk, don't make it apparent to the belligerent drunk.

I had this exact situation happen with a car that had run off into a ditch beside the railroad tracks (NOT in the snow). I stopped to make sure they were ok and to help get them out. When I went to the window, they didn't even realize I was there. I knocked on then pounded on the window for 15-20 seconds before they realized. Then they rolled the window down, and pot smoke rolled out, and you could smell the alcohol on their breath. I asked if they were ok, received some type of unintelligible affirmative response, and then returned to my vehicle and called *HP.
 
jeepinmatt said:
If you're going to call the cops on the beligerent drunk, don't make it apparent to the belligerent drunk.
Click to expand...

I wondered myself why they didn't just leave without letting the drunk know they were calling the cops.
 
I had drunk flip in the ditch In front of my house, for some reason I grabbed my gun when I went out side and good thing he got out wanting to fight and everything else. He calmed down down pretty quick with a 9mm pointing at him until cops arrived.
 
I have stopped helpin for these same reasons.I use to help people when they had trouble and still would if I knew them but not some random stranger.I knew a guy who picked up somebody who had ran out of gas and hauled the guy to the station.The guy wanted hauled back to his truck and pulled a knife on the driver when he said no.From what I understand he was good w walkin when the 38 was pulled out.
 
I had a state trooper tell me it's illegal to pull someone out of a ditch on a state maintained road without law enforcement's permission/prior knowledge. How true that is, I'm not sure.
 
My thoughts - when you hook to someone else's vehicle you accept varying degrees of liability. As someone who works in the automotive industry and who's hung out with wrecker drivers for years I can tell you there can always be something unseen, damage that wasn't accounted for or the chance of someone else sliding into and injuring or killing you. The wrecker operators I know all take the job pretty seriously and have training beyond the basic "pull it out of the ditch" mentality. Their skilled at removing vehicles without causing signicant additional damage. I'll leave it to someone who has liability insurance for that liability!
 
Yep, I had heard that too.
 
mommucked said:
...abetting the not reporting of the accident or something to that effect?
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Exactly! The way I understand is it's the responsibility of who ever pulls it out to verify that law enforcement has been notified if property damage is present. And that damage could be to the vehicle or property
 
I used to pull people out with my winch in high school when it snowed. Mostly it was people that slid off the road in the ditch. Made good $ too. If there's was property damage or injuries or other vehicles involved, I usually just made sure everyone was OK and that police were on their way.
 
I used to, & may still do, depending on the situation. I don't go out & "Play" as much as I used to, & the Risk are much Higher now! Myself & friends, have been "Warned" away from hills & places we used to hang around. Add to that the "Comment", you'd better not be Charging for recovery. Then it can get "sticky" trying to help 1 person, & blocking 1 or both lanes of travel, possibly causing another misfortune. I don't chance it anymore.
 
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