Don't Help Anyone...

[creech]

Bumbling Good Samaritan can be sued

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, December 19, 2008

(12-18) 17:43 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- A Good Samaritan whose well-meaning but careless rescue effort injures an accident victim can be sued for damages, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

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Comments

[gnowun]

No good deed goes unpunished.

[epim]

 Ah, but therein lies perspective. Being overwhelmed by a fit of heroism and dragging someone with possible spinal injury from a wrecked car because "it was about to explode" and paralyzing them for life does not constitute a 'good samaritan'. I think the individual here watched way too much damn television.

Yeah,but

[tuositoblanco]

the standard of law is "good faith" not "good science" (or "reasonable person")

Of course , the supreme court says that law doesn't apply.

In Other News: California supreme court is 57% Drooling Moron.

Re: Yeah,but

[epim]

Well at some point "good faith" has to meet "Common sense", right?

[audreystats]

So messed up.

I remember when I took my work-provided first aid/CPR class one of the first things we were taught is that providing help often means going to court; giving chest compressions often means breaking a few ribs, and the person can very easily drag you to court over it - despite the fact s/he would likely die if they're in the situation of needing chest compressions. Personally, I'd take the broken ribs over death, but I guess the world is made up of ungrateful douchebags.

Also, an ex of mine was a paramedic & he told me he spent about 1/3 of his work time in court due to all the idiots suing him/their team; things like "Why'd they have to charge me for an ambulance, fluids, medical, attention?? I was fine passed out on my burning house's floor" I'm serious... 1/3 of his time.

[seanlynch]

This seems like a pretty clear-cut case of a passing motorist who has watched too many movies, and took an accident that the person may well have recovered fully from and made it life-altering. The article says the other motorists at the scene didn't see any smoke.

While I think good samaritans should in general be protected, this person seems like an idiot who has now potentially harmed someone else pretty seriously.

There are plenty of examples of good samaritans getting sued unnecessarily where that may cause people to think twice about helping where help is necessary. This is not one of them.