'Good Samaritan' can be sued after pulling friend from car wreckage

'Good Samaritan' can be sued after pulling friend from car wreckage

www.tel egraph.co.uk

Alexandra Van Horn claims that Lisa Torti pulled her out of the vehicle, which had just crashed into a lamp post at 45mph, "like a rag doll" and contributed to her injuries.

Miss Torti, who was travelling in the car behind, says she believed the wrecked vehicle was about to burst into flames.

In a landmark decision that critics have said only proves the maxim that no good deed goes unpunished, the court decided that California's Good Samaritan law only protects people from liability

(visit the link for the full news article)

This one has me really worried. The spectre of lawsuits is bad enough in the medical field, but with my advanced training, the court has put me in a huge dillema here. Do I simply sit on the sidelines? If I render aid am I required to go beyond basic CPR because of my training, will I get sued regardless?

Because of this ruling we are now not allowed to render aid if we come accross an accident and do not have a patient in the ambulance. The EMT's are requred to stop but the two highest trained life support people are not getting out of the rig as the hospital does not want the liability exposure

If this ruling sticks and untill I get a firm handle on what exactly is going on. I am forced into an ethical dillema. DO I simple call 911 and do nothing or react as my training has prepared me for and put my livelyhood and my families future at risk?

I can tell you Im going to protect my family each and every time. It will kill me to do nothing but my greater obligation is to my family.

www.tel egraph.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Seems that the NWO is conditioning us to be indifferent to the blight of our neighbours.

I don't imagine the NWO as being some unidentified elite controlling our lives but rather governments and institutions that no longer regard feigning the existence of free societies as necessary now that the threat of communism no longer exists.

[edit on 053131p://pm3107 by masonwatcher]

One person exhibiting empathy and another lacking it is not harmony. "like a rag doll" is subjective. If I am severely injured and someone moves me in a way to save me, I am sure I will be thinking they are not being careful. However, that does not mean I shouldn't be grateful in the end.

The key phrase here is "Alexandra Van Horn claims that Lisa Torti.....". CLAIMS

Even if the claim was "true", when someone is severely injured and their FRIEND sees them about to potentially die, there comes a time when carefulness has to be sacrificed to some degree and time must be minimized. In this case, the friend believed the car was about to explode. I would have done the same.

[edit on 20-12-2008 by Unlimitedpossibilities]

I am a retired EMT and if i stopped at a accident i never stayed after the local ambulance department showed up and i never gave my name. Though may times the ambulance crew knew me and they knew never to revel names.

This was not due to good Samaritan type law suits but to keep from being subpoenaed by one side or the other in a lawsuit over the accident.

You would not believe how many lawyers believe we had nothing elce to do but go to court for them.

[edit on 20-12-2008 by ANNED]

reply to post by ANNED


Just goes to show you that the idiots who write these laws might want to consider the language a bit more if they are truly trying to protect those who realy are trying to help those in need. If the car was leaking gas or had a prevenlent smell of gas and you just let it burst into flames, some AC lawyer would probably try to sue you for NOT pulling the occupant out. Shakespear was right." First, shoot all the lawyers'!!! Politicians next!!!

Zindo

reply to post by ZindoDoone


Haha agreed Zindo...

Seems the pen pushers are once again showing their worth as soulless robots and that nothing human ever goes awarded.

Shame...

I know in FLA if you are riding in ANY vehicle that advertises beyond a reasonable doubt that you have your skills and you DO NOT stop, you can be subject to lawsuit and possible criminal ramifications. Local talk radio was discussing this the other day and can agree that I am afraid to use even the most basic skills on people I don't know. And they call ME the sociopath...jeesh.

[edit on 20-12-2008 by djvexd]

Originally posted by FredT


This one has me really worried. The spectre of lawsuits is bad enough in the medical field, but with my advanced training, the court has put me in a huge dillema here. Do I simply sit on the sidelines? If I render aid am I required to go beyond basic CPR because of my training, will I get sued regardless?

Because of this ruling we are now not allowed to render aid if we come accross an accident and do not have a patient in the ambulance. The EMT's are requred to stop but the two highest trained life support people are not getting out of the rig as the hospital does not want the liability exposure

If this ruling sticks and untill I get a firm handle on what exactly is going on. I am forced into an ethical dillema. DO I simple call 911 and do nothing or react as my training has prepared me for and put my livelyhood and my families future at risk?

I can tell you Im going to protect my family each and every time. It will kill me to do nothing but my greater obligation is to my family.

www.tel egraph.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Thanks for posting this link. Some time ago there was a thread about a person who suffered some sort of medical emergency in her(his?) office, co-workers all stood there watching as the person died.

The common consensus in the thread was that these people were sick, and they should be ashamed, yada yada.

But when I read that article it reminded me of such incidents as we have here in this thread. Someone tries to help, accidentally makes things worse, and then they're getting sued.

People don't enjoy helping people these days because there afraid of the possible repercussions of their actions.


Side story, one of my good friends a few years back was driving himself and a few other friends home one night after they had worked together. He was the car pool driver that day. It's late, and road conditions aren't great and he loses control hitting a ditch. The van is a write-off, but everyone in the vehicle walks away perfectly fine. Keep in mind that the people in the van were for years before, and years after his good friends.

Well, a month ago he gets served, and one of the guys that was in the van (who is a mutual associate) is suing him for all sorts of MAJOR injuries. The only problem is that, in the years since the accident we, as well as many many many mutual friends have seen this kid doing every imaginable activity that shows he is in no way hurt.

All cause my buddy did the good deed of being the driver, and made a mistake.

I heard they are considering rewriting the law due to the outrage that has sparked over this. Which I believe is the way to go.

Sorry if it was already mentioned, I actually watched a video on this earlier so I did not follow the link.

I really dont get this crap. First of all, it says the Good Samaritan Law protects us from liability......so....if it does how could they give her the go ahead with the suit? That doesnt make and sense.

It's another example of why laws don't work, when common sense should prevail.

Similarly, with teachers, you're damned if you touch a student to help them and you're damned if you don't touch a student to help them.

Toss the law books away. Put the lawyers on the job-queue and exercise common sense at all times. It's too easy to believe.

reply to post by FredT


This reminds me of an episode of Fraiser. There is a woman stuck out in the rain and he offers her a ride too her home. Oops, was a prostitue, and he's in trouble. He later on sees a guy with a flat and stops too help. The guy threatens a lawsuit because his cufflinks scratched the car. In other words, don't help these punks! But I always do, and so far so good. Of course it's usually people stopped on the side of the road with a map wondering where to go. Best one was they were trying to get to Portland. I didn't recognize the roads or any thing on the map. Why? They had a map for Portland Oregon and not Portland Maine! lol.

Note to self; when visiting CA, everyone I meet is SOL. Got it.

If the plaintiff was black and her good samaritan was white, she could throw hate crime on there for good measure.

The state of Kalifornia is screwed on so many different levels it's not even funny anymore.

Of course, this likely will open the door for lawsuits against people who are able to help, but choose not to.

The above is said in sarcasm, but will, unfortunately, probably come to pass.

My husband has an advanced course he takes once a year to get re certified and this past time they told him that he wasnt allowed to help if the person dint "say" he could. He asked what to do if the person was unconcous and they said to wait for an ambulance...even if the person was dieing!They made it seem like the people wouldnt be the only ones sueing him if he helped with out permission.
Makes me sick they can force him to show up when there is a disaster that the gov wants taken care of but when a normal citizen is hurt he cant help.

reply to post by FredT


What is there to say?

If I'm ever in a car wreck with a friend, and that friend is on their feet and I'm not, and that friend thinks the car might go up in flames, I hope that they get me the heck out of there without stopping to worry about how.

In a world where people increasingly complain that noone cares for one another, why do we make it so that people can be punished if something goes wrong in spite of their good intentions?

Originally posted by masonwatcher
Seems that the NWO is conditioning us to be indifferent to the blight of our neighbours.

I don't imagine the NWO as being some unidentified elite controlling our lives but rather governments and institutions that no longer regard feigning the existence of free societies as necessary now that the threat of communism no longer exists.

[edit on 053131p://pm3107 by masonwatcher]

Really you want to blame this on the NWO? I mean 1 stupid decision made by a judge does not exactly equate to being a world super power changing our lives does it?

I thought it was as about as common as common knowledge can be that untrained people should never pull people from car wrecks because they are likely to aggravate any injuries.

If someone pulled me from a wreck, causing further injury to me, I'd be pretty pissed off.



[edit on 20/12/08 by Fuggle]

I heard they are considering rewriting the law due to the outrage that has sparked over this. Which I believe is the way to go.

reply to post by SweetRevenge


A change in the law is in order as this case demonstrates! Anyone who gives aid to an injured party should be considered a good sumaritan with total legal protection (unless perhaps malicious intent can be proven).

If you hit a lamp post and injure yourself you just forfited your right to sue whoever comes to your aid. That should apply to emergency responders as well. Why should they face lawsuits that force them to spend their valuable time testifying or worse?

That is the law (here) in my profession of veterinary medicine. I have never been sued for emergency services rendered in some 30 years because of how the good sumaritan law is written. The result has been that anyone who helps save a distressed animal is not liable nor is the animal health professional until the animal owner arrives to take responsibility. People therefore don't have second thoughts about helping out.



[edit on 20/12/08 by plumranch]

I don't like the title of this news piece. They could have tried to keep it a little more factual and gone with:

'Good Samaritan' can be sued after pulling ex-friend from car wreckage

Jon