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There’s an odd phenomenon that I have noticed occurs to me: the beginning 90% of any substantial journey I undertake is peaceful and uneventful, whereas the final 10% tends to be awful and potentially life-threatening. This is at least the third example in support of my hypothesis.
I was on my way back to my apartment at school after coming home for the weekend and seeing “Skyfall” with a friend of mine. + Show Spoiler +For those who haven’t seen it, I recommend it. Was a good Bond movie. 9/10. 
I’m a mile out from my exit, in the right-hand lane, and the car behind me in the left lane swerves out in front wildly. I wonder what the heck he/she’s doing until I realize that that speed is too much for the turn they’re making and they begin to drift, overcompensating for the momentum that turns the back of their car counter-clockwise. I immediately hit my brakes and drive as defensively as I can. Luckily, I’m able to decelerate enough to where I won’t hit them (thank God those semis I passed were waaaay far behind me... THEY sure wouldn’t have slowed down that quickly). The driver must have panicked, because while trying to make it to the inside shoulder, they couldn’t turn in time, fell into the small ditch, and hit the wire-fence median splitting the highway.
Part of me instantly said, “Pull over, run to them, and see if they’re hurt.” But after considering for a bit (it was still raining, and it was really dark too), I kept going. Their car hadn’t flipped; it was a head-on collision with the median and the muddy, wet ground beneath it. I figured the occupants were safe enough. Plus, being so close to the city, emergency response wouldn’t take long to get out to the scene.
In retrospect, I’ve thought of another positive substantiation for my avoiding getting involved: if you spot something dangerous, do not put yourself in danger with them. It’s difficult to deny immediate help for someone when you are so close to them logistically and want to aid those in need, and of course I know where there are probably some situations where it is better to risk one’s personal safety to rescue another. But this was not such an example. One of the first things we learned at the mine where I interned at was that one should not add to the problem caused by a dangerous environment by interacting beyond their training or qualification or permissions. You’re liable (and likely) to just get yourself hurt along with the first victim(s). For me, in this case, I would have put myself and my car at risk by parking on the narrow shoulder of a highway, at night, and in the rain. Qualified EMS was on its way by the time I exited and parked. And goodness, don’t even get me started on potential legal ramifications, lol....
Basically, if there’s an issue you can’t or are not able to contribute to its solution, ask/look for help from someone who can. 
Read: I GET IT. Should have called 911. Thank you.
Question of the Blog: What’s the scariest or most life-threatening incident you’ve ever been in, and what did you learn from the experience?
EDIT: Lord, this day keeps getting better and better. Not 10 minutes after I post this, a guy over by the computers gets a seizure. He's bleeding, but he's alright. Not much I could do but run and grab paper towels.
Sure enough, lol, I'm hearing ambulance sirens in outside. Story developing as I type.
Guy's awake, but hurting and he can't stop moving. Medical folks just walked in. Pretty sure he'll be alright.
 
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I've been a passenger in a car driving at 100 km/h in the Alpes (mountain at the frontier between France / Italy / Switzerland) going for a party in the mountain at 1 AM with a drunk socially awkward driver masturbating himself of how fast he was riding in this shit. Thought I'd die.
I still think you should have stopped the car and see if they were okay man. Not putting yourself in danger is right, but staying on the side, asking them if they were okay, and calling for help. Also I think that if you had stayed with them and made sure they were okay, you would not been here thinking again about this incident.
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seen 1 accident and involved in 1 accident
the accident I was involved in was just me getting rear ended while I was slowing down to make a right turn to get to my workplace. the driver behind me just didn't react fast enough. funny thing was his car took noticeable damage on his front fender while my car (Camry) didn't really take any real noticeable damage on the back fender.
the accident I saw was during holiday buying season last year. there was a huge line of cars on the freeway to exit off to a huge shopping area. some idiot randomly stopped/slowed down in a non-exit lane to try to cut into the huge line of cars and got rear ended because of it. think the worse injury that happened in that accident was probably whiplash. the car that rear ended the idiot's car was probably scrunched by at least 1-2 feet.
I was 1-2 lanes left of when the accident occurred as I passed by
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United States24483 Posts
So who called the police to get help directly after that car accident?
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On November 13 2012 02:21 WhiteDog wrote:
I've been a passenger in a car driving at 100 km/h in the Alpes (mountain at the frontier between France / Italy / Switzerland) going for a party in the mountain at 1 AM with a drunk socially awkward driver masturbating himself of how fast he was riding in this shit. Thought I'd die.
I still think you should have stopped the car and see if they were okay man. Not putting yourself in danger is right, but staying on the side, asking them if they were okay, and calling for help. Also I think that if you had stayed with them and made sure they were okay, you would not been here thinking again about this incident.
If this had happened in broad daylight, on a less-traveled road, without rain, I would have felt much more comfortable about stopping and getting out to help. True, though, I could have called; it wouldn't have mattered because the ambulance was already on its way by the time I had stopped, but it wouldn't have hurt.
Staying with them might also have led me to be implicated with the accident. Their car and mine never touched, but it was close, and in a court of law, evidence like that can get ambiguous and arbitrary. For example, I could easily have been accused of cutting them off, or forcing them to drive haphazardly. That obviously was not the case and the authorities should believe that. But legal junk like this has an odd way of twisting itself around the genuine and innocent, and I didn't want to step into that mess. :-\
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On November 13 2012 02:37 micronesia wrote:
So who called the police to get help directly after that car accident?
Better be OP or he just incriminated himself.
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So those people could have been extremely hurt, you're not positive or not, yet you didn't call for help ? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
It takes so little effort to dial three digits and say a few words to possibly save someones life. Please tell me you did at least that.
Edit: So you didn't. How did you know the ambulance was already on its way? Did you see it stop at the location or something?
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Like I'm gonna call ANY-one while going 60 on the highway at night in a rainstorm.... '>_>
I exited and stopped at a gas station. Didn't think to call 911, honestly. That, I admit, was a mistake.
Texted my parents instead to let them know I was safe, as well as ask for guidance on what I should have done. I'm not used to, nor good with, emergency situations like this.
On November 13 2012 02:47 Dagobert wrote:Show nested quote +On November 13 2012 02:37 micronesia wrote:
So who called the police to get help directly after that car accident? Better be OP or he just incriminated himself.
Not exactly. I wasn't technically involved in the accident; the other driver lost control of their vehicle. I know, I still should have called 911, and there's no excuse for that. But I wasn't "escaping the scene of an accident" since I was not involved. If that were true, then the guy in front of both of us and the drivers in the semis behind us should have stopped somewhere and called too.
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Uh...yeah...you just assumed that an ambulance was on the way? The time those people would need an ambulance the most is if they were unable to call it themselves. You behaved ridiculously.
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Well I was gonna berate you for not helping, but that matter has already been addressed. Just next time, please at least call 911.
As for me once before I was driving home early in the morning, around 2 am, and the car in front of me suddenly veered off to the side and smashed into a telephone pole. It was really weird because all I could see was the tail lights disappear and then reappear and then disappear.... Turns out the car flipped end over end a couple of times. Pulled over, the telephone poll was bent in half, the power lines were draped over the nearby houses and the car looked like it had been hit by a bazooka. All I could do was call 911 and knock on the houses where the power lines were touching. Pretty scary stuff, especially because the woman driving was screaming in pain and their was nothing I could do to help. She was pinned in the car, and they had to use the jaws of life to get her out. That feeling of helplessness, when someone is close by that obviously needs your help, I don't want to go through that again.
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On November 13 2012 03:06 -Kaiser- wrote:
Uh...yeah...you just assumed that an ambulance was on the way? The time those people would need an ambulance the most is if they were unable to call it themselves. You behaved ridiculously.
I agree that you should definitely call an ambulance for the people in the car, but I do not agree that you should stop on a narrow shoulder in the dark and heavy rain. I've watched enough videos of motorists / police officers that pull over to the shoulder to either give a ticket, or help someone, only to have another vehicle barrel into their car and potentially into them. Pulling over on a clear sunny day can be risky, let alone a dark and stormy night with bad road traction. I'd just call an ambulance as I drove by slowly (depending on whos coming up behind me) to initially see if there was any movement etc.
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Its one of those cases of the bystander effect, typical.
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There are countries where it's considered a criminal act not to help in an emergency, involved or not. Seriously, the whole "I realized it was raining" makes you sound like a huge douche, they could be hurt and it's not like it would be a bad thing if you went over there and showed some compassion. Not even thinking to call 911 is just beyond ridiculous.
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This is God's way of saying stop being a conservative
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On November 13 2012 04:01 farvacola wrote:This is God's way of saying stop being a conservative
Oh you. X-D
My joking reply would be to brush this off as inconsequential, but I feared KNEW someone would bring it up anyway, lol. As a conservative, I believe I have, and had, the personal legal freedom to help people in need. Morally, my deciding to not call 911 is reprehensible, if legally inconsequential. I chose not to jump out into the rain and the cold to help based on my logic, not on emotional impulse. The way I would see it is, a liberal believes he/she has to help, while a conservative believes he/she chooses to help.
On November 13 2012 03:54 Tobberoth wrote:
There are countries where it's considered a criminal act not to help in an emergency, involved or not. Seriously, the whole "I realized it was raining" makes you sound like a huge douche, they could be hurt and it's not like it would be a bad thing if you went over there and showed some compassion. Not even thinking to call 911 is just beyond ridiculous.
According to my knowledge, the U.S. is not such a place. And you're kind of proving my above point to farvacola.
I'd prefer it if we didn't derail this too much into politics or personal worldviews, but I thought these deserved responses.
On November 13 2012 03:47 Disregard wrote:
Its one of those cases of the bystander effect, typical.
Your username is humorous, given the nature of your reply, lololol! X-D
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On November 13 2012 03:54 Tobberoth wrote:
There are countries where it's considered a criminal act not to help in an emergency, involved or not. Seriously, the whole "I realized it was raining" makes you sound like a huge douche, they could be hurt and it's not like it would be a bad thing if you went over there and showed some compassion. Not even thinking to call 911 is just beyond ridiculous.
Agreed. I know this blog intended to stoke a different conversation, but that was rendered moot by the OP's selfishness at the scene. Trying to justify it won't help you learn from the experience either.
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lol yeah at Disregard's username. Also, I just ctrl+f'd bystander effect to check whether anyone mentioned it and sure enough 
You do kind of sound like a dick for not safely pulling over ASAP and calling 911, in case the driver might not have been able to report the accident because he got knocked out or something etc unfortunately. Dang people are jumping on your ass for it though -_-
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rainy and dark out on a small highway shoulder, i wouldnt go there either. people are retarded and there's enough accidents caused that way. Def would have called 911 though.
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If I get the story right, it was raining and you were on the highway or something?
Good thing you didn't call 911, because talking on the cell phone while driving is dangerous. Especially at high speeds and in the rain. No need to cause a second accident.
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On November 13 2012 04:44 Aerisky wrote:lol yeah at Disregard's username. Also, I just ctrl+f'd bystander effect to check whether anyone mentioned it and sure enough You do kind of sound like a dick for not safely pulling over ASAP and calling 911, in case the driver might not have been able to report the accident because he got knocked out or something etc unfortunately. Dang people are jumping on your ass for it though -_-
I was near an exit, so I waited till then to pull out my phone; no way I would have pulled over to the shoulder to call. By the time I had parked safely, I heard the sirens anyway.
On November 13 2012 04:57 DigiGnar wrote:
If I get the story right, it was raining and you were on the highway or something?
Yes, I was going about 60 on the highway at the time, at night and in heavy rain. When I had exited and parked, I should have called, though.
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EPT
