Saving someones life at the cost of potentially your own?

Not judging you in any way, just asking out of pure curiosity: would you still be good if you found out after the fact that the person was mentally ill/incompetent and had gotten away from where they were supposed to be?

 

Maybe I'm older but I'd like to think I wouldn't do it again. Harsh thing to say but. . .

 

Given that there is no possible way to evaluate that information in a fraction of a second, what is there to feel guilty for if you did everything possible? What if it was a woman fleeing a rapist? What it it was the rapist fleeing the cops?

 

No idea what kind of vehicle you had, however used vehicle values are THROUGH THE ROOF! I'd call a few dealerships near by and explain the situation and have them quote you what it would be worth in todays market (what they would sell if for, not what they would trade it in for). That why when the insurance co. attempts to give you book value you have something to go back at them with and recoup a bit more $$.

 

Because humans are irrational, emotional creatures many people will dwell on a point when there is no reason to. In a lot of cases society is concerned about people who don't react with emotions to such situations.

 

I am asking precisely because he said he wouldn't do everything possible. Keep up.

p.s. And again, I'm not judging his decision to do what's safer for himself. I'm just digging deeper into the "no regrets" aspect of things.

 

I would be sad at the loss of life, but not guilty.

 

I'll jump in here and say that I still would not feel guilty, or at least I don't think I would. As he said, my first responsibility is to my family. I didn't make vows to a stranger to look out for their wellbeing or take care of them. I didn't take on the responsibility of bringing that person into this world. They are not my responsibility. I have a family that is. That's all there is to it. Everything else is just noise.

That said, I will "swerve" in a controlled manner. I won't go off the road and I won't whip or spin the car. But I suppose motorcycle racing has taught me to remain calm and in control even in a frantic, unexpected situation. Never has happened with a person but I have "swerved" to miss animals while strategically applying brakes many times and never came even remotely close to losing control of the vehicle. However, I also have told my wife to NEVER swerve. She has neither the experience nor composure under duress that I do so it's not worth the risk.

 

Living in a town that is on a main line class 1 railroad, suicide by train is more common than you would think. I personally know of a crew that had it happen to them twice. When you see them on the tracks 500 yards away but it takes over a mile to stop a 110 car unit train........

 

Must admit I'm selfish in these situations. I helped save a kid's life earlier this year being mauled by a wild dog, and it wasn't the bloody violent act of it that got me, it was more what if I hadn't done enough, hadn't seen/heard it, and it was a much worse outcome, that basically it was a random life altering challenge and by good fortune and sheer dumb luck my life didn't go down a different path of self doubt and wondering what ifs. I tip my hat to the OP, I think you rose to the occasion and that's all we can do in the moment. What happens after is another story.

 

If I gave it all I could in order to stop/miss them/limit impact (sans an emergency swerve)...yes. because I have a responsibility to be there for my family.

Edit: If I can expand in it with a hypothetical, think about this. You're vacationing with your family at the Grand Canyon. Someone has headphones on and is walking backwards towards the edge of the cliff. What is a reasonable amount of effort to save them? Try to physically/verbally stop them at 50 ft away? 25ft? 10 ft? 5 ft? 6 inches from the edge? I would try up until about 25 ft from the edge. That is a reasonable amount of risk to my own personal safety before I stop trying, and am content with my effort. Any closer and I am endangering my own life at an unreasonable amount, and I am starting to have a dereliction of duty to my family.

That's how I feel about swerving and endangering my life at the expense of my responsibility to my family.

 

If they're walking backwards, I'm assuming they can see me? Yelling and waving is enough, as far as I'm concerned.

 

I am skeered enough of heights to say that anyone walking backwards toward the rim of a canyon, even one not so grand, probably needs to be culled from the gene pool.

 

I come into this late as I figured it was theoretical, REALLY SORRY it is not.

I can guarantee you did the right thing. We had an employee who had a drunk step in front of him one night. 100% not his fault according to cops and any rational person. However it crushed him. It was a long time for him to get over what was beyond his responsibility because he was a great guy, I imagine the impact on you would have been as great. As bad as times suck just be thankful the puke is alive and you did not have a chunk of your soul torn out.

As to the car, get his! He should be liable. In addition to your insurance payout go after him. Your family should not suffer more than it has because of his incredibly dangerous and selfish act. Yes he should get help also but you and yours should be made as whole as possible.

Good luck and 100% the right thing, glad you were not hurt bad.

 

F@ck yeah, heights or on a bridge, sorry can't help ya'. Shit, you're on the roof of a semi tall building, nothing I can do.

 

As someone that has been on the running over side of it.... Don't feel bad I regretted that my mistake took someone with me. Also thankful it was not worse as it could have killed me had things gone a little different. Of course NONE of that was his fault and I felt bad that he crashed also. Then limped for a few months Knee is acting up today again though it is not often. But did you have video? I wanted more video of mine.....

 

There is some grainy fan video showing the moment I hit him and my bike doing a front flip up in the air and me doing a head dive into a tumble into a roll. It was the red flag in Twins Cup race 2 at VIR. I popped right up, but he took a nap for a while and then took a ride to the hospital to get checked out.