Say a hypothetical person was driving along and for some reason wandered partly into another lane almost hitting a car. The person recovered and no accident was caused. Driver (person A) admits to himself that it was stupid but no harm caused.
Person driving car he almost hits (person B) lays on the horn after offending driver has resumed position back in his proper lane. Person B wants to make sure that Person A knows he did a stupid thing and uses horn for long 6 second blasts several times. Person B then manages to get alonside person A and looks at him using exagerated mouth motions and giving person A the finger to show how upset he is.
Person B then hits the car in front of him because he wasn’t looking where he was going. The speed doesn’t appear to be great to person A and is almost certainly not a cause of injury. Also, person A, did not stop to check on accident because it was rush hour and also knowing that person B would be looking for someone to blame could make trouble in this very litigious society.
My, uh, hypothetical question is if person A is morally wrong/a scumbag? I say not. My logic is that person A did not cause the accident. Yes, he nearly caused an accident but it was averted. The second accident was caused by person B over a minute after the near accident. Wrong or not?
If Person B had enough time to honk his horn several times, the event was over and the second event, the establishment of Person B as a poltroon with anger management issues, had begun. Once that was well under way, event #3 began, during which Person B also demonstrated poor choice in priorities. Person A is morally clear and should learn a lesson from Person B: pay more attention whilst driving.
Yeah. If person B had kept on driving defensively, he would not have had the time or attention to be lining himself up with person A to give him the finger.
I assume you to be hypothetically person A? I wouldn’t worry about it. Someone with a little too much anger on their hands was the source of this accident, not a swerve into a lane that was fixed without incident.
If the story occured as you told it, i.e. Driver A was properly contrite about his mistake, and was not the proximate cause of Driver B’s accident, then he shouldn’t have been obligated to stop.
Count me in the the crowd, though I’d say that no matter who was to blame in the end (legally, anyhow) you just can’t get more entertainment for your dollar that watching some unrepentant jackass smack his head on the dashboard of his (hopefully) extremely expensive sportscar.
It’s not a parable; it’s a direct, metaphorical order from Christ Himself (Matthew 7:5 and Luke 6:42, if anyone’s interested).
Person B is responsible for his or her own actions. That includes not letting anger or fear overrule common sense. All of a sudden, Person B goes from “You could have killed me!” to “I could have killed me!” and I don’t think the transition’s all that easy. It doesn’t change responsibility, though.
I think person A is clearly at fault. Had he not upset person B, who is obviously a fragile soul, person B’s personality would not have been so shattered that he couldn’t control his car. Careering along the freeway, life ruined, seeking recompense for the callous indifference shown by person A, trying to get person A’s licence plate (for litigation purposes), to remember his face (to be able to relive the nightmare when in therapy) and to remind person A that even the most minor of lapses can damage an already slightly deranged personality, person B had the accident with person C’s vehicle.
No question. It’s all your fault. Person B is the real victim here, so call your lawyer and prepare to fess up.
The instant karma thing does happen all too rarely.
The thing that had a potential to make me wonder about my actions was that I didn’t stop. I always stop when I see an accident happen, if only to give my name/number/card to the person I feel is not at fault in case the person at fault tries something shady legally. More than once, I’ve been called by lawyers, once because the person causing the accident was claiming they weren’t even there!
I thought about stopping for this one but the road was pretty busy and I’m sure if I did that person B would have ‘made trouble’.
Oops, this is a hypothetical situation…
The speed was not great, probably less than 15 mph and person A saw his head while he hit and, while it did move, did not hit the steering wheel. I don’t there was major damage.
