He should rot 'til he’s dead. Too bad he won’t.
That pegs my RO meter more than the OP. Shock can do strange things, I’ve experienced it. I could see shock influencing his behavior in the original instance, especially for such a horrific thing where it’s tough to see why he would lie. The fact that he got caught in a second instance tells me that he should be put somewhere that he can’t do damage to society.
Why did the emergency workers rely on his statement that no one else was in the car? If there was enough time for his answer to have made a difference in saving her life, there was enough time for an emergency worker to check for themself.
Moral of the story: don’t base life-or-death decisions on the statements of a possibly injured and drunk driver.
Damn, Pleonast beat me to it. What sort of emergency workers rely on the word of a drunk and disoriented accident victim? How hard would it have been for them to check themselves?
I once took a safety instructors class and that’s one thing that was stressed to us as teachers. Accident victims are quite often in shock and confused and will say yes or no to any question. The tactic to get by that is to not ask yes or no questions but ask questions which require some logic to answer like -
How many people were in your car?
Who was with you when you got into the car?
(Important one) Do you have a child?
I once was a first citizen responder to an accident where a pickup truck landed upside down in a ditch filled with rushing water. The other bystanders and I could not see into the cab.
Suddenly hands came up through the water by the door and we pulled out one, then two, then the third victim. Each was screaming and crying. I got the first one’s attention and asked “How many people in the truck?”
1st victim’s answer - 3
2nd victim’s answer - 2
3rd victim’s answer - 3
The second victim, standing there with her two soaked friends never did correct her answer.
I also asked each one about children, pets etc.
Later, after they had calmed down some more I asked them to tell me who was in the car, if they remembered leaving their last location, etc just to be sure.
There is some logic to that answer though. If I’m really shaken up and you ask “How many people were in the car?” I can totally see myself being dazed and confused and worrying about my two friends. My brain will probably be saying: “My two friends! My two friends! My two friends were with me in the car. Are my two friends okay? Where are my two friends?” I will answer “two”. Not because there were two people in the car, but because of the urgency of me trying to tell you there were two people with me.
Heck, jumbled around in a car wreck with my two buddies, ask me something specific like how many dwarves hang out with Snow White, I’d probably answer “TWO!” :smack: