what to do when someone wants to jump off a bridge?

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Elixer

Lifer
May 7, 2002
10,371
762
126
i didnt call 911 cause my phone was dead. i would like to pull over and talk to her but seeing how people can be sued for helping others would sucks. if she jumped cause of me, her family might sue me. sucks but a possibility.
by the time i reached the end of the bridge, i saw 2 cop cars and 2 fire trucks heading her direction. not sure what the fire trucks are for.
The Fire trucks have wet gear, and ropes & ladders, so they could get down their pretty quick if they needed to.

Yeah, lots of people are afraid of being sued, they really need to stop this BS and make a bystander law to stop these idiot lawyer trying to sue everyone.
 
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MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
24,122
1,594
126
Right!! See a person having a heart attack and instead of calling 911 grab a lamp and McGyver a defibrillator out of the cord. So what if you don't know what you're doing and it all goes horribly wrong and you kill the person by doing something you're not qualified for, sometimes trying to do the right thing does have unintended consequences.

See a drunk driver don't call 911, try the PIT maneuver to safely deposit the driver in a hedge before he hurts somebody. So what if you're not qualified and have never done it before and so what if you push him into a school bus and kill 10 kids. Sometimes trying to do the right thing does have unintended consequences.

Jump right in, because life is like a movie and despite having no training to do anything, you're just that doggone special and you can safely handle anything. WTF needs experts if you're on the scene?
What if aliens? Don't get mad at me, you're the troll who's convinced yourself you're helpless...wait. :(
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,619
13,818
126
www.anyf.ca
That's a pretty lame outlook. Sometimes trying to do the right thing does have unintended consequences but, that doesn't mean you don't try. It's called being human. Avoiding possible bad outcomes leads to hiding under your bed and eating fast food for the rest of your life. Life is for living not, for making risk management happy.

The issue is that the risk is so high that it's often not worth it. So you approach, the person gets spooked and jumps. Now you have a million dollar lawsuit on your hands because they'll blame you for it. Might even twist the law in a way to make it so you get charged for murder. Or someone runs into your parked car and sues you, or law prosecutes you for impeding traffic etc. This liability based world is completely retarded and is making it harder to be a good human because everything has a huge risk associated with it.
 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
24,122
1,594
126
The issue is that the risk is so high that it's often not worth it. So you approach, the person gets spooked and jumps. Now you have a million dollar lawsuit on your hands because they'll blame you for it. Might even twist the law in a way to make it so you get charged for murder. Or someone runs into your parked car and sues you, or law prosecutes you for impeding traffic etc. This liability based world is completely retarded and is making it harder to be a good human because everything has a huge risk associated with it.
You simply can not live your life according to risk management. That's not living it's being a willing consumer of the fear of the moment. What I've never understood is why so many willingly give up control of there own lives to make bean counters, lawyers and, risk management happy when they've demonstrated time after time, they don't give a damn. I guess thinking for themselves is just too hard.
 
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Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,619
13,818
126
www.anyf.ca
You simply can not live your life according to risk management. That's not living it's being a willing consumer of the fear of the moment. What I've never understood is why so many willingly give up control of there own lives to make bean counters, lawyers and, risk management happy when they've demonstrated time after time, they don't give a damn. I guess thinking for themselves is just too hard.

People don't want to live that way, they have to because of how ridiculous the system has become. The risk is too real to ignore.
 

who?

Platinum Member
Sep 1, 2012
2,327
42
91
Lots of people assume that somebody else in the crowd will take care of the situation so they don't have to.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
66,303
14,715
146
I called the comma police.

you, rang, sir?

60e029b1eb8d35abe9c8dd7d2e2230ca--punctuation-spelling.jpg
 
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Reactions: highland145
Nov 8, 2012
20,842
4,785
146
If they want to jump fine, its their decision and really unless you lock them up you cant stop them. If they need help and someone to talk to thats fine to.

Just pick one and do it, holding up rush hour traffic on a bridge is ridiculous and people that do it should be tased/tear gassed/whatever needs to be done to be removed and traffic restored.

My thoughts exactly. Fuck you people stopping your car in live traffic. I guarantee these are snoody people with no worries in life shouting "...but you have so much to live for!" without knowing a single thing about them. The truth is they have no idea, and it's their life to live. If you want to feel like a pompous twat that did their good deed for the day and give yourself a pat on the back then just call 9-1-1 and keep going. Anything else and you're more likely to do harm than good. Even if you get her off that bridge she is more likely to go home and just find another method.

People that stop to watch and "try to help" are the exact same type of people that always want to stop and see what happened at a car wreck. The reality is, they don't care about helping people - they just want to see the carnage in life of other people suffering as a form of entertainment for themselves. Fuck off, I guarantee no one that stopped was asking her for her phone number to check-up and support her.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,619
13,818
126
www.anyf.ca
It's illegal to use a cell phone while driving, so by the time you can find a spot to pull over and call 911 and help gets sent it's probably too late. Though for the litigation reasons stated, it probably *IS* the best thing you can do as interacting with the situation may put yourself at risk of lawsuit, being run off the road by road ragers etc...

But if someone decides to take all those risks and wants to help then all the power to them.
 

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,741
456
126
It's illegal to use a cell phone while driving, so by the time you can find a spot to pull over and call 911 and help gets sent it's probably too late. Though for the litigation reasons stated, it probably *IS* the best thing you can do as interacting with the situation may put yourself at risk of lawsuit, being run off the road by road ragers etc...

But if someone decides to take all those risks and wants to help then all the power to them.
Maybe that's why people were pulling over. I'm not sure where this bridge is, but it's not illegal to use your phone while driving in a lot of the US (yet, and it's supposed to be hands free if you do try to call someone)
 

slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,679
119
106
It's illegal to use a cell phone while driving, so by the time you can find a spot to pull over and call 911 and help gets sent it's probably too late. Though for the litigation reasons stated, it probably *IS* the best thing you can do as interacting with the situation may put yourself at risk of lawsuit, being run off the road by road ragers etc...

But if someone decides to take all those risks and wants to help then all the power to them.

I regret showing ignored comments on this thread. You are such a moron
 

Darwin333

Lifer
Dec 11, 2006
19,946
2,329
126
Right!! See a person having a heart attack and instead of calling 911 grab a lamp and McGyver a defibrillator out of the cord. So what if you don't know what you're doing and it all goes horribly wrong and you kill the person by doing something you're not qualified for, sometimes trying to do the right thing does have unintended consequences.

See a drunk driver don't call 911, try the PIT maneuver to safely deposit the driver in a hedge before he hurts somebody. So what if you're not qualified and have never done it before and so what if you push him into a school bus and kill 10 kids. Sometimes trying to do the right thing does have unintended consequences.

Jump right in, because life is like a movie and despite having no training to do anything, you're just that doggone special and you can safely handle anything. WTF needs experts if you're on the scene? Because in a crisis situation what you really need to sort things out is an untrained, "my life is pathetic and I want to be a hero!!" moron doing something stupid that he's not qualified to even attempt because doing anything is better than doing nothing.

I don't think that he was saying not to call 911 but instead saying that you should call 911 and then do anything that you could to help until the authorities arrive. Kind of like performing CPR after you call 911 until the paramedics show up and then letting them take over versus just calling 911 and then walking away.

BTW, the have "idiot proof" defibrillators all over the place these days that are meant to be used by completely untrained people. I sure as hell hope that if I am in need of a jolt and one of those is nearby that you aren't the only asshole around.