Yahoo Autos Be Careful When Stopping To Help People In Crashed Cars
Read the full story on The Auto Wire
It’s wonderful there are so many people who will selflessly stop to assist anyone who’s been in a car accident, even on the highway. There are risks doing that, including other cars crashing and injuring these Good Samaritans. But there’s another danger which we see come up fairly regularly which everyone should guard against.
Watch a truck driver quickly end a police chase.
A woman in Florida learned this lesson the hard way after she stopped to help a man who crashed on State Road 50 about 70 miles west of Orlando. The victim lost control of his car, swerved, and collided with the median barrier.
As the woman helped make sure he was okay and that first responders were on their way, another man reportedly walked up, got into her Chevy HHR, and took off, says the Miami Herald. For that to even be possible, she had to have left her keys in the car, if not kept the engine idling.
Sometimes it’s the person who crashed or is stranded who carjacks a Good Samaritan, taking their vehicle because they’re running from police or just don’t want to be at the crash scene when cops inevitably arrive.
In this case, the suspect only made it three miles down the road before losing control of the Chevy HHR, crossed the bare median into oncoming traffic, and hit a semi-truck head-on, dying. At least he didn’t kill or seriously injure anyone else in the process.
While we hate telling everyone to be paranoid, at the same time you can’t stop to help at a crash and just assume everyone on the scene is honest. For some, this means they don’t get out of their car and they just call 911 for first responders to come and help.
Others might get out and help, perhaps because they’re a nurse or doctor, but we would say don’t leave your car idling or keep the keys inside. And don’t leave yourself vulnerable to strangers, because sometimes a car crash is the result of a criminal trying to escape police and they don’t care who they hurt to get away.
Image via David Iloba/Pexels
Join our Newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube page, and follow us on Facebook.
