What happened to personal responsibilty?

[decapoddiver]

"Two teenage sisters were killed in an overnight car crash in Southborough.

NewsCenter 5's Jack Harper reported that the girls were in a sport utility vehicle that hit a utility pole on Northborough Road around 1 a.m. The cause of the accident and whether or not the girls were wearing seat beats remains under investigation."

Not "the vehicle that the 17 y/o girl was driving at 1 A.M. on a schoolnight with her 16 y/o sister inside that crashed at such speed that the utility pole impaled the vehicle and caused the vehicle to remain upside down app. 6 feet off the ground. The damage was so bad that rescuers were unable to tell if anyone was wearing a setbelt." Ummm... not that I'm callous but we seem to be experiencing a rash of accidents involving innocent people who happened to be in a vehicle that crashed (apperently through no fault of the driver).
I responded to and transported patients from two seperate "accidents" like this last weekend. The first was a 18 y/o male who "happened" to be going close to 80 mph on a wet, narrow side road at 1 A.M. when his vehicle rolled and crashed into a tree. The poor guy. Not his fault I guess. The car just decided to take over and became suicidal.

The second was a 24 y/o female who said "I was reaching over to change a CD and my car just swerved onto the other side of the road and struck the truck". Poor girl. Not her fault. I guess the car decided that she wasn't paying enough attention to it and became jealous.

Good gravy! Would someone please accept responsibility for their own actions?! Roads don't move. Trees do not sprout in the middle of roads. Your car's dimensions do not change arbitrarily. Wet or snow covered roads are slippery. No, it isn't everyone elses job to look out for you because you're not watching where you're going. Remember, if you think it's a good idea to drink coffee, eat, do your makeup and drive at the same time, chances are the person in the other car does too.

I'm losing the ability to have compassion for these folks. Maybe I'm burned out

 

[dbg40]

You're preachin to the choir brother. and Amen! More people need to be outraged over the art of "it's not MY fault". From, it's not MY fault im fat (sitting at McD's) Im on welfare cause I can't afford daycare (unmarried mother of 5, from various fathers) Fathers that walk away, only to leave the finantial burdon on others. not to mention that prisons are filled with "innocent" people. And dont get me started on those we elect into office to protect our intrests, as citizens, NOT. Just keep your head down, and pull on the yolk a little harder, it's gonna be a rough row to hoe.

 

[MEL-DC Diver]

Wait. Hold on just a second. I am pretty sure I heard somewhere, I think it was on TV, that the government was responsible. Yeah, pretty sure the government is supposed to be responsible for my safety. And I am nearly 99% sure that they are supposed to be responsible for my happiness. I'll have to check again, but that's what I was told by my lawyer.

 

[jchaplain]

In California at least the news refers to these things as "crashes"...not "accidents."
An accident is when you are driving under a bridge and it falls on you....not when you crash into something or cause a crash because you were talking on your cell phone!!!!!!!! ( or changing a cd)

Lately I'm stunned at the amount of people I see sitting in the middle of the road just stopped, waiting to take a turn but didn't put on their signal because they are too busy talking on their cell phones to think of doing that......or crawling along the highway at 40mph just chatting happily on their phone pissing everyone else off.....its astounding how self centered people have become these days.

My own daughter came home one night after she first got her drivers license and told me her car spun out and that it wasn't her fault...it was the road....it was slippery......

Boy did she ever get chewed out.... up and down...left and right.... for saying that to me....like I was a marine drill sargent hollering at her....and she has been a much safer driver ever since.

 

[lord1234]

2 years ago I spun out on route 2 when I hit a patch of ice. I take responsibility for the accident even though I was (in my mind) following proper driving procedures for the type of weather/climate of driving. I am "fighting" the points on my license in a week or two.

 

[Wreck Wench]

You're preachin to the choir brother. and Amen! More people need to be outraged over the art of "it's not MY fault". From, it's not MY fault im fat (sitting at McD's)...

The version I hear is...'Its not my fault I'm in bad health...I have bad genes.' Funny how 9 of the top 10 reasons for death are not genetics related but rather diet related i.e. what you eat or what you don't eat. But it is as we all know easier to blame something or someone else. :11:

Personal responsibility seems to be a lost art.

 

[crlavoie]

2 years ago I spun out on route 2 when I hit a patch of ice. I take responsibility for the accident even though I was (in my mind) following proper driving procedures for the type of weather/climate of driving. I am "fighting" the points on my license in a week or two.

Let me guess, you were headed east bound, coming down the hill in Fitchburg... somewhere areound the Mr. Mikes gas station that would have been on your right (or maybe your left when you were done spinning)?

 

[RIOceanographer]

I'm losing the ability to have compassion for these folks. Maybe I'm burned out

I think it is understandable you'd feel that way. I don't see how you could be a paramedic without feeling like that sometimes. I know ER docs go through that same kind of thing, especially when they see the same faces for the same things over and over again.

However, just because someone does something stupid or exercises poor judgement behind the wheel, it doesn't mean they are evil or bad people and deserve to die for it. Hopefully people survive their mistakes and then get a chance to learn from them. Maybe they won't learn, but hopefully they at least get the chance, especially if they are just teenagers. And besides there were two people in that car. Only one of them was driving the vehicle. Did the other person deserve to die because they got in the car with the wrong person?

And in the case of the fatal crash really I don't think there is any inability for people to assign responsibility (obviously dead people can't take responsibility themselves). The police are just taking the time to make sure they have everything completely straight before they issue a report. That's just they way they do business. They can't just say, "Yup, looks like bad driving" while the wreckage is still smoking. They need to know the speed, if alcohol was involved etc. before they make an official statement. And it isn't the reporter's job to editorialize about the cause, so why should he go out on a limb before the police do?

I've got several teachers in my family up in MA in my family (4 of them actually) so I have heard lots of stories about students of theirs who have been killed over the years and how the schools handle it. I seriously doubt they will let people get away with saying "it wasn't their fault" at those girls' school. I'll bet the MA State Troopers or town police (or even both) will be paying a visit to those girl's high school and having a very graphic talk with the students about what happened and why. Heck the craziest shock tactic I have heard of was a school here in RI where they actually put the wreckage of a car from a fatal crash on the lawn of the high school to make a point.

 

[large_diver]

I think almost all of us did some stupid things while driving/riding in cars while we were teenagers...

That said, I do get pretty PO'ed at the stupid stuff I see adults doing on the road.....with a complete lack of awareness of those around them....and I'm sure a sense that they are not responsible for bad things they may cause to happen due to their stupidity....

 

[MSilvia]

However, just because someone does something stupid or exercises poor judgement behind the wheel, it doesn't mean they are evil or bad people and deserve to die for it. Hopefully people survive their mistakes and then get a chance to learn from them. Maybe they won't learn, but hopefully they at least get the chance, especially if they are just teenagers. And besides there were two people in that car. Only one of them was driving the vehicle. Did the other person deserve to die because they got in the car with the wrong person?

My understanding is that they were speeding in order to make it home in time to meet a strict curfew. In other words, they waited until the last possible second to leave, then waited a few minutes longer, then left the party/friend's house/library/whatever. Not that they deserve to die for that, but they should have given themselves time to get home and didn't. They could have called home if they had a good reason to be late, but didn't. In that sense, they set themselves up for "needing" to speed on wet roads in the dark, and as I see it, that means that anyone else in the car probably shares the blame with the driver.

IMHO, operating a vehicle beyond your ability to control it, especially in foul weather, isn't that much different from randomly firing a gun into the air in a crowded area. There's a fair chance that none of the bullets will kill anyone on the way down, and you probably don't mean for anyone to get hurt, but you were still the one in control of the weapon, and in the end you're the one who pulled the trigger.

That said, I think what happened is a terrible tragedy, and my deepest sympathies go out to the families of those involved.