| User | Comment |
|---|
| confetti |
Uh, I can't drive yet...but I've been in cars where people driving them have done that. And when I have my own car, I will as well  |
| confetti |
Once we missed a flight just to jumpstart some guy's battery. |
| Oscar |
Yes. We have a Good Samaritan law where I live. I don't think you can really get caught not stopping, but you're supposed to. |
| mimind |
to many times ive been broken down on the side of the rode and been helped by a passer-by. ive stopped a couple of times to help and i feel really bad when i see someone and dont stop. if ive got the cell phone on me ill call in most of the time. |
| mandy |
Anne Rule advises against this. She told my daughter to study her book A Stranger Beside Me and take heed of the mistakes made by Ted Bundy's trusting young victims. |
| natsim | | posted 1-May-2002 10:14pm |
I haven't, because it's unlikely that I could help. But I wish I could because I have been helped in the past (mind you, I was standing in the middle of a country road waving down cars - I just needed to be towed the mile home). It's unlikely that I would stop if I was on my own in the car. |
| Amanda | | posted 1-May-2002 10:25pm |
Yes, I've done this once. Last summer, Dominic and I were driving to his son's grandmother's house to pick up his son. It was really hot. We passed a woman who had the hood up on her car. She was sitting on the side of the road, holding a baby. I told Dominic to turn around and go help her. When we went back, she seemed frightened, but glad somebody had stopped to help. We offered her the use of our cell phone. She said she didn't have a phone at home and her husband was the only one she knew to call. I offered to take her home. To make her feel safer, Dominic and I both gave her our driver's licenses to prove we were who we said we were. Dominic also gave her his id badge from work. (He works at a casino.) I asked Dominic if he would stay with her car and I'd take her and her baby home. I took her home and her husband was there and brought her and the baby back and him and Dominic fixed the car. The woman and her husband seemed to be pretty poor. They couldn't afford the parts to fix the car. I think it was a water pump, if I remember correctly. Dominic and I paid for it. They wanted to pay us back, when they had the money, but we refused to give them our address to send any money.
I doubt I'd stop to help anybody if I were alone. I MIGHT stop and help a woman or young girl. But, maybe not. It would depend on the whole situation. |
| darkshadowsseeker |
I don't drive anymore, but I have given assistance to someone when I did still drive. I didn't pick anyone up, but I did go and call a towtruck. |
Zang  |
I haven't done a lot of driving, so this hasn't come up much. I have worked in a few gas stations over the years though, so I do have some experience helping people with their cars. In many of these situations I wouldn't have been helping them as a "professional", I'm not a licensed mechanic or anything, and I wouldn't be charging them unless I was providing a service which the station specifically offered.
The most recent one I can think of, and it was kind of fun, was when a young woman came in to the station I was working at with a flat tire. She didn't want me to physically do anything, she just wanted someone to talk her through it. I liked that! As I recall there was a lot of flirting going on. She became a regular customer after that. |
| roozle |
Just the other day I pulled over to check something making a funny noise on my car -- and the car ahead of me with its blinkers on turned out to be a neighbor out of gas, so I gave him a lift to the station. Funny coincidence. I wasn't even that close to home.
|
| Enheduanna |
I personally haven't. I might some day, but right now I don't have a car, so I seldom drive anywhere anyway.
Once when I was out with my SO on his motorcycle he saw another motorcycle pulled over and stopped to see if they needed help (they didn't). He does stuff like that a lot. |
| grmbrand |
Haven't really had the opportunity. |
| phi |
I'll stop for anything that's clearly an emergency, like the time I stopped to put out a car fire. For lesser breakdowns I'll stop if I'm on a long trip where the break will do me good. The last time I stopped was to help someone change a tire, while driving from Frederick MD to Philadelphia PA. |
| actress |
Unfortunately, it just isn't safe to do. I have in the past and I was okay but, it's kinda scary. |
Kristal_Rose     |
Back when I drove I did it all the time. I'm not up on modern cars and everyone pretty much uses towing services rather than fixing the car on the spot these days, so when I drive again, I don't expect to be doing much more of that.
I also picked up tons of hitchhikers, often several a day. |
LindaH  | | posted 2-May-2002 10:12pm |
No, I usually roll down the window and point and laugh. just kidding.  |
| justjulie |
no...but we picked up a hitchhiker once, and the funny thing was, was that our car broke about 8 miles down the road...so the guy had to hitch a ride all over again!
AND...this one time some sweet people helped me out...i was driving from colorado to wisconsin as a surprise to my folks for x-mas, it was me and my 2 kittens in the car. the first day of driving, i made it to somewhwere in iowa, i had only about 300 miles left of the trip....so the next morning, i started out early, maybe 4:30 in the morning, remind you that the date was december 18...so i got about a hundred miles and all of a sudden, there was a big puff of smoke from under the hood and the car just stopped. the sun wasn't even up yet...but i didn't freak out..i calmly pulled over and waited...and w/in 2 minutes a big semi truck pulled up behind me...he gave me and my kitties a ride to the next town, which just so happened to be his home town, he dropped me off at a gas station, and said that he would be back for me when he was done w/ his run, which would be in a couple hours....he came back...he admitted that he didn't know a lot about cars, but he said that his freind did, and that his friend owed him a favor...so we go to the friends house, and we pull in the driveway, and the friend had a car the exactly the same as my car that just broke, execpt his looked nicer...ANYHHOW....the friend wound up giving me a ride to my parents front door, it was about 200 miles we had to go....definately had angels watching over me that day...i mean nobody knew that i was coming, so i couldn't call anyone...it was just very cool that good people were around and didn't take advantage of a stuck silly girl...bless those people! |
| Dino |
I don't drive anywhere. I can't drive.
If I walking past someone it would be pointless - unless perhaps I just stop to lend some moral support.
I did help some bloke push his car to the side of the road once. |
| cuteasabutton | | posted 3-May-2002 11:53am |
Yes, I have in the past, but I genrally don't drive anymore. My father and my husband both are mechanics and I have picked up some limited knowledge over the years. |
| Biggles |
No, because I don't drive. I don't want to learn. |
| phi | | (reply to Dino) posted 3-May-2002 3:49pm |
Oh, yes, that reminds me that I've on several occasions stopped while walking or bicycling to push a broken car out of whatever dangerous position it broke down in into a more reasonable place like a parking lot or the side of the road. |
| cody |
I've done it a few times. Though, generally, people don't want any help. I think I gave one couple a ride to a gas station once, but that's about it.
Actually, on further consideration I've pushed or 3 cars out of the road and I went home and got a gas tank for a guy that had ran out once. He was only 1/4 mile from my house though.
As far as it being "dangerous" due to the possibility of a set-up -- I think that's a silly perspective. The main reason being that stopping on the side of a road will generally draw a police car for every 4 passenger cars it draws. |
| natsim | | (reply to Amanda) posted 6-May-2002 2:19am |
Wow! That was really kind of you two. |
| they | | posted 11-May-2002 4:03am |
Yep. |
| nasale | | posted 25-May-2002 10:34pm |
I'm one of those people who like to help.We had to stop in the middle of busy traffic to grab this poor little two year old off the road one day. I couldn't believe it! People were just going right past her! We took her to the police station and I think her Mom got quite the shock. |
| Kristal_Rose | | (reply to nasale) posted 26-May-2002 2:18am |
yow. did you find out anything about how she got lost? |
| nasale |
nope! She was a little native girl- I think that was the reason everyone ignored her -as if that should ever be a reason! She was very dirty and underdressed. I think mom probably had her hands full and the baby just slipped away  |
| Kristal_Rose | | (reply to nasale) posted 26-May-2002 4:19pm |
ok, so no "you, get out of the car now, i'm tired of all this whining 'when do we get there'?". |
| nasale |
Nope. She actually cried when I left her with the police. She was a little sweetie. I would have taken her home if they let me.*sigh* |
