Seconds away
December 18, 2006
Imagine you’re driving along, it’s dark, the area makes you nervous. You see a stopped pickup and something sets off your internal alarm. A woman is struggling to get out of the truck. She is caught in the seat belt and trying to get away from the other person in the truck…
In a second, or two seconds, your own safety and that of a stranger hang in the balance. Which way does it tip?
Categories: Geeky, Safety & Health
I pack heat..and yeah, I reckon I would stop to help..I have done it before
I stop, headlights on the situation will usually calm things down. A quick cell phone call to 911 and my handy dandy baseball bat and my imagined sawed off shotgun will get things under control. It has in the past.
When I was younger I would have charged right in, but age has made me more cautious as well as less physically adept. Now I’d stop the car and call 911. If she got away before help arrived, I’d probably offer her a ride and to hell with being followed. That assuming I don’t have my kids in the car. With them along, I can’t honestly say what I’d do after calling.
Thanks for writing this post, DOF. It is interesting to read how others think they might react in that situation. Here is a factor to consider, though: It took more time for me to write about it than it did the situation to unfold. Everything happened so fast. There was no time to call the police. By the time the police would have arrived, the situation would have been over; the police would have left an already deserted area, or they (worst case scenario) would have been hanging the yellow tape. If you would have put this to me as a hypothetical question a few weeks ago, I probably would have said I would have called 911, and I definitely would not have stopped with my kids in the car. However, the reality of it had a young woman, who I just saw attacked, standing by the road; she was scared, she was crying, and she was obviously injured. I didn’t know how badly she was hurt, but in all the time I could have spent safely locked in my car with my cell phone, she could have bled to death, or her attacker could have returned. Who knew? Everything in me said to get her out of there. I couldn’t leave her.
I’m leaving this comment not for any explanation, but for consideration. My reaction/actions came from my “gut.” It was only my conditioned mind considering potentially horrible scenarios. Just maybe, then, in situations like that, our instincts are our best guide.
I don’t know,.. I’m just glad no one showed up with a hockey mask and a machete. :gulp: