How would you handle this roadside emergency - as a father

[jcommin]

He walked home to get his gun: "Brazoria County sheriff's investigator Dominick Sanders said Monday that witnesses told authorities they saw Barajas walk to his home right after the crash and then return a few minutes later and approach Banda's vehicle. Evidence showed one shot was fired, Sanders said." Home was 50 yards away.

My first though: My wife would have went home with the 8 yr old and toddler.


I feel for the man, but killing the driver won't bring his kids back and he is now in jeporady of seperating himself from the rest of his family (he didn't help them either).

I could make a case for not having guns in the home.

I have only changed a tire one time and I will never do that again. Call the motor club. Or in his case, leave the 4 way flashers on and wait until morning.

[vash]

i would drive a flat tire to safety. i'll buy a new wheel later.

in some places..i would crush that wheel to get to safety.

[jcommin]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Roadside stuff is flat out deadly, no matter where you are or how careful you are. I will walk 50' away from the road and call roadside assistance (while facing traffic). And I have a reflective yellow vest and light sticks in my vehicles. Yes, I know how to change a tire and do the common stuff. But it ain't worth it. More than once a year someone dies here trying to change a tire on a major highway with huge shoulders and pull-off areas in broad daylight. It ain't worth it.

+1 Rick. Totally agree. I tried to change a tire on an icey road after hitting a pot hole. The jack slipped and I cracked the roll pan the bottom of the car. I got the tire on but not before someone else hit the same pot hole and pulled up in back of me. He had the same kind of jack as I. I told him about mine slipping and he decided to call the motor club. The police later came to assist us.

[jcommin]

Originally Posted by vash

i would drive a flat tire to safety. i'll buy a new wheel later.

in some places..i would crush that wheel to get to safety.

Yep - I would do that too.

[HardDrive]

Good luck getting a murder conviction.

Plead manslaughter 1, 3-5 years max.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by VINMAN

What the hell was he thinking??

First and foremost., get everyone out of the vehicle and away from the road.

These kind off accidents are way more common then people realize.

I wasn't sure whether I thought pushing the car was a good idea or not, but I live in a rural area with little traffic. I also have a personality that wants to "fix" the problem, now.

I will however, should this ever occur to me, heed your advice. Thanks, Vin.

[MRM]

Far more cops get killed by cars during traffic stops than any other cause of death. Stopping by the side of the road is simply very dangerous. Staying in the car is far safer than getting out.

It sounds like this was somewhat of a rural area. But 50 yards is a long way to push a vehicle, let alone at night.

I know exactly what I would have done. First I would certainly have apologized to my wife for the truck breaking down because she would have been mad and would need some calming down. Then I would have had my wife steer while the boys and I pushed the truck over to a safe parking spot off to the side. I'm not going to send the boys out to do something I won't do myself. Once I got the truck over and safe, I would have gotten the wife and young kids out and walked home, carrying what I could. I would have figured there was nothing I could do with the truck at night by the side of the road and would have left it there until the next day when I could figure out what to do with it. People walking home by the side of the road are at some risk, but they should be in a good position to see cars coming and stay out of their way. I'd have told my wife it was only 50 yards and that her legs would carry her that far and I would have walked safely with my family until we got home.

[ZOA NOM]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

Good luck getting a murder conviction.

Plead manslaughter 1, 3-5 years max.

+1

He'll walk. No threat to society, and the prisons are full.




I recently had a blowout in the 997 on the freeway, on a long overpass, in the fast lane. It was all I could do to keep it off the rail, and I finally managed to pull it up against the rail on the shoulder (only about 4 feet of roadway between the line and the rail) and had to deal with high speed traffic coming my way. I hit the flashers and got out, walked about 100 yards towards the oncoming traffic to wait against the guardrail for CHP and tow. Scary ten minutes or so before the cop finally showed and put his "move over" lights on to force people out of the fast lane while the tow truck pulled up. Once a car is disabled on the highway, I treat it like a drunk magnet, and get the hell away from it, and the potential path of carnage that an impact would have. You're much less likely to get hit just standing by the roadway, upstream from the car, and you can even attempt to slow people down by waving.

[ZOA NOM]

Originally Posted by MRM

Staying in the car is far safer than getting out.

I have to disagree. You are far safer moving away from the vehicle, always upstream. Sitting in the car is begging for disaster. You might as well cop a squat on the dashed line between the lanes.

[aigel]

You guys are quick to judge. This could have been a quiet neighborhood street. Then pushing isn't as crazy an idea albeit carrying some risk.

If it was on a country road or hwy., then yes, GTFO of the car and walk home. Have it towed to your house and fix it in the morning.

Killing the guy is a whole different story. Now your kids are dead and you are in jail on top of it. Wife's going to be really happy ...

G

[ZOA NOM]

Originally Posted by aigel

You guys are quick to judge. This could have been a quiet neighborhood street. Then pushing isn't as crazy an idea albeit carrying some risk.

If it was on a country road or hwy., then yes, GTFO of the car and walk home. Have it towed to your house and fix it in the morning.

Killing the guy is a whole different story. Now your kids are dead and you are in jail on top of it. Wife's going to be really happy ...

G

I agree, it's not a stretch to get the boys out and start pushing. I have two boys (adults now), and I certainly would have done the same, if the level of traffic warranted it. Lots of variables here, but I think the guy will walk for the killing of the drunk driver. I think a jury would see the overwhelming emotion of the moment as a mitigating factor. Also, he saved the drunk a lifetime of misery.

[cstreit]

Well he certainly used poor judgement when having his sons out of the truck under the conditions...

...I imagine given some thought i'd say that the drunk would have experienced significant blunt trauma damage as a result of the incident... much of which may have occured after the vehicles came to rest.

I can also imagine that I would definitely WANT to pop the guy if he just killed two of my kids.

[Aggie93]

Another story said it was County Road 144. Not sure what will show up on the link, below. If you zoom in where it runs north-south, just south of Cornett Rod there is a pickup that can be used for a reference point. There is no shoulder and does not look like any street lights. It also does not look like there would be much traffic, but i bet the traffic that is there goes faster than the posted speed limit. Easy to say in hindsight, at the time, "only 50 yards" would be hard to dismiss. I'd like the think I'd leave until morning.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=County+Road+144,+Alvin,+Brazoria,+TX&hl=en&ll=29.478361,-95.262768&spn=0.000892,0.001051&sll=29.276849,-95.682072&sspn=1.906959,1.733093&oq=Brazoria+County+Road+144,+alvi&hnear=County+Road+144,+Alvin,+Brazoria,+Texas+7751 1&t=h&z=20

[GH85Carrera]

The father was an idiot. The truck broke down. Obviously the brakes did not lock up since they were pushing the truck. That means all he had to do was pull over off the road if at all possible and get the family out, and walk home. Go back later (in the daytime) to retrieve the truck.

If he just ran out of gas he is a complete and total idiot.

Unless the drunk was trying to flee the scene or there is no reason to shoot the drunk. I can understand wanting to shoot the drunk but we have laws for a reason. The drunk would for sure be treated way more lenient by the law than what he really deserved. We need to change the laws, not shoot drunks.

[BeyGon]

If I was the drunk that killed the kids I would just as soon be shot.
As for the father and his actions, who knows, I wouldn't have done it that way, you wouldn't have done it that way, we weren't there, maybe he was used to pushing his truck the last 50 yards, it evidently wasn't the freeway, he had a good chance of making it home and one bad chance not to. I would have wanted to shoot the guy but?
as I have been told in other threads, the police aren't here to protect me, a citizen. You are on your own.

[mikesride]

Who hasn't pushed their ride some distance. The circumstances and the out come are horrible. Two families are in crisis now. Pretty easy to call the father an idiot after the fact.....the bigger of the two idiots is the drunk on the highway. Some of us are getting close to the "wearing a dress like that means you expose yourself to rape" kind of thinking. Sad sad story.

Someone earlier in the thread mentioned the dangers of being pulled over on a hwy by the police. I once got two tickets, one for speeding (my bad) and one for ignoring the presence of an officer....my crime? Slowing down, signaling and proceeding to the next grid road intersection to turn off the highway, a total of maybe 1/2 a mile.

[john70t]

Was the father's actions understandable?
50 yards to your own home........
Would you just push it into the driveway, given two strong sons in the car, or would you actually sit there waiting for a tow truck?

Was the father's subsequent (edit:alleged) actions legitimate?
Undetermined.

[Rikao4]

he did a few things wrong..
and he will blame himself for that..
as he replays that night for yrs to come..
only thing he did right..
waste the drunk...
IMO..no jury down here will convict him..

Rika

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I wouldn't have killed the drunk. But he sure as hell would've begged me to.

[GeorgeK]

God have mercy for the guy who hurts my son. Because I won't.