How would you handle this roadside emergency - as a father

[VINMAN]

Originally Posted by Superman

Get passengers OUT of a disabled vehicle, and have them move further off the roadway.

^^^
This Plain and simple

[Hads930]

Maybe he or his family was illegal. He sees the truck as a cop magnet and wants it off the road so he does not get deported. Rural area, he may work for a rancher and live on property, would not be uncommon. Not everyone has AAA, and in an area like this there are not motorist assistance trucks driving around looking for tires to change.

Tough to say a sad story for all involved.

[flatbutt]

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.

this

[Baz]

Originally Posted by drcoastline

Aside from the fact that pushing the truck off the road with the boys on a dark road was not a wise choice, in fact dumb. I don't know that any of the arm chair quarter back answers are right or wrong. There are what iff's in each of the answers that could create a positive out come or negative.

My initial reaction was the house is 50 yards away? F*** the truck flashers on were walking home. What "IF" thr car swerves and to mis the truck and comes down the shoulder now the whole family is there.

Stay in the truck call for help? On a highway where I can get well off the road this is what I would normally do. Better in the vehicle with some substance around you than out on the should in just my jeans and shirt. However, in this case from what I read the vehicle was in the road on a dark strech. How long do I sit there and wait for help? Do I have a phone? Now this guy comes along and hits my vehicle from the rear? Do people die? I don't know. Is everyone hurt? I don't know. What "IF" the vehicle is a fully loaded semi that hits us at 70MPH?

I'm not so sure I would have just sat there in the road waiting to see if a vehicle came along. I would assume he tried to restart it and get it off the road but it wouldnt run. Maybe he thought I'll get the truck off the road so no one hits it and gets hurt then walk everyone home. I think that thought would go through any caring reasonable persons mind. I can even see where he thought to use the boys. This will only take a second we only need to move the vehicle 15 feet to get it out of the lane. It's not what II would do but I again can not fault him for that.

I don't see a right or wrong answer. In some circumsatnce it will work out fine. In others it won't. The problem was a drunk driver. But, could it have happened if the driver wasn't drunk? The answer is yes. It's been proven the risk is less but it could still happen.

Had he broken down 1 minute sooner or later we might not be having this discussion. Or had he decided to take evryone out of the vehicle and walk home. The article might read father, mother, two sons and daughter killed 50 yards from their home after vehicle swerves to avoid disabled family truck in the road.

Who knows. Try and use commons scense, a reasonable amount of safety and make a decision based on the situation.

The father would be the lookout - if he hears/sees a vehicle approaching he alerts his family members to (temporarily) get WAY AWAY AND OFF the roadside - where a vehicle cannot possible get to them.

Easy peasey - but only if the father places safety of his family as a priority over all else and has enough common sense to realize what has to be done.

My observations while spending a LOT of my life the highway is safety measures and common sense take a backseat to many other 'distractions'.

In a perfect world a PSA would be a by-product of every traffic fatality until highways accidents are reduced. But then that would require common sense. Back to square one...

[manbridge 74]

Originally Posted by rnln

It's too easy for someone to sit here and say such things when he's not in the situation. I am not saying that he did the right thing, but I guess you never get mad, never feel frustrated then.

But we aren't in this situation so we are all making assumptions on how we'd react without ever knowing how we'd really act. I would be mad and frustrated but losing ones cool with no thought of consequences for oneself and remaining family is a lose lose.

It seems society(USA) has decided that DWI is not that big of a deal. We are willing to allow a certain number of deaths from DWIs and I see no solution until someone like Obama's kids are killed by a repeat offender.

If this father were to be let off the hook due to public pressure then others would feel they could also take such matters into their own hands. Dangerous ground IMO.

[ckelly78z]

Oh you could be gaurenteed if Obama's kids were the ones killed by a repeat offender, sweeping changes and new laws would be passed to make alcohol illegal, rather than addressing the court/punishment system for deadbeat drunk repeat DWI offenders.

[speeder]

I'm not going to read every comment in this 4 pages, but my impression is that the entire blood bath is on the father. Of course he did not mean to get his kids killed, but he put them in grave danger and the predictable happened. I'm not saying that it was absolutely predictable that they would be killed that night but rather that his utter lack of common sense and good judgement meant that people around him would always be in danger.

I've met people like this in my life. They are usually missing limbs or other vital body parts and have lots of tragedy in their life involving family members killed in bizarre accidents. Being stupid is hella dangerous, particularly when it comes to broken down cars on highways and freeways. BTW, does anyone know why his vehicle stopped making forward progress? Couldn't have been out of gas, now could it? Nah...he wouldn't put his ever-growing brood in danger by driving them around in a 6000 lb. vehicle with no precious liquid in the tank. That would expose them to being stationary on a road or highway with no way to protect his family from oncoming traffic.

A sober person could have hit them. It happens everyday. I live in Koreatown in L.A., there are constant collisions where you would swear that one or both parties had to be schit house drunk but then they get out and exchange info just as sober as a nun. People run into stopped vehicles where they are not supposed to be. This is 100% on the father, drunk drivers will always exist and your job is to not put your kids out in the street in the dark. HTF could a couple of 10 year olds push a PU truck anyways?? They probably would have been in danger for hours.

Some people were just born w/o good judgement. It does not mean that they deserve tragedy, but they usually get it. He continued to exhibit his flawless judgement when he went to his house to get the gun that he kept around just for times like this and murdered the other driver. A guy who might or might not have been judged guilty of a driving offense if he was not (slightly) drunk. It may have been considered a tragic accident with no malice. Bad visibilty, a hazard in the road that he did not see until too late, tired at the wheel after a long day of work, etc... Now a 20 year old is also dead that might have been a much better person than this genius father of 4 who is now going to Texas state prison for 20 years and then most likely back to Mexico on the donkey express. Good job, dude!! Way to provide!

Some people just should not reproduce. A hell of a lot of people, actually. I fell very bad for his kids.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

Oh you could be gaurenteed if Obama's kids were the ones killed by a repeat offender, sweeping changes and new laws would be passed to make alcohol illegal, rather than addressing the court/punishment system for deadbeat drunk repeat DWI offenders.

That's a well thought-out statement there, Ohio.

[mattdavis11]

Originally Posted by speeder

BTW, does anyone know why his vehicle stopped making forward progress?

Reports mentioned that it was a Ford P/U. Seems like a reasonable explanation to me.

Tragic loss of four lives.