The New Samaritan: Good or Hesitant?
On Halloween night four years ago in Los Angeles, a car slammed into a light pole at 45 mph, critically injuring a young woman named Alexandra Van Horn, who is now a paraplegic.
Also shattered in the accident was the very definition of what it means to be a Good Samaritan, undermined by a troubling new legal question: Can you be sued for trying to save someone’s life?
Van Horn and several friends had just left a bar at 1:30AM when the driver of the car she was in lost control and crashed. Following behind in a second car was Van Horn’s friend Lisa Torti, who stopped and rushed to help. Torti said she saw smoke and feared that the wrecked car would catch fire or explode, so she pulled the incapacitated Van Horn from the passenger’s seat.
Van Horn later sued Torti, saying that her spinal injuries from the accident were made worse by Torti dragging her from the car “like a rag doll.” Torti argued that she was covered by California’s Good Samaritan law, which provides legal protection to people helping in an emergency. The case was dismissed.
But in a controversial new ruling, the California Supreme Court said the state’s Good Samaritan law applies only to emergency medical care. Rescuing someone from a car crash doesn’t qualify. Hence, the court said, Van Horn has the right to sue her Good Samaritan. And so she did.
“Careless rescuers are not good Samaritans, really,” said a law professor after the court’s ruling. “We don’t want people interfering with other people and hurting them a lot worse, right?”
California legislators immediately proposed three separate bills to amend the law, but many future Samaritans had already downgraded themselves from Good to Hesitant to Never. “The next time I see someone in need of help I will look the other way and mind my own business” was typical of the many postings on internet message boards.
“This is absolutely ridiculous,” wrote another. “I’m sure that if she hadn’t pulled the woman from the wreckage and the car had exploded, she’d be charged with letting the woman die.”
From parable to terrible, the Good Samaritan’s drop in stock may have been summed up best by a newspaper columnist who wrote, “As for that New Testament passage, in which the Samaritan comes across a man who had been robbed, beaten and left for dead, ‘and bound up his wounds…and took care of him’—it’d be a shame to have to put an asterisk there, with the notation, ‘Not applicable in California.’”
Tell us what you think: Would you still help someone in an emergency, knowing you could be sued? Where would you draw the line between helping and turning away?
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Comments
Shameful!
What kind of world do we live in? We stand back and watch a possible death in the happening or risk your own life and limb to save her life? Natural human instinct is probably not to get involved…but seeing a friend or loved one in peril…that should over ride any concerns about being sued…and she obviously acted out of concern for the woman, not in malice.
Shame on the woman who sued….she deserves what she gets in this life and the next!
G Fisher | 11 months, 2 weeks ago
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Is scary to help now a days...
Reading such stupid actions by bitter people and lawyers w no scruples, makes me realized why this country is getting blind to other people’s sufferings. There are so many free loaders, lazy people that just want money at the cost of people’s good intentions. The laws that are supposed to help are so twisted and wrongly used that mainly helps only the greedy. Gone is what we used to call common sense, pride, hard work, such laziness lack of integrity, makes wanting to help an alien thing a fearful thing. I would not physically help anyone; at the most just call 911. What I have noticed is that the world is full of greedy people.
sandra | 11 months, 1 week ago
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Good Samaritan
It becomes quite confusing for those of us who want to be responsible, contributing members of our global community. My son presented me with this quandary: Our State (Michigan) had a law that anyone with medical training on any level was required to provide first aid in an emergency. However, there was no law protecting responders from being sued. He wanted to earn his Boy Scout Merit Badge and learn first aid at our local Red Cross – however, he didn’t want to be responsible to provide first aid at 16, and stand the chance of being sued if he did / sued if he didn’t.
I personally believe we should care for each other enough to provide what aid is in our power during an emergency – and we should have the common courtesy to NOT sue an individual who helps.
I think back to college, reading about Kitty Genovese, who was stabbed and attacked, all those people who heard and no one helped or called police. Everyone believed someone else would. I think of my own family members as potential victims – I would want anyone nearby to provide assistance if I was not there.
We throw around the term “common sense”, but it doesn’t seem to be so common anymore! What happened to us? Can someone explain to me why we have become so litigious?
Wendy Smith | 11 months, 1 week ago
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Bad laws
Our government has run amuck!! A Good Samaritan is just that— a good person trying to do the ‘right thing’. I am appalled at the government ALWAYS putting their noses where it does not belong. ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Who knows? That young lady could have lost her life and then who would she have sued?
Autumn Daley | 11 months ago
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alway be a good samarian
God has been very good to me, so if given the opportunity to be a good Samaritan to someone else, I will not hesitate to offer my help.
Latoya Brown | 11 months ago
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What a disturbing thought
This is just awful so if I were hurt and no one who knew the laws would help in fear of being sued???? I think its disgraceful because if you didn’t help and later realize that you could have helped them then you have to live with that. And if you do and they sue you then what? You are to pay because you helped. Well that’s what you are taught at an early age to help others then why does that change morally? What a horrible thought for the future of America.
Wyndom | 10 months, 3 weeks ago
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truck driver
I worked for a construction company for 4 years, midway through I had an encounter with another employee who was larger and stronger then I am. I asked for help for over 15 months from my supervisor, even the owner of the company, they all turned their backs on me. If i were to have been betting up in front of management and no one did anything to help, police, fire him or what ever that would of been against the law, my question is since they did nothing to help after 15 months of asking, is that against the law under the Good Samaritan act. George
George Kardos | 9 months, 3 weeks ago
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Let's get all the facts
It sounds bad that a Good Samaritan is being sued.
It seems to me that in one account I read of this incident, the victim told her drunken rescuer to be careful and take it easy and said “don’t move me” but the rescuer proceeded to handle the victim “like a rag doll.”
Even good Samaritans must exercise reasonable judgment. A Good Samaritan must also respect the wishes of the victim and get consent if possible. If the victim is conscious and refuses help, the Good Samaritan must respect that request unless it is obvious that the victim is mentally incapacitated or in shock
Let’s hope that the court takes everything into consideration and comes up with a fair judgment.
Dog Breath | 9 months, 3 weeks ago
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Make a difference
What if the person who’s trying to help you in a car accident is a family member? Will you sue them too? I don’t understand why sue the person who saved your life. I don’t get it! Seriously! If I’m in trouble or a family member, I would pray that someone is there to help them in a situation like this.
maria | 9 months, 3 weeks ago
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Good samaritan
After reading your article about the horrible California court decision, I remind all of us that, sometime ago, our news media stopped referring to courts of justice, changing to courts of law. Would I stop and help? I hope that I do not have time to think, because if I do, I may not.
By the way, my youngest son is a Lt. in the local fire department and he risks his life for anyone, without remorse. But we all know that he can still be sued – how sad for our wonderful country
Alexis M. Meizoso | 9 months ago
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