I am wondering how unusual this is ? I live in the country , although town folks get around a lot these days. I would stop and help someone change a tyre within 2 miles of my home. I am up to 4 in the course of 9 months. I got a box of truffle choclates on a dark and stormy night. Oh gender , 2 females , one male , 2 females and 2 females with dad. So total of 6 women , 2 men between 4 cars.
– I taught my daughter to change her own flat…and oil, filters,belts, plugs etc so as not to risk such activity. Once, near Albuquerque, her mustang had a flat and she proceded to get on about the task when a state police stopped to check on her. She promptly told him "no thanks, I’ve got it. " yet he offered to stay for the durration just out of courtesy…and caution against strangers stopping. But if that had been ‘‘joe driver’’ stopping to see about this lone girl out on the hiway shoulder ? Thank goodness for cel phones.
Now that almost everyone has a cell phone, I’m sure that the vast majority of people driving by assume that the disabled vehicle can call for help. That wasn’t true in the old days, obviously.
Its a fine line. In the metro area, several have been killed trying to help others on the side of the freeway. Its very dangerous and there are regular patrols to do just that. In the rural areas its a little different but you just can’t be sure who is stopped or stopping and why anymore. Of course in Minnesota when its 10 below, you have a duty to make sure a stopped car is running as a good samaritan. I myself though have sat on the side of the road for close to an hour several times waiting for a tow and no one has stopped. Pre cell phone days, my wife had a blow out and I am thankful someone stopped to change the tire for her. It would have been several hours before I would have started looking for her.
Stan? Are you in Ireland?
There are very few places in the USA that are not serviced by cellular phone service. This means that service people can be contacted easily. I have roadside assistance through my auto insurance. I call the toll free number and they send someone. If a breakdown occurs in a rural area, the driver can call the state police. I think that these things make it unlikely that someone will stop to help unless the driver waves them down.
Times have changed. Ten years ago I would have stopped to help people and it was welcome. I also asked for a jump twice when I lived in CT. Both times people were happy to help. Fast fwd to 2012, one late night I saw a guy in the walmart lot messing under the hood. Wife and kids were in the car. I had all my stuff in the back, so pulled the passenger window down and asked if they needed a jump or anything else? The guy was completely startled/shaken and made it clear that wants me out of his site. Might had been the old minivan I am driving, I look pretty nonthreatening and he could not have seen my height/size much.
Since then, I am more cautious offering help.
There is also the possibility that the good samaritan will get beaten and robbed at gun point.
In OK some years ago a traveling Air Force sergeant stopped to offer assistance to a stranded motorist on I-35 not too far from where I lived. The Sgt. was then gunned down by the motorist who had a couple of accomplices hiding in the ditch. The wife of the Sgt. and their 12 year old son were then shot to death on the side of the road also.
Shortly after this the infamous OK City steakhouse murders happened; again, just a few miles from me.
All 6 employees, mostly young, were herded into the back and executed.
This crime was committed by the same guy who murdered the AF Sgt. and his family.
Given today’s world, some serious thought should be given as to whether to pull over and offer assistance or not.
In spite of the cautions against it, I’ll probably continue to help folks stuck on the side of the road. Under no circumstances would it be with the ulterior motive of finding a date, regardless of my “status”.
Three years ago, driving east from the SF Bay Area to home in the Foothills an hour past dark, I pulled off at a rest area on I-80 many miles from any town. I was probably 100 miles from home, traveling with one friend. I had tools, as usual.
There was a Volvo with the hood open, so I made contact and discovered that the fellow under the hood looked familiar, turned out we live in the same town. I’m forgetting now what was wrong and what we did to solve it, but somehow we got him back on the road. I think it had something to do with cooling system. It’s gratifying to get people out of a complex dilemma when all they need is something I might have in my toolbox, or in my head. An expensive and extended ordeal can sometimes be avoided with five minutes effort, and make someone’s day a lot easier.
I believe that the overwhelming majority of people are good, and that danger is so unlikely that it’s worth the risk to be kind and helpful. That’s the way I choose to live, I’m willing to continue to do so, to take these chances, regardless of the reality that times are changing.
In the 80s, riding a motorcycle on the freeway toward the Golden Gate Bridge from the Sausalito side, I saw a 30ish woman standing beside a VW, dressed in a beautiful skirt and matching jacket. It was mid afternoon. Her problem was a flat, and a flat spare. (Edit: Hmmm, must have lost the last three sentences somehow). She trusted me well enough to climb on the back of the bike, in that nice skirt, so I could take her to a friend’s luxurious home in Sausalito. I guess I appeared a safer option than standing on the side of a the freeway. Never even thought about suggesting a date. (Dang! ;=)
Aw she’s probably still thinking about that ride and wondering why you didn’t call her. Of course she’s over 60 now but that’s still young.
Yes, Im in Ireland, very safe country, not too many cowboys around, I lived in USA for 15 years, you can take a boy out of the country but you cant take the country out of the boy.
Although many people have those nice iPhone 5 , cell phone towers are really not reliable or service to people , I do put my trust in God , and he sends a fine signal to Ireland and helps me everytime, on the flip side I give him a hand out every so often, not that he needs it , but because I can and am thankful
I also live in a place where I know my neighbours within 2 mile radius.
I grew up in an area where neighbor helps neighbor and you help those in trouble. I once changed the tire on a big Mercury for 4 well dressed ladies on their way to a Women’s Liberation meeting.
We had a 4 barrel V8 Chevy which had an erratic choke that tended to stay shut and make starting difficult due to too rich a mixture. The standard trick was to remove the air cleaner and stick your comb in to hold the butterfly valve open. My wife helped many owners. including surprised males, to quickly get their Chevies started.
This is a small town and for the most part everyone is neighborly and many times you’ll at least know someone who knows that person…two or three degrees of separation at most.
A few moths ago my daughter left the radio on with the truck key in the run position. When I came out to leave the battery was too dead. So I bagan to push the truck backward out of the parking place to be in a position to ask anyone for a jump, I have my own cables.
— BEFORE I even had it back far enough and stopped I had someone offer to help ! :)…AND he said to me “hey aren’t you that guy from Ford ?”
"Yep, that’s me. "
The reason I asked if you were in Ireland (gorgeous place) is because most of the responses you’ll get on this forum will be based upon assumptions prevenlant in the U.S. They may not apply to Ireland.
I would help anyone in my neighborhood without a second thought. But not in an area that I am not familiar with.