Maria Pestrikoff has given the world another danger associated with texting. Pestrikoff was texting while walking toward a cliff to toss away a cigarette. While still texting, she slipped on the grass and went over the 60-foot cliff — causing a difficult rescue in Kodiak, Alaska.
Rescuers fought to get to her before the tide came in. They reached her when the tide was only ten feet away from carrying her out.
She is now recovering. When an accident like this is caused by negligence, should the person be required to pay for the part of the rescue? I have long taken the view that such services should not be charged to citizens, even in cases of negligence. However, there is a growing trend in charging citizens for rescues. What do you think?
Source: Daily Mail
hahahaha!…..and that wouldn’t surprise me either….hahahaha…
Woosty, if she got a lawyer and could make it a class action, yeah, and then after 7 years in court, the lawyers would walk with $42 million and all the plaintiffs would get a coupon for a cigarette.
Was that a personal remark aimed at me or just in general?
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it was not a barb…..I look around, especially in the sphere of politics, and the only thing that would surprise me at this point is my surprise.
There is a shadow on the World and the Sun has yet to rise I’m afraid….
There is a shadow on the World and the Sun has yet to rise… I’m afraid.
Never in my souls life did I ever think that ‘compassion’ could be dangerous…I have been proved wrong. There are many in positions of ‘rule’ that are ruled by ‘fear’.
I can’t blame anyone for doing something nutty in these times…nothing that is right is seen as anything but weak or wrong and nothing that is wrong is even seen….unless some $$$$$$ is involved and only then if it can be capitalized upon…or the bill passed to someone else.
Why would anyone complain about the bill for a rescue???? And let a bill for clearing out a whole entire country for the benefit of private profiteering go completely unchallenged?
Write her a phucking ticket for littering.
I think she should sue the Government for all the fear baiting distractions she’s had to endure over the past 10 years….don’t you?
Woosty,
I showed my bottom in the conviction that it shared a similar crack as all have. Was that a personal remark aimed at me or just in general? I can laugh at both replies, however want to know which.
“When an accident like this is caused by negligence….”!?! A ship that loses control is an act of negligence on behalf of a part manufacturer or mechanic; getting caught in a storm is almost always negligence given our understanding of weather; wild animal attacks in the wilderness certainly involve an assumption of risk and therefore negligent behavior; hunting injuries are negligence; as we become more an more knowledgeable of the world and the dangers present, what isn’t negligence? Okay, maybe someone having a medical emergency due to some un-diagnosed illness or condition still can’t be considered negligent, but if they have any medical indication that they are less than fit and they go for a casual mountain climb….
However, if we don’t publicly fund rescue services, then would we lose most of this expert capability and only have them available where there is sufficient demand (like areas of concentrated millionaire daredevils)?
I think the answer is the system needs to be managed and subsidized by the USG if for no other reason than it also serves a national security role, but, yes, negligent people must pay for their rescues, And I am sure that there are/will be insurance policies available to help manage the individual burden of persons who choose to be careless.
What Justice Holmes said from a practical and moral standpoint; what Woosty said from a compassionate standpoint; what Billie said from a values standpoint; what Gene said from an anthropological standpoint.
Many voices made into one.
Sad state of affairs, very sad. Stupidity, cellphones and natures bounty take care of each other.
id I am no longer surprised at anything!
Woosty,
Speaking from personal experience, practice of such a judgemental attitude toward everything can easily make life a pest for the practitioner.
Check yourselves out sometime. Might be surprised what you find.
“field stripped them…”
Now where have I heard that? In college Spring Day paries? In the Army? At parties in Stockholm?
I’d rather my tax dollars go towards paying for a leg up for someone after a dose of human stupid than a war to feed a greedy bloody irresponsible beast…..
“Oh, your taxes pay for keeping us ready. When we do it for you, that costs extra.”
Malisha,
At least since the good samaritan.
Take a ride in a Los Angeles city ambulance, you’ll get a bill
Lucky she wasn’t crossing the street and got hit by a car
No charge for rescue services caused by run of the mill negligence. However, there are times when someone goes out of their way to put themselves at risk that I’m OK with charging them. Wasn’t there some multi-millionaire who wanted to be the first to circumvent the globe in a balloon who had to be rescued when his balloon went down? May be misremembering. Anyways, something like that seems OK to charge them because they’re knowingly putting themselves at risk.
Catullus
1, September 28, 2012 at 8:22 am
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hahahaha!
this blog is making me so callous….but I must say, I worked as a nurse at a VA where the majority of the nurses actually had that attitude that if a pt smoked, they were wasting tax payer dollars and their time because if they smoked, they were ‘asking’ for the illness. Needless to say I did not last there very long. As a nurse, to be effective, I could not ‘judge’ my patients. To see a patient as somehow complicit or even causative in their illness and having THAT personal judgement, at that level of care, dictate what level of nursing ‘ I ‘ (mememememe) thought they should receive, was in my mind a true and substantial failing. And the thing is, it is a rare bird that can have that thought and not be diminished in their capacity to do the job…so yes, what Justice Holmes said and even more so….it is the quality of what we give that effects the outcome, not the amount that WE THINK someone deserves…
Privatization and outsourcing of the basic compassionate services that made this Country exceptional and free has undermined the very fabric of what this Country ‘says’ it is. Maybe it’s time we gave more to those who have been hurt by the double edged sword of the politically motivated judgements and started to mend the damage…
You can’t start charging folks for rescues, even if they were stupid or negligent to get into the situation. It’s an impossible way to run a society. Which of us has NEVER been stupid, NEVER made a foolish error, NEVER been guilty of negligence, NEVER had a close call and then said, as our heart-rate returned to normal, “Damn, that was close, how dumb of me!”
We DO owe to each other that we will try to help each other from exigent circumstances even if we have been foolish, wrong, stupid, negligent, or, frankly, wicked. We’re part of a big thing that allows for error.
We need to have warnings on cell phones, similar to those on cigarettes. ”Texting while doing almost anything, except sitting, can be dangerous to you health”
we ought to get something for our taxes.
Justice Holmes had it right in the beginning.