Well I Think He'S Dead.

[harrypatterson]

I also know it is common belief that if you stop to help injured person on road, you will get jammed up by the cops, but I will just say that the only 2 occasions when I did do this, and police were involved, in neither case did I have any problem with the police. However, this is just my experience. I am sure there are many people who have had negative experiences with this kind of situation.

[amexpat]

FWIW, USA-centric reply here.

"Good Samaritan Laws" do not require anyone to provide assistance. They shield those who do - Good Samaritans - from being sued for their good deeds.

Duty to Rescue laws exist in eight states and are generally ignored.

This from WIKI

In the common law of the United States and other anglosphere countries, there is no general duty to come to the rescue of another.^[1] Generally, a person cannot be held liable for doing nothing while another person is in peril.^[2][3] However, such a duty may arise in two situations:

• A duty to rescue arises where a person creates a hazardous situation. If another person then falls into peril because of this hazardous situation, the creator of the hazard – who may not necessarily have been a negligent tortfeasor – has a duty to rescue the individual in peril.^[4]
• Such a duty also arises where a "special relationship" exists. For example:
  • Emergency workers (police, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, etc.) have a general duty to rescue the public within the scope of their employment, but not a duty to specific individuals.^[5]
  • Parents have a duty to rescue their minor children. This duty also applies to those acting in loco parentis, such as schools or babysitters.^[6]
  • Common carriers have a duty to rescue their patrons.^[7]
  • Employers have an obligation to rescue employees, under an implied contract theory.^{[8][unreliable source?]}
  • Property owners have a duty to rescue invitees but not trespassers from all dangers on the property.
  • Spouses have a duty to rescue each other in all U.S. jurisdictions.^[9]
  • Contrary to common law, eight states have laws requiring people to help strangers in peril:Florida,^[10] Massachusetts,^[11] Minnesota,^[11] Ohio,^{[statute verification needed]} Rhode Island,^[11] Vermont,^[11] Washington,^[11] and Wisconsin.^{[statute verification needed]} These laws are also referred to as Good Samaritan laws, despite their difference from laws of the same name that protect individuals that try to help another person.^[1] These laws are rarely applied, and are generally ignored by citizens and lawmakers.^[1]

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

Good samaritan and duty to rescue laws are hard to prosecute in the US but they generally illustrate the electorates desire for citizens to take care and look after those in peril.

Recently a girl was being raped at a school in california(from memory) and other kids stood around and watched and some even took pictures. They have tracked some of those present down and charged them.

An inner city kid was beaten to death with a board in Chicago while others stood by and video taped the beating and has been an extensive investigation to charge those who watched but did not act.

Those are different from a just an accident or injury because they involve a criminal act which a citizen is generally expected to report.

The first and usually best action is to call 911 etc. It's definitely a gray area law for the courts but it generally shows the expectation of democratically crafted legal framework to guide a society toward a set of desired behaviors.

Thailand may in fact have such laws but as we all know many laws are on the books but never enforced. Prostitution and road safety laws being prime examples.

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

There is a distinct pattern of Thai people to not wanting to get involved in others accidents.

I can relate one personal story. I was walking down Nimmanhemin eating some watermelon and not being attentive enough to the substandard sidewalk and tripped and broke a bone in my hand. I was in some pain and kind of doubled over holding my hand. Two middle aged Thai women were walking toward me and abruptly crossed the street to avoid me.

I am sure if I was sprawled out unconscious or something then somebody would call an ambulance or assist me but there is some ingrained aversion to getting involved in accidents. Most serious accidents I have seen there is always some bystander or party to the accident assisting or directing traffic. It's just that other people quickly do the math and figure they don't have to get involved.

There must be some interesting history to it.

Perhaps in my case it was a xenophobia issue or just urbanization where there are too many people. Thai people are traditionally village types and this recent urbanization must be a difficult transition.

There have been well publicized cases of people walking by an unconscious or dead person is large cities like the US. Urbanization and high population densities are perhaps not natural for traditional human socialization.

I would imagine people in Thai villages would be more likely to get involved than people in crowded Thai cities. Perhaps in crowded populations empathy for strangers is a casualty.

Does my theory carry any water?

[SiangDeeMahk]

• As for the color comment, assuming you'd still have heaven forbid a green blouse with a pair of purple pants, these two colors are in balance according to color harmonies. Throw in a bit of orange, too, and it's perfect. From Wikipedia: A triad uses colors at the points of an equilateral triangle (three colors spaced equally on the color wheel). These are sometimes called balanced colors. An example of a triadic scheme could be red, blue, and yellow; green, orange, and purple, etc.

Oh, this is SO offtopic, but.. Actually, what you have, if you mash those three colorpoints of that triangle together, is THIS:

I wouldn't call that perfect, balanced, or even remotely hip. :-p

[Berkshire]

FWIW, USA-centric reply here.

"Good Samaritan Laws" do not require anyone to provide assistance. They shield those who do - Good Samaritans - from being sued for their good deeds.

Duty to Rescue laws exist in eight states and are generally ignored.

Amexpat, you are correct. I think many here misunderstood the Good Samaritan statutes to be something along the lines of a "duty to render aid," when in fact it's not. It's only there to protect those (usually trained professionals) who do render aid. I can remember years ago when my father (an MD) told me once that he'd be rather apprehensive helping strangers for the fear of being sued. It was a real problem back in the day...not sure if the laws have alleviated this fear.

[MAJIC]

In my experience Thais are very quick to help you if you come off your M/cycle and it seems like genuine concern,and no expectation of you paying them for assistence.

On the other hand have a little nudge with your car in a Supermarket car Park or someplace,and they gather around very quickly to support the Thai,they go over the Thais pickup with a fine tooth comb,and include in the pay off: dents,rust,and scratches years old and nowhere near the point of contact either.

[Shotime]

I've, also, been helped by Canadians in situation where, shall we say, I've fallen off the curb and been knocked over by a motorbike, where there was no curb or motorbike. Complete strangers who took time to make sure I was OK. Canadians are the nicest, most caring people I have ever met. Yet, there seems to be something "different" about them. I can't put my finger on it, but it becomes readily apparent. That's not to say it's not a good thing. I just wanted to clear that up, and, maybe, not be such a trot, anymore.

[inthepink]

I remember my father going to the States on business about 30 years ago. He told me that he saw someone gunned down on the sidewalk (I think it was in Houston but I can't be sure) and everybody just ignored the body and walked round it. Unless things have changed a lot recently I don't think attitudes are much better in the USA than they are here. Of course, this is based on a single incident and second hand information but then so are many of the comments on this thread

Edited July 10, 2010 by inthepink

[CaptHaddock]

Almost exactly the same statistics for me coming from the US. it's a battlefield out there and I definitely have some mental images I would like to have erased. I think the Thai people have to detach from that kind of reality as a way to cope emotionally.

Also the Buddhist religion is about the impermanence of life. Young Buddhist monks look at dead and decaying bodies in photographs as part of training to think beyond this existence and physical life.

Maybe the road carnage is necessary to foster that spiritual detachment but it's a real mystery why it persists.

Even given Thailand's relative wealth and development status the roads are really more dangerous than the should or could be.

What drivel.  Highway safety is expensive!  Driver education, safe driving and seatbelt advertising campaigns, enforcement, design of limited access highways, etc..  It all costs a lot of money which developing countries haven't got.  No need to look for mystical reasons.

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

Almost exactly the same statistics for me coming from the US. it's a battlefield out there and I definitely have some mental images I would like to have erased. I think the Thai people have to detach from that kind of reality as a way to cope emotionally.

Also the Buddhist religion is about the impermanence of life. Young Buddhist monks look at dead and decaying bodies in photographs as part of training to think beyond this existence and physical life.

Maybe the road carnage is necessary to foster that spiritual detachment but it's a real mystery why it persists.

Even given Thailand's relative wealth and development status the roads are really more dangerous than the should or could be.

What drivel. Highway safety is expensive! Driver education, safe driving and seatbelt advertising campaigns, enforcement, design of limited access highways, etc.. It all costs a lot of money which developing countries haven't got. No need to look for mystical reasons.

Compare thailand's accident and fatality rates to other developing countries. It's very high in Thailand. Thailands per capita GDP is fairly high(top 50%). 20% higher than China's.

If it's a purely wealth issue then shouldn't countries with similar per capita GDP in theory be able to afford comparable public safety efforts? Shouldn't the per capita accident rates be proportionate to the countries wealth?

Perhaps unless a country does not wish to spend it's money or effort on public safety objectives.

What is this drivel you speak of? Do you like it over your breakfast cereal? delicious?

GDP per capita - country rankings

Edited July 11, 2010 by CobraSnakeNecktie

[amexpat]

Getting back to the underlying reasons for not helping: common occurrence or urban legend?

Have you, or anyone you know directly (not someone you heard about) been charged or shaken down by the police when you witnessed an accident or tried to help?

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I have stopped and helped in the past. Never a problem, of course, only big appreciation and a great feeling of giving just a little bit back to a country that has given me more than I can repay a lifetime.

"Loaded" had the bad luck of stumbling upon some gang of motorcycle thugs; that's unfortunate. It would be even more unfortunate to conclude from that that you should not help in Thailand.