Man who pushed elderly women out of the path of a truck ticketed for jaywalking

[pokerfan]

DENVER (AP) — A good Samaritan who pushed three people out of the path of a pickup before he was struck and injured has been ticketed for jaywalking. Family members say 58-year-old Jim Moffett and another man were helping two elderly women cross a busy Denver street in a snowstorm when he was hit Friday night.

Moffett suffered bleeding in the brain, broken bones, a dislocated shoulder and a possible ruptured spleen. He remained hospitalized Wednesday in serious but stable condition.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hByfZKc4F3E5TUDAga5U1J1FXmUwD96IV8DO1

[edbermac]

1. He was lucky he wasn't Tazered.

:wtf: :sarcasm:

[Pierre.Suave]

2. I would love to hear the police departments justification

for that ticket.

[CreekDog]

4. this is like that old lady who was ticketed in LA for crossing the street too slowly

and berated by the cop for holding up traffic.

i think this story will end up with a similar resolution --an embarassed department, a chastened officer and a rescinded citation.

[Pierre.Suave]

6. MORAN cops

thats the only answer.

[DS1]

3. That's some fine police work there, Lou

[Pierre.Suave]

5. ...

:rofl:

Exactly.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

8. "I don't make the laws, I just.... something with them."

[StrongBad]

16. Bwahahah. "Bake 'em away toys!"

[jobycom]

7. The elderly women were in danger BECAUSE he was jaywalking.

He pushed them out of danger after coaxing them into danger, according to the story.

Still, what's the point of giving him a ticket? Hoping they'll make a point that the truck didn't already make?

[CreekDog]

10. let's clarify this, here's the link to the original article which is much clearer:

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/24/injured-good-samaritan-gets-ticket-his-trouble/

and it shows that:

The good samaritan was the bus driver that let the ladies off the bus.

When he saw from his bus that they weren't going to get across the street safely he left his bus and went outside to help them.

He was hit when a truck pulled out from behind the bus and hit him.

This is not simple jaywalking, the ladies were already out there and he simply tried to help them get across and got hit in the process.

That's way different than bolting through traffic to get to Starbucks.

I think it's fair to say that the police officer is an idiot.

[jobycom]

11. Ah, that's not what the OP article link said. IF that's right, yeah, the cop is an idiot.

I don't usually defend cops, but I've known a lot, and not many of them were stupid, so I wonder if the first story is right, or if it's slanted to create a hero-story. Seems to me if it were that clear-cut, the pickup driver would be in a world of trouble, and not the bus driver.

But who knows? Some cops are idiot.

[hedgehog]

9. Here you go - it was their fault for not having a car:

Sullivan said Moffett and the others weren't in a crosswalk, but said he didn't know why the bus stop was in an area without one

See, if they'd had a car, they wouldn't have been taking a bus and therefore wouldn't have had to cross the street!

[jobycom]

12. That sounds more like a criticism of the city. Maybe a good lawsuit is in order.

Come to think of it, maybe that's why the city wants to give him a ticket. If they can claim he was jaywalking, then the accident was his fault, and maybe the city isn't liable.

[hedgehog]

13. It reminds me of a rather notorious situation in Buffalo a few years back.

The NFTA (Niagrara Frontier Transport Association) ran a bus from the black area of town to one of the suburban malls. Although buses from white areas were routed to stop right at the mall entrance, this route stopped 1/4 mile from the mall (no sidewalks) across a 6 lane highway with no crosswalk. The matter came to public attention when a black woman trying to get to her job in the Mall was hit and killed crossing the highway.

[Jamastiene]

14. Damn! No good deed goes unpunished.

:wtf:

[pokerfan]

15. In my city it's against the law to plug someone else's parking meter

so I make a habit of doing it all the time. I see a car parked at an expired meter and if there are no offensive bumper stickers I will drop a quarter just on principle.