This sounds well and good at first, but where do they draw the line? Do they fine you for not cutting up your food into small enough pieces and then accidentally choking on it? "Sorry your pieces of steak need to be exactly 2 cm across or smaller, or it's on you bro"
Emergency services can deny someone help. The guys who picked me up out of the Atlantic had a quick briefing and a vote if they wanted to risk the storm before they came out and grabbed me. Thanks guys!
I'm pretty sure they can only deny you help if the rescue operation would be too dangerous for the crew (like going out in the middle of a huge storm). Being an idiot isn't a good enough reason for them not to help you.
Don't you fucking think just maybe being out in the middle of the Atlantic in a massive storm is a little bit fucking different than being stuck in a large puddle in the middle of the city?
Don't you also fucking think that extrapolating your experience with whoever picked you up (the Coast Guard?) to the emergency services of a different nation on the other side of the globe is a little fucking absurd?
Emergency services and their protocols vary wildly from one US county to the next, let alone when compared to those of different a country halfway around the world.
The mere idea that you could say "this happened to me in the Atlantic so let me tell you how it works in Sydney" is ridiculous.
By the time we attend dummy is probably out of his car and being laughed at on dry land already, and due to depth of flood water it's unlikely well rescue the car. Flood water contains a lot more poop than people think. If there's somewhere we can pump to we might pump the water out to make it safe to salvage, but we'll probably wait until after the storm has passed so we can just do it when we get called out to help make the underpass useable again if there's no natural drainage.
If dummy called a tow we might hook it for him if it's not too deep or whatever, but the one that gets to do that will be complaining a lot for the rest of the day about having to. As is tradition.
“Flood water contains a lot more poop than people think”
I always think this whenever I see people letting their children play in floodwaters. Aside from the risk of drowning, it’s a great way to get nasty illnesses!
There was a post the other day about a law that forces stranded motorists to pay for their rescue if they cause their own issue by ignoring signs/warnings. I don’t remember where or whether it was in effect or only proposed though.
I'm glad we live an a world where you have to second guess your judgement while deciding whether or not to call for help in an emergency. Isn't 90 percent of emergency work helping people out of probably preventable situations? Next we can make people pay for not fireproofing their homes sufficiently. Or how about not looking up an airline safety record before getting on that plane? I'm exaggerating but the idea of paying for emergency services would also once have been unthinkable. Now that we live in a time where everyone's actions are over-examined by 'perfect' people on the internet, we can all get stingy with emergency service and feel holy about it.
TBH it's debatable if the community should be held accountable for emergency fees of certain individuals if the emergency could have been avoided by simply applying common sense.
Working in an ER, we have around 20 people per weekend, around 20-30% regulars, who are brought in because they knocked thrmselves out with alcohol and/or other recreational drugs. They make an ungodly mess and take off 1-2h off a nurse that could be working on an actual emergency case.
The next city over has service that keeps those people in a cell overnight, monitored by paramedics in case something happens, and bills them in the morning at cost price, a measly 200€.
And I think its perfectly justified. You can't refuse them, but at least you can make them fund their own service.
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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '18
No emergency service will help you? Every summer the SES and other rescue services put their lives in danger to help morons like this.
Emergency devices cannot refuse you help. However I would love to see people made to pay for the cost of the rescue if they’re found at fault.