Heroic Engineer Crashes Own Vehicle To Save a Life

scottbomb sends in this feel-good story of an engineer-hero, calling it "one of the coolest stories I've read in a long time." "A manager of Boeing's F22 fighter-jet program, Innes dodged the truck, then looked back to see that the driver was slumped over the wheel. He knew a busy intersection was just ahead, and he had to act fast. Without consulting the passengers in his minivan — 'there was no time to take a vote' — Innes kicked into engineer mode. 'Basic physics: If I could get in front of him and let him hit me, the delta difference in speed would just be a few miles an hour, and we could slow down together,' Innes explained."

Comments

This is how it looks when it works.

[BobMcD]

This is how it looks when it works. Imagine the news story had it not saved the man's life and one of his kids had been killed instead. The guy took a HUGE risk here, which is an intrinsic part of being a hero, but I pity his kids a little. Were it just me in the car, okay, maybe. But with my little ones in tow? Not a chance. I guess that's why I'm not a hero and he is, eh? At any rate, the safety of the nameless citizen won out over the safety of his own, which strikes me as odd.

Re:This is how it looks when it works.

[BobMcD]

Same-as, as far as I'm concerned. I'd easily kill one hundred to save my own kid. Color me weird, but there it is.

Re:This is how it looks when it works.

[powerlord]

Same-as, as far as I'm concerned. I'd easily kill one hundred to save my own kid. Color me weird, but there it is.

Its not weird, and most feel the same way.

The question is at what point the line shifts.

Would you kill 1,000 to save your kid? 10,000 people? 1,000,000? 10,000,000 wiping out a species that holds a cure for cancer?
Would it matter if those killed included lots of other children?
Would it make a difference if you saw any/all of those children before?
Would it make a difference if you had to physically kill them yourself?

Not expecting an answer, just asking the question to provoke people to think about the answers. :)

Re:This is how it looks when it works.

[MozeeToby]

And this kind of thing is why I've made the argument in the past that having children leads to a significant degradation in morals. You'd rather let some innocent person (someone else's child, parent, and/or spouse BTW) get T-boned at a busy intersection than put your kids at even mild risk (and if you have any confidence in your driving skills at all, mild risk is all we're talking about in this case). It is, to be fair, evolved into our brains to be this way, but it still sickens me a little bit.

Re:This is how it looks when it works.

[lucifig]

I never thought of it that way ( the degradation in morals) but I think you are absolutely correct. Before I had my son, 10 to 1, I'd be one of those guys berating those "selfish parents". But now that I have him, I'd literally do anything in my power to keep him safe.

Hope

[eepok]

I read this on FARK yesterday and I finally had a tiny bit of hope that maybe, if I'm in trouble, someone will be like me and just attempt to do what should be done. This morning, I go the restroom at work, and see that plastered in front of the urinals and on the backs of stall doors (for your easy reading, of course) are lists of ways you're required to respond to emergencies:

In the case of fire:
Calmly exit the building
For no reason, re-enter the building until given the OK by emergency responders

In the case of a shooting:
Run, hide, and call the police. Don't try to stop the shooter.

In case of violence:
Run, hide, and call the police. Don't try to intervene.

And the lists go on. I'm surrounded by warnings that if a good actions puts yourself at risk, then the action is BAD. And I weep a little...

Re:Hope

[Johnny5000]

And the lists go on. I'm surrounded by warnings that if a good actions puts yourself at risk, then the action is BAD. And I weep a little...

Feel free to ignore the warnings.

Psych studies show that in a crisis, most people are going to stand there like idiots and do nothing anyway, so encouraging them to get the hell out of danger is a good thing (for them, if not the human race in general.)

Very few people are going to attempt something heroic. If that's you, then you should go for it anyway.

Memories

[Wonko the Sane]

Something very much like this happened to me back when I was about 5 or 6 years old.

I was in the car with my siblings and our mother drove to the grocery store. She parked and ran inside for just a few minutes to buy something and my younger brother started playing with the steering wheel, pretending to drive.

This car was a 1962 Chevy Bel Air and the shifter did not have an a key interlock so as he was flailing around he bumped the car into neutral and it started to roll backwards towards a busy street.

Some guy who was getting ready to pull out of the parking lot saw what was happening and drove behind us so that the car t-boned his truck instead of rolling out into the street.

Re:Oh, snap!

[js3]

State farm does take your money!. They raised my insurance from 162 to 225$ a month, no reason no nothing. Clean driving record, no tickets.. certainly did not grow 10 years in 1 month. The idea that they are nice because they can get publicity from a feel good story is naive at best.

All insurance companies are evil.