The instinct to help someone who is in need is strong. Good people simply can’t just pass by an emergency without stopping to lend a hand. To be a Good Samaritan speaks to our best and noblest instincts.
That’s what makes a recent fatality incident that occurred in Shelby County, Kentucky on September 9, 2013 even more tragic. Two men — Jamaal Wood and Charles Burtt, had stopped to check on the drivers of vehicles involved in an accident where a semi sideswiped a box truck, and then went into the median with a third vehicle. While Mr. Wood and Mr. Burtt were outside their vehicles and in the act of trying to help, another tractor trailer hit both of their stopped vans, killing both men.
To add even more misery to this tragedy, Mr. Wood was a brand new father. And, Mr. Burtt’s wife, who was in the Burtt vehicle, witnessed her husband getting hit.
Both Mr. Wood and Mr. Burtt were truly Good Samaritans, who saw others in need, and tried to lend a hand. Unfortunately, they both paid the ultimate price for their acts of kindness.
The Lietz Law Firm has handled cases in the past where commercial vehicles have hit vehicles stopped along the side of the road, injuring and killing people. Usually, such collisions are caused by acts of negligence on the part of drivers who drift out of the travel lanes to hit vehicles stopped on the shoulder.
