Horrific cellphone footage shows the moment a Good Samaritan teenager was struck by a police cruiser as it speeds past the scene of a bad accident. It happened recently in Elyria, Ohio and has people asking what the officer was doing.
Watch Good Samaritans rescue a man trapped inside his burning car.
The car crash, which trapped people in one vehicle, was caused by two suspects in a reportedly stolen Honda Accord. Those suspects ran from the scene, leaving their victims at the mercy of a group of strangers who ran to help.
We always commend people for being Good Samaritans and stopping to help at car crashes, but the fact is you’re taking a risk doing it. That doesn’t mean one shouldn’t stop and help – on the contrary we think that’s partly why assisting at the scene of an accident makes for heroism. But we’ve seen many cases of Good Samaritans being hurt or even killed while trying to help others.
That’s not to make any excuses for what the officer did. We don’t know the whole situation, so we’re not going to rush to any conclusions here. But it does seem odd the officer was speeding past the scene of the crash where so many pedestrians had gathered to help.
Different police departments have different policies on situations like this. We don’t know what Elyria Police have trained officers to do near the scene of a crash, but this might result in a revision of policy or the officer facing serious consequences because he broke from the already established policy.
After being hit, the teen got up and hobbled off the road, likely fearful he might be struck by another car. Sadly, we’ve seen that happen as well, so it’s not a dumb move on his part.
Image via 19 News/YouTube
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