Obliged to stop if witnessed accident?

[WJNB]

So some prat belts pass me & stuffs it in the hedge. He/she may be Ok he maybe dead.
Nothing to do with me, I'm not the cause & have things to do & places to go. Certainly have no wish to become embroiled as a witness, statements, court etc etc.
Forget the moral argument, am I obliged by law to stop?

[Alucidnation]

WJNB said:

So some prat belts pass me & stuffs it in the hedge. He/she may be Ok he maybe dead.
Nothing to do with me, I'm not the cause & have things to do & places to go. Certainly have no wish to become embroiled as a witness, statements, court etc etc.
Forget the moral argument, am I obliged by law to stop?

Wow.

[Pica-Pica]

WJNB said:

So some prat belts pass me & stuffs it in the hedge. He/she may be Ok he maybe dead.
Nothing to do with me, I'm not the cause & have things to do & places to go. Certainly have no wish to become embroiled as a witness, statements, court etc etc.
Forget the moral argument, am I obliged by law to stop?

And if you weren't?

[psi310398]

Don't think you are required to in the UK but in France (and some other Code Napoleon countries) you can be prosecuted failing to render aid, and people are indeed prosecuted.

[anonymous-user]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

+1

Absolutely.

As bad as those utter pillocks you always see on dashcam videos who are right behind a huge multi-car motorway accident which spreads debris over all 3 lanes. Instead of stopping for even a minute, they actually squeeze and zig-zag their car through the wreckage and drive off, for fear of what? Being slightly late for something?

[Jim1556]

Can i sum this up as 'whilst not stopping as a witness to an accident may not be illegal, you're a if you dont!'...?

I've only ever witnessed one on a motorway, car in front decided to see what the grass verge next to lane 3 was like, promptly over corrected and spun into the barrier late one night on my way to Odiham - I carefully undertook him, stopped and proceeded to make sure he was ok. Outside lane now blocked. He was ok and I helped traffic wombles move his car to the hard shoulder and even gave the driver some of my caramel latte (sugar can help with shock apparently).

It probably added an hour to my four hour journey but I didn't mind one bit. I can only hope I'm offered similar assistance if I ever have a bad accident...

[anonymous-user]

Jim1556 said:

Can i sum this up as 'whilst not stopping as a witness to an accident may not be illegal, you're a if you dont!'...?

This.

I witness a woman getting rear ended (oo-er) while stopped at a roundabout and was more than happy for her to sit in my warm car for an hour until her husband came, rather than in the pissing rain stood next to what used to be a Corsa B. But of all the people there at the time, only me and some guys in a van (who towed both cars off the roundabout) bothered to stop and help.

I was pretty disgusted that in this country, where we famously all muck in together, nobody gave a flying fk about this poor woman, who was properly shaken up and really upset.

When she thanked me I told her that she shouldn’t have to, and any normal human being would have done the same, but I couldn’t help thinking that somehow we’re at a point where that isn’t true and people care more about getting to work on time than helping someone in distress!

[Welshbeef]

OP

Let's put it Ina different situation you are in the car stopped at a pelican crossing front of row with cars both sides waiting. OAP is walking over but falls over - would you think hey you know what plenty of people here I'll drive on and they can deal with it. OR jump out of the car run over to them ensuring they are ok /help them call 999 whatever.


OP - just think god forbid let's say it was someone close to you who had an accident you would want people to stop and get to help them. I think it's called humanity? It's not being a nice person it's simply an instinct that anyone would do to ensure someone is safe not hurt and help them.

If you question that it's probably you should reassess your moral compass

[KungFuPanda]

Jbeale96 said:

Jim1556 said:

Can i sum this up as 'whilst not stopping as a witness to an accident may not be illegal, you're a if you dont!'...?

This.

I witness a woman getting rear ended (oo-er) while stopped at a roundabout and was more than happy for her to sit in my warm car for an hour until her husband came, rather than in the pissing rain stood next to what used to be a Corsa B. But of all the people there at the time, only me and some guys in a van (who towed both cars off the roundabout) bothered to stop and help.

I was pretty disgusted that in this country, where we famously all muck in together, nobody gave a flying fk about this poor woman, who was properly shaken up and really upset.

When she thanked me I told her that she shouldn’t have to, and any normal human being would have done the same, but I couldn’t help thinking that somehow we’re at a point where that isn’t true and people care more about getting to work on time than helping someone in distress!

Wait until someone pops up with a story where a Police officer let an accident victim sit on their car, their back locked up and the roof of the Police car had to get cut off by the Fire service rendering it a write off.

[Toltec]

KungFuPanda said:

Wait until someone pops up with a story where a Police officer let an accident victim sit on their car, their back locked up and the roof of the Police car had to get cut off by the Fire service rendering it a write off.

[Red Devil]

psi310398 said:

Don't think you are required to in the UK but in France (and some other Code Napoleon countries) you can be prosecuted failing to render aid, and people are indeed prosecuted.

In the UK there is indeed no such duty. In fact if you do so and make things worse you expose yourself to a potential liability.
An explanation of the differences by country here - https://www.daneurope.org/c/document_library/get_f...
A year ago in Germany - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/31/four-wa...

[Smokehead]

Has everyone forgot to forget the MORAL argument?

[Catatafish]

Smokehead said:

Has everyone forgot to forget the MORAL argument?

Forgetting to forget is remembering?

[Welshbeef]

Red Devil said:

In the UK there is indeed no such duty. In fact if you do so and make things worse you expose yourself to a potential liability.
An explanation of the differences by country here - https://www.daneurope.org/c/document_library/get_f...
A year ago in Germany - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/31/four-wa...

If you stop and try to save someone's life or help them as best you can that is all that matters.

[sitimela]

There is something of a difference in the examples given here. In one example some one was hit from the rear, and was in shock. Of course I would want to help. But in the first example the issue was that bad driving put the bad driver in a crash. Here I might think twice, on the basis that they did it to themselves and deserved it.

[Gargamel]

To be honest, I find the whole thing about not wanting to appear in court, give witness statements etc - utterly depressing.

How can a reasonably advanced society like the UK have allowed this total lack of respect for the society we have created to come about.

You have an obligation as a citizen/subject of the UK to uphold the process of justice, regardless of any other factor.

The idea that you might have to wait a couple of hours at a court room, be interviewed or god forbid take a few hours of work ? It really annoys me.

[psi310398]

Smokehead said:

Has everyone forgot to forget the MORAL argument?

Exactly. With all the furious virtue signalling in this thread, you'd think that WJNB is advocating ignoring the victim. The original post explicitly recognises that there is a moral argument and he confines the question narrowly to the legal position.

The (relevant) answers are interesting, not least the legal risk run in rendering assistance in the UK.

[Dr Jekyll]

Gargamel said:

To be honest, I find the whole thing about not wanting to appear in court, give witness statements etc - utterly depressing.

How can a reasonably advanced society like the UK have allowed this total lack of respect for the society we have created to come about.

You have an obligation as a citizen/subject of the UK to uphold the process of justice, regardless of any other factor.

The idea that you might have to wait a couple of hours at a court room, be interviewed or god forbid take a few hours of work ? It really annoys me.

But remember it isn't an accident, someone has to be blamed and the police's job is to find that person, I can understand the notion of why offer yourself up if you don't have to.

If you're the first person at the scene obviously you try to help, or at least dial 999 and warn other traffic. Probably if you're the second or third. But if there's a crowd already there then nothing wrong with threading your way through the wreckage and getting on with your day.

I passed an accident the other day that had only just happened. A woman was in wrecked car on the central reservation and looking distressed. Several cars had stopped on the hard shoulder and the occupants were running back to the scene, after I passed I saw them running across three lanes of traffic. Should I have stopped? No, there were enough people there already (possibly too many).

[hairyben]

I dont think so, is it possible to legally define compassion, kindness and selfless concern for others? They would be very difficult concepts to outline to a mindset that requires thus.

[Steviesam]

Having been a witness in a fatal years ago, I would do anything to avoid being one again the future.

You just get treated like a bloody criminal by the police, and it was one of the worst times of my life.

I do have some sense of morals though, and if I was the first person there or the only one, I would have to stop to check they were OK (or not) and call the ambulance.

But if there is anyone else there, nope. I am off.