Ever stopped to help drivers broken down on road?

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I know times can be dangerous and people have cell phones now to call for help. But have you or do you stop to assist others?

I have stopped and jumped people, taken them to a local gas station, changed a flat.

My brother used to stop and pull people out of the ditches in the winter when he had his 4x4.
 
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Two weeks ago I stopped. A lady had a flat tire on a 60mph parkway with no shoulder. She had an infant baby and was totally clueless. I stopped and told her to move her car 200 feet up and turn into a side street before we all get killed. She did and I came and changed her tire. Her tires were the factory tires on a ‘13 Jetta and while they had tread, they were made in 2012 and were rock hard. Turns out the low pressure light was on and she didn’t do anything about it. Her dad came by right after I was done and I spoke to him for a bit. His only comment was that they had tread left so he didn’t believe anything was wrong with the tires.
 
Used to do this fairly often, guess it has been a while. Most recently gave jumps to people in a cell lot at Logan airport and at a softball tournament, I always have cables with me. Loudmouth off duty fireman tried to take over at the latter jump and was desperate to move the cable connection such that the batteries were directly in parallel...finally had to tell him to get his GD hands off my vehicle and that he was welcome to put his battery in parallel with the dead one as long as I was a ways away.

Most memorable was stopping to help a high school girl who had dropped a wheel on her dad's car at a concrete cut in a construction site and got a flat as well as some body damage from bottoming out, she was lucky she didn't get stuck in the pit.
A few of us stopped and were able to put the spare on, but she kept asking us to make it so her dad wouldn't notice that anything happened...hard to do given that the spare was on a different type of wheel and the car had body damage. We were supposed to swap the wheel the spare was on and do bodywork on the side of the road?
 
Originally Posted By: dave123
Depends on how hot she looks


ROFL!!

I stopped for someone who was half in the ditch on the side of the road in extreme cold to make sure they were ok a month back..i guess watching too many movies has an impact on why we dont help more often..
 
Depends on who is in the car with me. If I’m going someplace alone or with a friend I will usually stop to help. If the wife and kids are with me I won’t take the risk and I keep on driving. Helped a lot of people over the years and most were decent but I take no chances when my family is with me.
 
If it's a woman I just assume her bf will be along any minute to help.
 
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I do keep a jump box in the vehicles when I travel and have jumped a few people on occasion, about 3 months ago while in a local HyVee at about 900 AM a young couple mid 20s were having problems staring their Honda CRV it was about a 2005 I think. I Was unable to get it started by jumping and the battery was severely corroded, anyway the female received a call on her cell and they said they would be right back and they seemed very nervous. I waited a bit they never returned and then the police pulled up. Turns out these kids had stolen that vehicle a couple of days earlier. They found the guy hiding out in a big recycle bin nearby and the girl was found a few blocks away. That made me a bit nervous thinking back on it. I probably would have been better off just telling them that had no way to jump their battery. They could have tried to steal my car or get violent, since they were already on the lam who knows what they wold have done when desperate. Usually I carry my side arm , but that morning I did not want to mess with it. That event made me pause and reflect about assisting other drivers.
 
Saw a young women try to make an exit off the freeway at high speed, lost control and into a shallow ditch. I pulled over, help her get out of car, she was ok, mostly scared, let her use my cell (hers was lost in the car somewhere), she called her family. The next day, I get a Unknown number call on my phone, was her mom thanking me for helping her. This was in a busy part of the city so if I didn’t help, someone else would have
 
About once every 10 years. Helped a family with an empty radiator last year. They had anti-freeze with them but didn't know where it went in the engine.

Helped an elderly lady at the local mall whose car wouldn't start. Well, I didn't really help her but I stayed with her until her husband showed up as he knew what to do to get the car started. Funniest thing was that he shows up and comes out of his car with a broom handle because he knew the hood struts on his wife's car were shot.
 
I stopped one day this week to pick up a guy who was walking with a gas can. He wasn`t signalling for a pick-up and was walking in the direction I was heading. He had ran out of gas on a cold afternoon here. I drove him about 2/3 mile back to his van . I was off work that day and was in no hurry to get some place.
 
Rescued a family in a minivan off to the side of the rode. They called me. A Lyft driver (sometimes).
Rescued two young men in an older Subaru stalled on the side of the highway. Another Lyft ride.
Rescuing poeple and getting paid for it!

These days people can call AAA, a friend, family, and/or Uber & Lyft from their smartphones. Less reason for strangers to intervene, although its nice when they do.
 
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Originally Posted By: E150GT
Two weeks ago I stopped. A lady had a flat tire on a 60mph parkway with no shoulder. She had an infant baby and was totally clueless. I stopped and told her to move her car 200 feet up and turn into a side street before we all get killed. She did and I came and changed her tire. Her tires were the factory tires on a ‘13 Jetta and while they had tread, they were made in 2012 and were rock hard. Turns out the low pressure light was on and she didn’t do anything about it. Her dad came by right after I was done and I spoke to him for a bit. His only comment was that they had tread left so he didn’t believe anything was wrong with the tires.


Yep, I live here also, can confirm. Sooooooooooo many people driving around this city with almost bald/bad tires.
 
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