Save a life, get a fine

[GettnHuge 2]

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WJZ) – They fought to save a life, and now they say they’ll fight the fine.

 

It all revolves around the rescue of a deer trapped in icy water Thursday night.

 

Alex DeMetrick reports that good deed was rewarded with tickets.

 

Strangers banded together to pull a deer out of the freezing water of the Patapsco River on Thursday night.

 

“We seen the deer going under,” said Khalil Abusakran. “It couldn’t maintain. It was starting to freeze, and it was really getting bad.”

 

Abusakran brought a raft, and Jim Hart joined him.

 

“We had oars and shovels to break the ice, for the deer to get out,” Abusakran said.

 

But in the excited aftermath of the rescue, a natural resources police officer on the scene wrote both men a ticket.

 

“And he didn’t say anything,” Jim Hart said. “We went in and out of the water numerous times. He didn’t stop us at all.”

 

They say they were ticketed for not wearing life vests, although both are over the age for mandatory use of flotation devices.

 

“No, we didn’t have vests on, but we’re not 16 years old,” Abusakran said. “There were personal floating devices on the boat.”

 

The ticket itself doesn’t check off any specific violation, just a $90 fine.

 

They’ll fight it in court, as they fought for the deer.

 

The two men ticketed say they will fight the citations at the court hearing in Annapolis set for Feb. 18.

 

 

[BLS 314]

wtf?

 

And people wonder why there's such a disconect in this country.

[Strike 5,846]

Same type of idiocy happened here in CO earlier this year:

 

Raft guide arrested after helping stranded rafter on Clear Creek

By Jason Blevins

The Denver Post

Posted: 06/11/2010 01:12:57 PM MDT

Updated: 06/11/2010 06:48:48 PM MDT

 

Clear Creek sheriff's deputies on Thursday arrested a rafting guide for swimming to a stranded young rafter who had tumbled from his boat on Clear Creek.

 

Ryan Daniel Snodgrass, a 28-year-old guide with Arkansas Valley Adventures rafting company, was charged with "obstructing government operations," said Clear Creek Sheriff Don Krueger.

 

"He was told not to go in the water, and he jumped in and swam over to the victim and jeopardized the rescue operation," said Krueger, noting that his office was deciding whether to file similar charges against another guide who was at the scene just downstream of Kermitts Roadhouse on U.S. 6.

 

Duke Bradford, owner of Arkansas Valley Adventures, said Snodgrass did the right thing by contacting the 13-year-old Texas girl immediately and not waiting for the county's search and rescue team to assemble ropes, rafts and rescuers.

 

"When you have someone in sight who has taken a long swim, you need to make contact immediately," said Bradford, a 15-year rafting guide and ski patroller from Summit County. "This is just silly. Ryan Snodgrass acted entirely appropriately. These guys came to the scene late and there was a rescue in progress. They came in and took over an existing rescue. To leave a patient on the side of a river while you get your gear out of the car and set up a rescue system you read about in a book is simply not good policy."

 

Snodgrass' raft flipped on the runoff-swelled Clear Creek around noon Thursday and the girl swam from the raft. Krueger said the girl was missing for 30 to 45 minutes while Snodgrass searched for her. He said she swam a half mile from the spot where the raft capsized.

 

Since it had been so long, Krueger said, it was no longer the rafting company's rescue.

 

"They should involve themselves up to a point. They lost contact. Whether they want to say they were trying to rescue their customer, when they had lost visual contact and had no idea where their customer has been for 30 to 45 minutes, then it becomes our issue."

 

Bradford said he would expect his guides to do the same thing again. His guides are professionals, he said, trained and certified in swiftwater rescue.

 

"To jump into water and navigate a river in a swiftwater rescue is common. You get into the river and swim. You have to do it," Branford said. "The fact these guys don't understand that is disturbing. Making contact immediately with your victim is essential. It's not about who is in charge. It's about the safety of a 13-year-old girl. You are going to do everything in your power to insure the safety of your guest, and if that means in Idaho Springs you get arrested, well I guess we'll just get arrested."

 

Read more: Raft guide arrested after helping stranded rafter on Clear Creek - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15278256#ixzz18UNrKI1O

Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

 

IIRC the charges were eventually dropped but how dumb is it to cite someone for saving a life?

[sorrycharlie 0]

The Judge should look at these citations and threaten the idiots with Jail time for wasting the courts time, and make them pay for the day of lost wages to the cited.

Fkn retahds I tell ya, this is pathetic and completely unacceptable.

[IMMensaMind 462]

It's been my experience that DNR Wardens are among the biggest tools on the planet; they're Hitleresque and completely devoid of common sense.

[rholio 339]

It's been my experience that DNR Wardens are among the biggest tools on the planet; they're Hitleresque and completely devoid of common sense.

 

Amen.

[GettnHuge 2]

It's been my experience that DNR Wardens are among the biggest tools on the planet; they're Hitleresque and completely devoid of common sense.

 

I give them some leeway in that they see a lot of the worst of people so they prolly wake up assuming everyone poaches, or everyone bends the rules a little, or nobody

reads their yearly hunting regulations...

but this is assholey

[rallo 136]

wtf?

 

And people wonder why there's such a disconect in this country.

 

 

it sucks... they actually warn you in CPR class that you may not wish to help someone because they could later press charges on you (if you break a rib... etc)

[RLLD 4,275]

Government is a for-profit business.

 

Citations are an important revenue stream.

[heavy-set 39]

I like my deer with a side of apple chutney

[BunnysBastatrds 2,538]

Government is a for-profit business.

 

Citations are an important revenue stream.

 

 

A friend of mine was at the Grand Canyon a few years back and noticed a couple having some problems walking back up. They had walked down further than they should have without the proper supplies. A ranger shows up and was very close to ordering a helicopter come and resue them until my friend stepped in and said he would walk them up and share his supplies and convinced the couple that they disn't want to pay the $6000.00 it would cost to walk one and a half miles back up. The ranger was threatening to have him arrested for endangerment and interference with a federal officer. The couple said they were fine and would walk up on their own. They get to the top and the man who was having problems gives him a hundred bucks and thanks him. Friend gives it back and says it was his pleasure. Ranger shows up and says he knew all along that my friend was just trying to make some money off of the other guy and he cost the state of Arizona $6000.00 dollars.

[rholio 339]

A friend of mine was at the Grand Canyon a few years back and noticed a couple having some problems walking back up. They had walked down further than they should have without the proper supplies. A ranger shows up and was very close to ordering a helicopter come and resue them until my friend stepped in and said he would walk them up and share his supplies and convinced the couple that they disn't want to pay the $6000.00 it would cost to walk one and a half miles back up. The ranger was threatening to have him arrested for endangerment and interference with a federal officer. The couple said they were fine and would walk up on their own. They get to the top and the man who was having problems gives him a hundred bucks and thanks him. Friend gives it back and says it was his pleasure. Ranger shows up and says he knew all along that my friend was just trying to make some money off of the other guy and he cost the state of Arizona $6000.00 dollars.

 

I think that ranger was lucky to not get a flying lesson.