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Comment by twakefield | Hacker News Reader

I was blown away watching the local news the other night. A man in Oakland was in the water drowning while the Fire Department watched because they didn't have the "resources" for proper training and certification for land-based water rescues. A random woman eventually had to go out into the water to retrieve the body. This is unbelievable. http://sfist.com/2011/05/30/man_drowns_in_bay_off_alameda_be...

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There are a few weird gaps in that story, though. The guy was wading fully clad in chest-high water for nearly an hour, which (a) suggests he was probably mentally ill and didn't necessarily want to be rescued, and (b) suggests he didn't seem to be in any immediate danger. As for how he progressed from wading in chest-high water to drowning, I'm not really sure -- that part is missing too.

So I'm not sure if they behaved quite right, but the article makes it sound less bad than the summary. Rescuing someone who is not thinking clearly and doesn't want to be rescued can go bad in all sorts of ways.

Sounds like you can thank California and their affinity for lawsuits for that. No one wants to be held responsible for anything lest they get sued.

what a bunch of f*&%en pussies...

I would tend to agree. When they interviewed one of the FD guys, he said if he wasn't on duty he would have rescued the guy. However, because they aren't certified, it opens the department up to lawsuits if something goes wrong. That's great. So now we have public officials that are doing more harm than good because of the lack of resources to train them and the fear of liability if they don't successfully save someone's life. I'm not sure which is more frustrating.

It's the same reason why doctors aren't supposed to stop to help people at the side of the road - they aren't protected by good samaritan laws. If something goes wrong, they could be liable for it, even if the person would have died without intervention.

That being said, I think most doctors would do it anyway.

Alameda is the city next door to Oakland. Aside from being reported in the Oakland Tribune, what does this story have to do with Oakland?

Most civil servants and people working for utilities and transportation systems (like the airlines) are going to be rule-driven people. They aren't going to be thinking outside the box or improvising.

And that's to be expected. Those that do think outside the box left the box a long time ago.

You're never going to convince a flight attendent that you can turn off the network and keep using your smart phone until one of the people who make the rules gets an iPhone and learns about the magical "airplane mode".

And it sort of should be this way. You want these people following rules, not making them up as they go. Its really the higher ups and ultimately the citizenry that need to change the way they think.

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