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Comment by hansvm | Hacker News Reader

In the US that's still crazy exciting. Most of my hikes (at least, before I moved to the Bay), I'd rarely be within a 3h jog of the closest place a chopper could land, and that's assuming you have a satphone or something to actually contact the outside world.

Plus, in a ton of states, driving is a privilege, not a right. I've lost my license a few times after the judge in question said I was justified but some bureaucrat in "public safety" or whatever didn't care about the life-threatening issues at hand and just yanked that privilege. Bureaucracy is hard to undo, and even if it weren't strictly a matter of improving my chance to live I'd much much much rather take a pill and a slow, safe route to the hospital than spend one more God-forsaken winter biking to work in -20F.

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> Plus, in a ton of states, driving is a privilege, not a right. I've lost my license a few times

A few times? How on earth have you been so unlucky? They won't take your license away just for speeding, let alone to a hospital, and even if that happened once to somebody I can't imagine it happening 'a few times' to a single person.

Sorry to be blunt, but were you driving drunk?

This was my reaction as well.

The only people I've ever known to have lost their license were either drunk driving or speeding excessively (ie 35mph+ over the posted speed limit).

How do you innocently lose your license on multiple occassions?

Some places will take your license for much, much, much simpler things than that. 3 tickets of any kind in a year's period is enough to lose your license in Iowa for example.

No, just speeding (and "a few" here means twice [0]). Once only 21mph over (still over 100mph in total), once pretty excessively. It was a fairly automatic extrajudicial process for anyone with enough proof of driving fast enough, regardless of what punishment (if any) came out of the trial.

[0] https://xkcd.com/1070/

Choppers don't need to land. Most of the time a rescue chopper would rather not. Winching you up to them is easier/safer than trying to land at an unprepared location. Even without a winch, they would "long line" you to the nearest road where there is room to land.

https://youtu.be/WrllMSTm23c

https://youtu.be/nJZIDwMGHWc

Interesting. I probably could have been a lot safer than anticipated.

Mountain rescue also has the impossibility to land. Here some HD footage from national geographic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk9QKRM_8Jo

Notice the cut audio track. Giving these people the legal ability to give pain meds cant happen early enough. Mont Blanc helicopter rescue services also make some great documentaries every few years.

The situation is even worse for a lot of snake bite victims, as you cant get lifted out of the rain forest.

They can't give pain meds in the US? I believe in most of Europe, there's always a doctor on board of rescue helicopters, so they routinely administer drugs on board or on site of the accident.

You need that doctor and put him on the ground. That is often not the case in Europe or the US if the terrain is considered unsafe.

The scene for the national geographic clip starts at 7:30.

The situation is even more drastic for cave rescues, there its not unusual to take days for a doctor to arrive.

At least these laws have saved us from having streets full of opioid addicts.

May I ask what were the circumstances that lead them to decide taking your permission to drive away was the right course?

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