What are your thoughts on this man suing the first responders who rescued him from a submerged car?

“Since the accident, Ortiz has racked up $40,000 in medical bills ”

If anyone gets mad at this guy, you might want to redirect your anger at the U.S. healthcare system. When faced with $40k in medical bills, this scenario is likely. This guy needs money, and his lawyer will know how and where to get it.

The headline was designed to get people riled up, but when you start reading it you can see he does have a point. The road probably should have been closed.

But I don’t get why he’d sue the rescuers because they didn’t know he was in the car when they started pulling it out.

It is a shame you can’t just put him back in the car.

@rojo Exactly what I was thinking. Okay, get yourself out idiot. Who told you to drive in to a flooded section of a road. Never, never drive into a flooded section or you are obviously too stupid to live.

As an emergency responder we are protected by law from being forced to enter a scene unless it is deemed safe for me to do so. I am not required to put myself in danger to save anyone else. First priority is self, second priority is crew, third priority is victim. (Forget bystanders for the moment). If the flood waters were too high to see the man in the car I could make a safety call that I choose not to enter that scene until it is deemed safe (via fire crew or swift water responders). This does not apply to fire crew or police, as their jobs are “all-risk,” but any EMS responder is not an “all-risk” employment. The term ‘scene safe’ is practically beaten into us. I don’t see the lawsuit against first responders holding water (pun intended).

Could he not tell that the area he chose to drive into was flooded?

Yeah, I don’t know. I thought of that too.

We had a bad flood in 2006. I had about a 20 mile ride to work. I started out in a big 4WD SUV. I got to the first flooded section of the road and I pulled over and stopped to consider it. A little compact car comes up and drives right through the flooded section. I figured if he wanted to be the guinea pig that was fine by me. I followed him the rest of the way, through all kinds of flooded road and he never even hesitated once. Not once.

If you read the article, the road wasn’t necessarily super flooded. It sounded like he hydroplanes and ends up in the creek next to the road. He was probably driving too fast for conditions and should have been ticketed.