Question on human compassion.

[unformed 0]

You have just spent all of your life savings fixing up a classic car which you are planning on selling in afew months, and using the money to retire. (You are at an appropriate age ready to retire.) The car just came out of the garage a few days before and is not yet insured.

You're stopped at a train track with an oncoming train. There is a child a bit ways down on the train track and he doesn't see the train approaching. You're not going to get his attention before the train reaches him and the train doesn't have enough time to stop. The only thing you can do to save the kid's life is to stop the train with the car, but by doing so you would be losing all of your life savings and would spend the rest of your life, your golden years, scrounging for money. You don't have any other family to take care of you.

What do you do?

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[mnealtx 0]

Crash it.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[shropshire 0]

Not my kid.... not my problem

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[beowulf 1]

what makes you think the car would stop the train?

[BillyVance 34]

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what makes you think the car would stop the train?

Exactly. Well on one hand, the resulting noise from the crash might alert the kid down the track, but what if he's deaf? Then you just wasted your truck for nothing.

There have been a couple cases of deaf people walking down a RR track getting run over by a train they didn't know was coming from behind them.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[kallend 1,683]

I don't drive uninsured, so it is moot.

In addition, a 2 ton car will not have any significant effect on the momentum of a train with a mass of maybe 10,000 tons (the locomotives alone are over 100 tons, some are well over). The heaviest train ever had a mass of 79,577 tons!

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Butters 0]

The question stated that crashing the car would save the kid (maybe it wouldn't stop the train but it would save the kid). So just answer, crash car and save kid or don't crash car and don't save kid. (Is it really that hard for people in SC to just answer a hypothetical question?)

I would crash car and save kid.

"That looks dangerous." Leopold Stotch

[wmw999 2,178]

In an emergent situation most people would make that kind of decision.

On the other hand, KNOWING that it would save a child, how many of us (particularly approaching retirement age) would donate our retirement savings for a kidney transplant or something like that?

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[kallend 1,683]

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The question stated that crashing the car would save the kid (maybe it wouldn't stop the train but it would save the kid). .

No, it did not. Take another look.
The question stated: "The only thing you can do to save the kid's life is to stop the train with the car"

The question is moot.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[NCclimber 0]

Quote

In an emergent situation most people would make that kind of decision.

On the other hand, KNOWING that it would save a child, how many of us (particularly approaching retirement age) would donate our retirement savings for a kidney transplant or something like that?

Wendy W.

Excellent point, Wendy. One big difference is in the scenario given, your sacrifice is the only way to save the kid's life. On the other hand, it's doubtful that you would be the only resource to pay for a kidney transplant. It's a whole lot easier to not involve yourself.

[unformed 0]

Jesus Christ. Sorry for not explaining in terms that Mirriam-Webster's would use.

- Crashing the car will save the kid's life.
- Losing your entire life savings would save your kid's life.
- Ruining your plans for the future will save the kid's life.

The process of how it doesn't matter. But the kid will not die in front of your eyes.

This is theoretical. My intent was to post another question after this, but it seems like this is too goddamn difficult for people to understand.

Or they're just arguing for the sake of arguing.

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[kallend 1,683]

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This is theoretical. My intent was to post another question after this, but it seems like this is too goddamn difficult for people to understand.

Or they're just arguing for the sake of arguing.

Theoretically, your question is invalid, it appears that you are the one that doesn't understand it, and the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[goofyjumper 0]

I am sorry but any decent human being would save the kid and worry about the retirement later.

If you did not save the kid, you would have that thought in your head for the rest of your life.

-----------------
I love and Miss you so much Honey!
Orfun #3 ~ Darla

[Butters 0]

Quote

Jesus Christ. Sorry for not explaining in terms that Mirriam-Webster's would use.

- Crashing the car will save the kid's life.
- Losing your entire life savings would save your kid's life.
- Ruining your plans for the future will save the kid's life.

The process of how it doesn't matter. But the kid will not die in front of your eyes.

This is theoretical. My intent was to post another question after this, but it seems like this is too goddamn difficult for people to understand.

Or they're just arguing for the sake of arguing.

Right there with you.

If I flip a coin will it land heads or tails?

I bet 25% say heads, 25% say tails, and 50% will comment that it could land on its side, it could be a two headed coin, how am I flipping it, where am I flipping it, etc...

"That looks dangerous." Leopold Stotch

[Rick 67]

I would crash an AN2 into the train

You can't be drunk all day if you don't start early!

[BillyVance 34]

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I would crash an AN2 into the train

I wonder how long it would take for the mods to get tired of AN2 being abused...

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[kallend 1,683]

Quote

Quote

Jesus Christ. Sorry for not explaining in terms that Mirriam-Webster's would use.

- Crashing the car will save the kid's life.
- Losing your entire life savings would save your kid's life.
- Ruining your plans for the future will save the kid's life.

The process of how it doesn't matter. But the kid will not die in front of your eyes.

This is theoretical. My intent was to post another question after this, but it seems like this is too goddamn difficult for people to understand.

Or they're just arguing for the sake of arguing.

Right there with you.

If I flip a coin will it land heads or tails?

I bet 25% say heads, 25% say tails, and 50% will comment that it could land on its side, it could be a two headed coin, how am I flipping it, where am I flipping it, etc...

That, as Sundevil777 would say, is a very poor analogy.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Darius11 12]

What’s the mass of the train and the car? What is the speed of the train?, What the temp on that day?,is the driver in a good mood?......................... Just joking bro.



I would crash the car and save the kid

I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." - Kurt Cobain

[NCclimber 0]

Some people just look for ways to miss the point.

Straying off topic, the father of a friend had a psych profile, while he was in the army. This was back in the 50s, when people tended not to think outside the box.

The psychologist said "you're on an island and an enemy battleship is approaching. What do you do?"

Tony: "Sink it with my sub".

Shrink: "Where'd you get your sub?"

Tony: "Where'd you get your battleship?"

[Michele 1]

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- Crashing the car will save the kid's life.
- Losing your entire life savings would save your kid's life.
- Ruining your plans for the future will save the kid's life.

Check. Got it. (Got it before, but wanted to acknowledge your efforts).

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But the kid will not die in front of your eyes.

Which would ruin the rest of my life; if I had a way to prevent a death, and didn't act, that would sit on me for the rest of my life, and color my opinion of myself. Further, it would deprive the world of a child with infinite possibilities (good, bad, and marginal) to live as I have done. Therefore, crash the car.

I can always replace funds, live more frugally, and regret that I hadn't saved more in my earlier years. But I couldn't replace the child.

I would rather live on ramen noodles and know I saved a life than live comfortably knowing a child died so that I could live comfortably.

And no, for me this isn't "theoretical." If anyone knew what I've done in the last two years, you'd realize that I live on ramen noodles and someone is indeed alive because of me. And that is a damned fine feeling.

Ciels-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[StreetScooby 5]

I find it hard to envision this scenario in real life.

We are all engines of karma

[BillyVance 34]

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What’s the mass of the train and the car? What is the speed of the train?, What the temp on that day?,is the driver in a good mood?......................... Just joking bro.



I would crash the car and save the kid

I would ask a few police officers and get their opinions. I'd bet everyone of them would say don't put your life on the line with a train, we don't need two fatalities. I know it sounds mean spirited, but no damn car is going to stop a train.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[kallend 1,683]

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I find it hard to envision this scenario is real life.

It's a poorly framed (meaningless) question, but somehow we're to blame for pointing that out.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[freethefly 6]

Have you've seen what a train can do to a car? No effing way I am parking my 57 on the rails. Besides, if that train is highballing with a good number of tonnage, expect up to a mile for her to stop. Both, car and kid is going for a ride. Best just to give a hand signal for them to stop (law requires for any train to stop when any person indicates for them to do so).

"...And once you're gone, you can't come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black."
Neil Young

[lawrocket 3]

I had something similar when I was a kid. I was presented with a blank piece of white paper and asked to describe what I saw. I looked at it, told the doctor it was upside down, and turned it around. I laughed when I said it and the doctor laughed. We moved on to another test - he didn't make me do it.

I found out later that they used that test to determine what the kids thought about - i.e., describing a blizzard and freezing to death, etc., would be bad. I guess he figured that I was doing all right to joke about it.

---

But back to the question - I don't know what I would do. Everybody likes to THINK they'd know what to do in that situation, but until you are in it you just don't know. It's why the military and police and firefighters are trained with operant conditioning about what to do in situations like that - you certainly do not want to leave it up to anybody using a decision-making process. You would need to react.

People don't even make life-saving decisions correctly or quick enough to save their own asses in emergency situations - even if they ARE properly trained. I'll refer you to the fatalities database and incidents forum, where you'll find people who struggled too long with being a rigger in midair even though they were trained to cut away.

With 90 percent of people, the kid would get clipped by the train, because by the time you decide to do something, it's too late. And by the time you decide to save the kid, the seconds it took to decide make it so that both of you will probably get clipped - along with the car.

So I might be cold and unfeeling - I've been accused of that recently - by saying that if it were me the kid would probably die. It's because of my recognition of these limitations that I can say that. Again, I'd like to think I'd save the kid but I just don't know what would happen. All I know is what would probably happen with most people and lump myself in with that.

My wife is hotter than your wife.