Losing hope for human kind...

[Dalmatian90]

I know people are stupid. I know. But this blooming stupid?

We had a moderate windstorm come through this morning. Had a powerline down on the side of the road, no danger to cars, but a minor concern about pedestrians, so we put up cones to warn drivers later on and I stayed with the Service truck to watch for pedestrians until the sun came up enough the line would be easily seen. (If it was me, I would've been a ***** and just used scene tape to barrier off the road on both ends and left right then, but the Lt didn't want to close the road)

So as the occassional car would go by, I'd wave them past the truck with a traffic wand flashlight.

Not once, but twice guys in pickups stopped, "Hey, is the road blocked up ahead?"

"If it was, would I be waving you through?"

[Steamer]

If it was me, I would've been a *****

A man after my own heart!

[MalahatTwo7]

Originally posted by Dalmatian90
So as the occassional car would go by, I'd wave them past the truck with a traffic wand flashlight.

Not once, but twice guys in pickups stopped, "Hey, is the road blocked up ahead?"

"If it was, would I be waving you through?"

**See Steamer's quote**

Of course you would Dal, that way you would be ensuring "job security". LOL

[AFD368]

We had a similar incident just this morning.
House service secondary line pulled from house and hanging low across the road. As we coned the one side of the road and allowed one way traffic to pass under the high side (except any trucks, which wouldn't fit under the high side) we had numerous cars pull up and ask what the problem was. Now this was in complete daylight, and unless the people were looking at the tree branch that was down (the one that pulled the service off the house)they actually coould not see the jarge wire hanging low across the road.
Makes you wonder what people are thinking while they are driving along.

[tanker5117]

Makes you wonder what people are thinking while they are driving along.

Thats the problem, they don't think.


Tanker

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

Originally posted by Dalmatian90
If it was me, I would've been a *****

I would have been a ***** with a capital "P"

[jthomas]

These people must have the same extra gene or something....

We were answering an automatic alarm at a McDonald's. The Ladder truck was in front with the stick to the roof, an engine posted near a hydrant on the street, several Chief's utility trucks- ALL with lights flashing, as well as about 20 FF's around. And these nimrods would drive AROUND the scene to the drive-up window!!!!
We finally had to post a member to divert the traffic, and what was the question most asked??? "Aren't they open now?"

[GeorgeWendtCFI]

I was doing CPR in the Men's Dept. of a major department store. A woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I could hand hand her a jacket that was behind me, size Large, please.

Same mall. Fire in a wooden enclosed escalator, power off flames coming up through the treads. Our guys get into a tussle with a woman who insists she is going to walk down the escalator because her car is parked right there.

There is absoutely no hope for mankind. Because kids are even dumber.

[jaybird210]

George, those are two of the most incredible storys I have ever heard.

Folks, I got a theory on this. I call it "Reverse Darwinism." Forty or fifty years or more ago, I think most of these people either got killed at a young age or incapacitated. How? Dropping the hairdryer in the bathtub while bathing; using too small extension cords for the job; leaving the cords from the blinds or curtains too long and hanging their kids; getting run over by the self-propelled lawn mower, etc., etc., etc. Now, we've got warning labels, lawsuits, safety features, etc., etc., etc. So these stupid people survive. And reproduce. And reproduce. And reproduce.

[Rayr49]

I would venture to say the problem is worldwide.

We recently had a two vehicle MVA in which an SUV wound up on its side in the middle of the approach from a four lane to a service road. The next approach is a block away. I almost had to have a female driver arrested because she insisted on going through the blocked approach because she always goes that way.

The problem is not limited to females either. We had a road to a sub-division blocked by a two vehicle MVA. One male driver was argumentitive about the road being closed. When he couldn't bluff his way through, he backed up and parked on the highway. The nice trooper asked what he was doing. He planned to sit there until the accident was cleared. Of course he was now blocking traffic on the cross street. When the trooper told him to move, he informed the trooper that he had no authority to make him move. A short discussion ensued with the "silver bracelets" being dangled in front of the driver and an explanation that while he sat in the patrol car, he could watch his vehicle being towed. He finally moved.

Stay Safe
IACOJ

[GeorgeWendtCFI]

People over 35 should be dead:

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats,
those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's,
or even maybe the early 70's probably shouldn't have
survived.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored
lead-based paint.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors
or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no
helmets. (Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.)

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts
or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day
was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a
bottle. Horrors!

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop
with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because
we were always outside playing.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one
bottle, and no one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of
scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out
we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a
few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day,
as long as we were back when the street lights came
on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell
phones. Unthinkable!

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes,
no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable,
video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell
phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.

We had friends! We went outside and found them.
We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would
really hurt.

We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and
teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these
accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame
but us. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black
and blue and learned to get over it.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate
worms, and although we were told it would happen,
we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms
live inside us forever.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and
knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked
in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the
team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with
disappointment.

Some students weren't as smart as others, so they
failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same
grade. Horrors! Tests were not adjusted for any
reason. Our actions were our own. Consequences were
expected.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law
was unheard of. They actually sided with the law.
Imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best
risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation
and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility,
and we learned how to deal with it all. And you're one
of them!

Congratulations.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with
scissors, doesn't it?

[kghemtp]

Ya know what, I think it's the same 3 or 4 stupid people who take their act on the road all over the country! They pop up unannounced in YOUR town & mine, kinda like "Candid Camera" to share their insanity with all of us!

[33motor]

george,

Those were the days!

[leadlo]

If I ever were to forget those days, a quick look at the scars on my hands and face would remind me. What I can't figure out is, if we were raised like that then why didn't some of us raise our children the same way? I have 3 brothers and 1 sister, we all grew up in the same house, with the same rules. I felt strongly enough about the way I was raised, I raised my kids the same way. Think it would be a family trait would'nt you. HA! I have listened to more "if you don't stop that I'll send you to your room", "don't do that OK", "do you want a timeout?" over the last 20 some years, I have a hard time believing we all grew up under the same roof. Pops philosophy was snatch-grab-swat, and we will talk about why later, and I don't remember too many times I got swatted for something he did!!

[FIREFIGHTER4844]

In the words of comedian Jeff Foxworthy

HERES YOUR SIGN



Be safe out there

Gene

[StayBack500FT]

YEAH!!!! I ate paint chips...they didn't bother me!!!!


George Wendt for President!!!

[snowball]

My swimming pool was the canal acros the street,when it was really hot outside it was worth the *****whoopin to swim in there. Thanks for the trip down memory lane George

[GeorgeWendtCFI]

Here's another...

Guy walks into a bank with a briefcase and announces it's a bomb and robs the place. He flees on foot about 1/4 mile to his vehicle. During flight, responding police begin a foot pursuit and tosses the briefcase under a car in the supermarket parking lot (with the money in it), and hightails it to his car. He is forced over and apprehended. We now have a 1/4 mile long crime scene down a city street.

Major Crimes comes out to do the bank, I get assigned to work with the Bomb Squad. Patrol cordons off a huge perimeter.

Old man walks up the street, lifts the crime scene tape and starts to walk through the scene. He is detained by patrols. He stated that he didn't think that the crime scene tape was meant for the people who were walking through, he thought it was only for the people who wanted to watch.

[Dalmatian90]

Indeed George...how did kids live! Being born in '70 to older parents I was just before the whole time-outs and protective nest type stuff. Still remember all us Webelos piling into the back of a pickup to go to camp -- that's probably a felony today. Where else do learn life's little lessons, like don't spit forward in a moving a vehicle (goodness we all laughed when the lugey splattered back over Jeff's face!) Oh well, suppose we're safer know if not a bit dumber.

I guess I don't mind the whole "time-out" and "stand-in-a-corner" philosophy, though a swift whack always got my attention. What drives me nuts is the parents who just keep going, "Stop that or you'll have a time out." "I really mean it." "Stop that right now or I'll really send you to the corner." "Come on, I told you to stop."

======================
I don't think I shared this similiar story from a month ago.

Had a serious MV v. Pedestrian in front of my house, drunk 17 y/o walking down the centerline at 01:00 hrs. State Trooper responding actually caught the collission on his cruiser cam, and I had already left my house due to the honking horns so I was at the patient as our tones where going out.

Afterwards State Police are doing an accident reconstruction since it was really a touch-and-go if it would be a fatality (so far, not). We were lighting the scene, and we had released almost all our manpower when the SP Sergeant asked for help with traffic and I got assigned to detour traffic at one of the intersections.

So it's me, and orange vest, a traffic wand, and my pickup with my dashboard bluelight flashing parked on the centerline.

And a Blazer starts to head around my vehicle. I cautiously go out into the other lane and got her to stop...at this point I'm seriously thinking, ok, must be drunk, I've got enough roadway (1/2 mile to the scene) here to let her go through and advise our guys to tell the State Police I have someone coming up to take a field sobriety test.

"What's going on?"

"The State Police are doing an accident reconstruction by Langevin Electric."

"Can I get through?"

"Would I be standing here with my truck in the middle of the road and the blue lights flashing if you could?"

"But I got to get to Danielson to get newspapers to deliver!"

"Well, you'll have to drive around like everyone else."

"Really?"

"Yes really."

"Will I be able to get through when I come back?"

"If there's no one blocking the road on the otherside still when you come back, yes. Otherwise, no."

[explr985]

Originally posted by Dalmatian90




Had a serious MV v. Pedestrian in front of my house, drunk 17 y/o walking down the centerline at 01:00 hrs. State Trooper responding actually caught the collission on his cruiser cam, and I had already left my house due to the honking horns so I was at the patient as our tones where going out.

Afterwards State Police are doing an accident reconstruction since it was really a touch-and-go if it would be a fatality (so far, not). We were lighting the scene, and we had released almost all our manpower when the SP Sergeant asked for help with traffic and I got assigned to detour traffic at one of the intersections.

So it's me, and orange vest, a traffic wand, and my pickup with my dashboard bluelight flashing parked on the centerline.

And a Blazer starts to head around my vehicle. I cautiously go out into the other lane and got her to stop...at this point I'm seriously thinking, ok, must be drunk, I've got enough roadway (1/2 mile to the scene) here to let her go through and advise our guys to tell the State Police I have someone coming up to take a field sobriety test.

"What's going on?"

"The State Police are doing an accident reconstruction by Langevin Electric."

"Can I get through?"

"Would I be standing here with my truck in the middle of the road and the blue lights flashing if you could?"

"But I got to get to Danielson to get newspapers to deliver!"

"Well, you'll have to drive around like everyone else."

"Really?"

"Yes really."

"Will I be able to get through when I come back?"

"If there's no one blocking the road on the otherside still when you come back, yes. Otherwise, no."

Well, nobody will ever be out of a job with these nuts around. As I have stated before, people are stupid, real stupid.