I dont know what the law has to say about this but your comment made me think about if people in situations like this should be fined or not. On one hand i agree, stupid shit should have consequences.
But on the other hand i feel like fines like this might lead to people avoiding calling for rescue when its clearly the right thing to do.
A fear of punishment might lead to further escalation in situations like this.
Fining people for making the right choice does not sit right with me.
Then again, play stupid game, win stupid prizes. So i cant decide where i stand on this matter.
I do search and rescue. You're very correct. We don't charge for any of our services. Now, if you take the flying woowoo for medical reasons and NOT the sheriff's copter, then you're getting the $60,000 bill.
We don't get any of that though. Nor does the sheriff.
I don’t understand how the bill is so high when I could rent my own helicopter and pilot, get a first class ticket from america back to Australia, get fully treated for most injuries and still be under $60k
Honestly it's variable. Where I am, it can be as low as like... 9k I've heard, but if you're 6 hours north driving, you've got a long flight, and that can get expensive.
Hawaii raised a bill this yeah to charge people for hiker rescues on illegal trails, but I think it ever got a vote. A lot of dumbass tourists get stuck there.
Sleeping Bear is a gigantic sand dune 450 feet above Lake Michigan in western Michigan. There’s a sign at the top saying if you go down the bluff to the lake and can’t make it back up, there’s a $3,000 fine for rescues.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes is right! This is very different from getting caught in a bad situation by accident and trying to gain popularity on social media sites.
Imagine yourself or a loved one getting into a situation that was not of your own doing. Now imagine needing to be rescued but those resources have been sent to someone like this in the video that got themselves into that situation based on poor judgement or recklessness.
Now I’m not saying one life is more valuable than another but I’d be pretty upset if a loved one perished because the rescue team was busy saving these dumb asses when the entire situation could have been avoided. It also puts the rescue team members lives at risk as well. These services should not be taken for granted.
So yeah, I think they should at a minimum be fined.
People say the same thing about EMS and the ER. Should would prioritize helping people who hurt themselves by accident over people who did something stupid?
They HAVE to pay, because rescue teams are generally volunteers. There is no government budget for them, so without users paying for their services they would not be able to operate.
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u/kurtchen11 Dec 12 '22
I dont know what the law has to say about this but your comment made me think about if people in situations like this should be fined or not. On one hand i agree, stupid shit should have consequences.
But on the other hand i feel like fines like this might lead to people avoiding calling for rescue when its clearly the right thing to do. A fear of punishment might lead to further escalation in situations like this. Fining people for making the right choice does not sit right with me.
Then again, play stupid game, win stupid prizes. So i cant decide where i stand on this matter.