Okay all, it is winter here in Michigan, and everywhere in the northern hemisphere. When there are snowstorms happening, the roads are frequently covered with enough snow to make travel difficult for those in ordinary cars. Lots of them slide off the road and become stuck. I have a couple of those big yellow nylon tow straps and some 6ft chains with a hook on each end. I pull folks out if I can. How about the rest of you ? Do you help, or not ? Why or why not ? DF

 

I'd be a little reluctant to help. You never know who you're going to run into these days. If it was a situation where it was midnight and the person seemed to be in desperate need, I'd pull over and use my cell phone to call for help but I don't carry straps. The other thing is that if you break something on their car they could come after you for damages I would think.

 

You are suppose to help your worse enemy get his mule on its feet.

If I have my children with me (without my wife) then I call. If I am with her, then she has instructions to get going and keep going if there is trouble and that I will take care of myself.

If I am by myself, then I usually stop. I have stopped and fixed cars or pushed them from the middle of I-285 (leg power!) at the rush hour. I have even driven people home or to and from the gas station.

I just ask myself, what would I want someone to do if I was stuck, or even worse, if my wife and children were stuck.

If God has given you the ability to fix things and a nice truck, by all means use them. I do not take the money offered, I ask people to thank God and to give the money to my favorite charity.

 

I help here and there. Mainly it's me pulling over and saying "Yup, that's a blown head gasket." I've given people rides to gas stations before and pushed people out of the road, and once tried to pull a chevy 3/4 ton that was on it's side out of a 6 ft deep ditch, but was unsuccessful due to the low traction of gravel.

 

i usually stop to help. you never know what will happen i had three guys beat me up and steal my car about 15 years ago i stopped to help them. but i still stop to help stranded motterist.I even pulled a semi tractor and trailer off the road on town(g.r. mi.)that was cool just always remember there is some bad eggs in the crowd

 

Yeah, if it's very obvious that their car had trouble, I would help them, but if it's somebody just sitting on the side of the road in their car, or just a car with the hood up, I usually keep on going. You never know- if they are just sitting there, they could actually be using their brains, and pulled over to talk on the cell phone.

 

I always help if my wife isnt along. I always feel terrible when she makes me drive by.
Once i helped a couple retires folks out with their car on my way to work, on a really nasty day. They were from out of town and didnt know what to do. After helping them, they asked what my mothers name was. Turns out they knew me when i was just a little fart, they were from my home town.
They sent a letter to my mother, and one to their local paper. Cant believe i made it on the front page, for just helping some one out. I guess good samaratins arent as plentifull as they used to be.

Tony Warren
Nebraska

 

I do not hesitate to help. Always try to carry jumper cables, jerk strap and chain with me.

It is a risk though. You have to really look at some vehicles and see if you can pull them out without doing more damage to them.

What I really enjoy is when they ask "How much do I owe you for that?" and I tell them I did it for the fun of doing it. You get some very gratefull thanks and I have had some force money on me (I protested) but they were determined that I get something.

Never ignore someone who needs help. Someday it may be you in need.

 

Most times I'll stop and try to help, as far as towing goes must new cars are made of plastic, can't find anything solid to hook onto. I just hook my end onto my hitch then hand them the other end, let them find something to hook onto, then they can't blame you if something breaks off.

 

Always let them hook on their end and then don't get too rough with the pull. I have a friend who has a body shop. He had a Geo in for repair. The whole rear end below the hatch was pulled off. Everything including the taillights, panel and bumper was gone! Seems like the Geo slid off the rod into a ditch full of snow. A good samaritan in a Superduty came along and hooked onto the factory tiedowns with a nylon rope. He got in the SD and took off. When the rope got tight the Geo came apart. His company paid about $2000 to fix the Geo. I bet he don't do that again. That miserable car was held together with a bunch of spot welds on metal about the thickness of a soup can. What a piece of junk!!! The car wasn't worth what it cost to repair it but they paid anyway.

 

yup i pull over nuttin like yanking out another vehicle my favorite one was a guy who stole some speakers from me got stuck while mudding and asked me to pull him out (i'll be dayumed if i didnt accidentally hook the strap to his tie rod.
i have yanked out quite a few stuck folks , no problems ever.
but i do have a nice lil friend real close if any arrises

 

I would like to stop and help everyone, but you have to be careful anymore, unfortunately and I know it isn't the best way, but you have to judge a book by it's cover sometimes. If I am with friends, I will usually stop knowing I will have help if I needed it. We drove 2 hours up a snow covered mountain road to help a couple kids who were lucky enough to get a CB signal out of there. I had a friend who was severly beaten in the face with the but of a shotgun, robbed, and manged to escape by jumping from the van. We later found out it was the same group of people who a few weeks ago had run a woman off the road and stabbed her to death. you just gotta be careful, to many people out there trying to make an easy dollar off of someone else's kindness. Makes me sick

 

I always try. It depends on the situation. Once there was a guy coming down the road past the farm in a jeep. The snow was drifted over the road about 3 feet deep. He stops, looks at it, backs up and goes for it. This is a 1/4 mile long snow drift. We watch him immediately get stuck and were waiting with my uncles bronco to pull him out. We see him get out of his jeep with a little kid. I though man what a guy. If we weren't there to help him his kid could have froze to death. We walk up and the guy said reverse has been out for months and he couldn't back out. I really thought this guy was a winner! If it weren't for the kid I would have let him set for a while and freeze. What kind of idiot drives into a unpassable snow drift without reverse? We pulled several people out that day.

 

I will pull over and help as long as it isn't along a busy road. I see a lot of people with good intentions pulling someone out from a snow burm on a busy road, but they are creating a huge road hazzard.

 

I was brought up with the farmer's code of "Help Thy Neighbor" drilled into me. My dad would stop for anyone who needed help. I am a bit more selective, I guess, because you really do never know what you are gonna get into. I got broke of the "help everybody" habit when I found an old van that had slipped off the road a few miles from my house. I stopped and looked inside but nobody was home. I figured they must have took off walking, so I decided if I did'nt run across them on the way home I'd call the law and let them know. I took the license number down and started down the road. Did'nt see anybody, so I called and they said they'd check it out. I found out the next day (it happened about 10 pm) that a deputy had found two guys trying to push the van out of the mud. Deputy asked how come they did'nt have me pull it out and they took off running into the woods. He caught one of them and found out they were using the van as a mobile methamphetamine cooking lab. That's a real big problem out here in the sticks. The cops caught the other one a few days later. They had to send a HazMat team to clear the van out before they towed it.

Anyway, I'm a lot more cautious about who I'll stop for now, and I hardly ever will stop and help somebody I don't know after dark.