Good Samaritan Helps after a Hit and Run Accident
Don't let your pessimistic friends fool you! There are still good people out there. Case in point: Dava Tennet. On the afternoon of February 4, 2008, in Folsom, CA, a suburb outside Sacramento, Tennet pulled an injured man out of his burning car and then called for police assistance.
“I saw the car crash and couldn’t believe it,” Tennant, 29, said. “It was like auto-pilot – I hopped out of the car to make sure everybody was OK.”
Joy Snider had been waiting on a red light at the intersection of Russi Road and Blue Ravine when she was struck from behind by Douglas Burns, who, allegedly, was driving drunk. Burns' sports car became wedged underneath Snider's truck and caught fire. Tennet, a witness to the accident, rushed over and pulled Burns from his vehicle. In her interview with the Folsom Telegraph, Tennet described Burns as resistant at first to her attempts to pull him from his vehicle but eventually gave in as he had little control over his body.
“I just knew that I had to get him out of the car,” Tennant said. “I didn’t know if it was going to blow. I didn’t think about me getting hurt by helping him.”
Once Burns was safely out the car, Tennet reports he ran into a nearby wooded area which is where police found him after a few minutes and arrested him on suspicion of hit and run.
It is a terrible thing to be involved in a car accident, no matter what the circumstances. But when the cause of the accident is a drunk driver, the situation becomes more terrible. Why? Because it could have been avoided. It is one thing if the person responsible for an accident made an honest mistake, but when they deliberately drink and then get behind the wheel of their now potentially fatal automobile, it is another. It is reckless and malicious. Thank God that no one was seriously hurt in the accident described above. Such is not always the case.
According to Lt. Sheldon Sterling of the Folsom Police Department, DUI arrests are up in Folsom and DUI collisions are down. In 2007, the number of DUI collisions decreased by 41 compared to the year prior, while there were 362 DUI arrests, compared to the 252 in 2004.
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If you are or a loved one has been injured in a car accident caused by a drunk driver, please call me, Moseley, at The Law Offices of Moseley Collins at (916) 444-4444. My staff and I would love to help you.
