"He got out of the car and was shooing the ducks and everyone was clapping because he was being really nice... They were saying, 'Oh, it’s so cute. It’s so nice of him.' And then all of a sudden he was hit by a car.... He was the only person to get out of the car and try and help them and probably the nicest person in the entire area. It’s not fair."
May 22, 2023
"A California father died after being struck by a car Thursday night while helping a family of ducks cross a busy road...."
The NY Post quotes a 12-year-old boy, who took photos of the man and then witnessed his death:
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Nighttime. On a road.
The rules of the road are the rules of the road. I don't even slow down rapidly for fear of being rear-ended by a driver staring at a cell phone behind me.
He's a Darwin Award winner of 2023.
If he had gotten out of the car and started shoo't'ing the ducks; this would be front page news coast to coast on the dangers of guns.
That's why I come to the Althouse blog, for the emotional uplift.
Darwin's law in action. Only a fool would get out of a car for ducks, someone who takes "Make Way for Ducklings" way too seriously. That was a children's story, not a guide for adults. Trying to stop traffic for ducks is not nice at all.
Way too many adults are making up their own rules of the road for driving. Did we stop teaching driver's education in the public schools?
I'm going to guess--yes, without evidence--that the 17-year-old girl who hit him was distracted by (a) texting, (b) the radio, (c) the dash screen, (d) food.
My prayers are with the family of the deceased. It is never easy to lose a family member. It is even worse when it happens so unexpectedly and so tragically. I also feel badly for the 17 year old driver. Since she is cooperating with the police, I think it is safe to assume she had no desire to kill this man. I don't know if she was doing anything reckless, but this could be a situation where an accident happens, someone dies, but there is no no one to hold legally accountable. It reminded me of the event that became widely talked about in 2000, when it was revealed that Laura Bush, then Laura Welch, was involved in a car accident which killed a man. Laura was 17 at the time of the event too. Now in Laura's case she apparently ran a stop sign, but she was never prosecuted. And in this case there is an argument that the good-hearted father created the dangerous situation. If a pedestrian goes onto a street outside of typically expected areas and methods, like a cross walk, it is creating a dangerous situation. It doesn't matter if you are going onto the street to protest racial injustice or save a family of ducks, the dangerous situation is still created. It is why Police when they pull someone over the police don't park their cruiser fully on the shoulder but leave it jutting out a bit.
Awful. What a way to die. You think about all you want to do in life, what you want to still accomplish. For you. For your kids, wife, friends. What you'd like to see. All you have already done. Then in one moment you see some cute ducks and just know some goon is going to either be on his iPhone while driving or purposefully aiming at the ducklings. So you get out of your car- you're going to do the right thing. You walk out there, scooting the cute little suckers toward the other si
Sad.
The first rule of being a pedestrian is to assume the drivers of the cars are not paying attention. This goes double when doing something unconventional like this, triple if the street is especially busy, has a higher-than-normal speed limit, and/or it is dark or otherwise hard to see. I get reminded of this during my normal commute when I see drivers acting like it is a video game or a NASCAR race so they can get to their destination a minute earlier. There's also the matter that SUVs tend to block visibility compared to cars, so never assume they can see you.
Yes, this shouldn't have happened if the driver was paying attention, but when you are dead that is little solace.
Sad story. Story Details say it was a 17 year old girl that killed him. She was not charged. Which is odd, since he seems to be in the crosswalk when shooing the ducks accross.
I've occassionlly shooed ducks accross a road and wondered if I did the right thing. If the Ducks believe someone will come and help them, they'll expect it everytime and go charging accross the road. Maybe, its better if some chicks get run over and then Mama Duck will be more careful next time.
Its the same with helping other wildlife. You don't want them to think people are their "friends", because a lot of people aren't.
Growing up in the Boston area made 'Make Way for Ducklings' an especially treasured children's book.
The rotund police office Michael "planted himself in the center of the road, raised one hand to stop traffic, and then beckoned with the other, the way policemen do, for Mrs. Mallard to cross over."
Hence, I blame "Defund the Police."
Well, there ya go: Numpty-nice kills. Generally, in unpleasant and unforeseen ways.
This case is another in a long line of stupid people doing stupid things, and then paying the price for it; who could know that getting out of your car on a busy intersection and ushering some little duckies across it would be dangerous?
Anyone with a goddamn brain that functioned.
Every time I see one of these morons in action, I want the power of summary execution; they risk not just themselves, but everyone around them. I once witnessed one such moron nearly kill three other people, and actually injure six others, because they chose to stop dead on a blind corner up in the mountains in order to "protect" some wildlife from crossing. The resultant collision closed a mountain pass for about six hours while they cleared it; nobody ever saw the supposed bunnies or whatever the idiot who stopped claimed they were letting cross in front of them.
Evolution in action. Hopefully, the kids learned enough from watching this event to dissuade them from similar stupidity later in life.
Here's an idiot whose "loving concern for animal life" cost two other people their lives:
https://torontosun.com/2017/06/08/woman-who-stopped-car-to-help-ducks-causing-fatal-crash-loses-appeal
The universe answers rank and arrant stupidity with death. If you're lucky, it's your own death when it's your own stupidity; often, sadly, it is not.
FUCK the ducks!!! let them ALONE! If you TRY to hit them, you'll see, they're REALLY FAST
Serious Question: did Any of the ducks get hit? I DIDN'T think so
Waterfowl in the road are a not unusual occurrence in SW Idaho. Everyone stops, but no one gets out of their vehicle to help them across. Red staters smarter then blue staters?
I think this may be the post that scares me off the internet for good.
"It’s not fair."
The kid learned a valuable lesson early.
Stanford Ranch Road and Park Drive, in Rocklin, CA, is where this happened. Looking at Google Maps, that's a crossroads with 6 lanes of traffic coming into it from each of the four directions. Traffic signals controlling lanes, some turning, some straight. And you get out of your car to shoo a line of ducklings along across the road, which necessarily means you're looking down at them, rather than watching out for traffic, which certainly isn't expecting you or the ducks to be there, and may well be in a hurry to get somewhere.
Sure, sweet thing to do, but really? Darwin Award?
To the brute is given joy
And to the tender, sorrow. - Sergey Yesenin
I feel sorry for the 17-year-old girl who has to live with the horrible memory of hitting a goddamned duck helper for the rest of her life. Sounds like the onlookers unwittingly distracted him with their praise. What a tragic turn of events.
The cops should hunt down the ducks and kill them as a danger to the public, like they do with bears and lions that frequent areas of human habitation. Don't feed the bears and don't help the ducks.
There was a case in Quebec a few years ago involving a woman who stopped her car in a driving lane for ducks crossing a highway. Two motorcyclists slammed into her vehicle and were killed. The woman was tried and convicted of something like criminal negligence. I believe she spent some time in jail.
I will suggest that the driver of the car that killed this guy was on their phone in some way.
Story Details say it was a 17 year old girl that killed him. She was not charged. Which is odd, since he seems to be in the crosswalk when shooing the ducks accross.
He may have been in the crosswalk, but the photo in the article clearly shows an intersection with a stop light and an accompanying directional for pedestrians that clearly shows a hands-up don't cross signal.
It is a terrible tragedy.
I have a quiver full of accidents that by all the facts, should have left me dead.
There but for the Grace of God, go I.
"Fair ain't got nothing to do with it."
Not a so fun story but I'll share anyway
Out Daughter and nuclear family changed jobs and move 120 miles to a new home. It was a brand new house in a subsivision that is less than 15 years old. They have lived there about 11 months now.
The story: There is a mating pair of Ducks in the neighborhood. They would see the pair when the family walked the dog in evenings and sometimes in the morning walk. The this spring, the ones with the nest close to their house, noticed Eggs! They put up a 'duck cam' Which is how they saw the fox come and raid the nest.
Circle of life. .
From what I got from the details, he behaved foolishly. A couple of weeks ago, I pulled over to move a tortoise out of the road, but it was daylight and there was no traffic anywhere in sight since it was a rural lane in Monterey, Tennessee. Had the tortoise been on the 4 lane divided highway just ahead, I would have wished the tortoise good luck and driven on.
Andrew: "That's why I come to the Althouse blog, for the emotional uplift."
I've never really played "Duck Duck Coupe".
Google Maps shows this to be an intersection of two six-lane roads. Assuming that's his truck in the picture, it looks like he blocked the rightmost lane and got out to herd the ducks to the sidewalk. Once he was done, he was obscured by his own truck, and my guess is that he lost his situational awareness (possibly in part due to the applause) and walked right out from behind his truck into the next lane of traffic. It seems most likely to me that the poor girl was just driving normally in her lane straight through the intersection and had no time to react when he stepped in front of her car. No need to posit any distractions.
Darn sad. He died doing a good thing, but it's tough when there are cars around.
Part of my ornithology research is doing mortality surveys which means cataloging dead birds found on or along the roadway. That means being in the roadway which thankfully has light traffic volume , but drivers who will speed as a result of that light volume. That means walking into the roadway at right angles, *always* face the direction of traffic (never have your back to the direction of traffic), etc.
I wear an ANSI Class 3 polo or vest and safety hat. And even then several people per year simply do not see me. Why? Because most drivers scan the roadway straight ahead and to the right. The nestboxes are in the median - meaning you need to scan to the left to see me.
So people will see my car pulled over along the right shoulder - flashers on - and be totally oblivious to me standing in the median. It's sometimes been 20-25 seconds before people finally look over and see me.
There is probably an element of driver distraction involved in this sad accident. But pedestrians needs to be very, very careful of cars even traveling at low (less than 20 mph) speeds.
@Tom T,
That's my take on it, as well. If there was "at fault", the young lady would have been ticketed and/or taken into custody.
As is, she's likely to be traumatized for life with that whole deal.
I really want to sympathize with the victim, but... Jeez. Performative "Nice", and he manages to get himself killed in front of his kids, and gives a whole bunch of other people nightmares for the rest of their lives.
I realize it sound cold and callous, but once you've dealt with enough of these numpties, you really start to lose patience. It's all about turning the world around them into a stage, in order to demonstrate their own virtue, with never a mind to consequence. It's really not all that different from Dillweed Redneck saying "Hold my beer!" to Bubba, and then jumping his car off the bridge that's out. The only real difference is what they're doing to stroke their ego.
I mean, OK, I get "Save the ducklings..." I've been there myself with a box of puppies that some jackass left on the side of the highway, and I've been distressed to see stray dogs trapped on the median enough that I called the State Patrol and waited until I was sure they were doing something. I did not, however, try to get out there and save the dogs myself while risking other people's lives. There's a right way to do these things and a whole bunch of other wrong ones, and this was pretty clearly a very, very wrong one.
I have to feel for the driver that hit him. That's a hell of a thing to have in your memory.
Friend of a friend still can't drive, some forty-odd years after a trucker stepped out in front of her on the highway. I have no idea what the hell he was thinking; came out around the front of his truck, which was barely off onto the shoulder, and just stepped right into the traffic lane. She wasn't actually the first person to hit him, either... She was in the middle lane, and the guy in the outside lane clipped the driver perfectly to set him up to land right on the edge of her hood and grill. He was basically a bag of blood that burst, by that point, and... Well, do the math. Her car looked about like she'd driven it through that last scene of "Carrie".
It's been forever, and she still needs tranqs to even get in a car for more than a short trip. I'm told she was a very high-strung type, as a teenager, and having that happen on the way home from college for Thanksgiving? Yikes.
This is a dilemma. We have prevenisons galore here, but also geese and big horned sheep, in the roads. If you see the I tie, you stop and let them pass. The geese cross in family groups, often one after another. The big horned sheep problem usually involves juvenile males, and they lose situational awareness when practicing head butting with others of their kind. The prevenisons are just brain dead.
But the thing to do with the prevenisons and the geese is to stop, put your blinkers on, and wait. So, last year, the girl who was going to cat sit was on her way to work, at the vet clinic by town. It was early in the day, and we had a fog. And next we heard, she was on the way to the hospital after flipping her Jeep. Too much fog to bring in a chopper to land, so a half an an ambulance to the local hospital, where she was stabilized, then another couple hours to Missoula. She had no memory at the time of what had happened. I bet her boss’ husband that she had seen a deer and veered to miss it. I figured that that was something that someone working for a vet clinic would do. And I was right. She recovered her memory, in a couple of days, and confirmed my theory. To drive these roads, esp near sunrise and sunset, you really need to be willing to sacrifice the prevenisons for your own life.
One moment you are shooing ducks across the road, and, after a moment of shock and pain, you are surrounded by light and warmth and learn the truth.
I'd say, it's not a bad way to go.
But it's very sad for his family he leaves behind. For now.
Crow food
Not positive it applies here, but my dad always said “you can be just as dead right, as dead wrong.”
I was on the Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis a few years back and an American Woodcock, that was migrating using the Mississippi River flyway got disoriented and ended up in the middle of the mall. I stepped out to scoop it up and as I was doing so, a saw that a pickup driver was heading right for us. And the asshole who saw me, wasn't slowing down. I was waving my arms and everything but apparently the piece of shit was playing chicken.
I stood my ground while hurling a string of expletives (I may wear a suit, but trust me, don't make the street come out). When it finally dawned on him that there was no way in Hell I was moving, he came to a stop, at which point I finally got ahold of the bird and walked it a few blocks to leave it in the bushes by the river where it could rest awhile.
People are assholes.
Oh, and to Enigma upthread who wrote: "The rules of the road are the rules of the road.", well the rule in my state is that in every single conceivable scenario -- without exception -- the pedestrian has the right-of-way. Always. So while I do not know what the laws in California are, I do know that if this had happened here in Minnesota, the driver who hit and killed the good Samaritan would be going to prison.
"I do know that if this had happened here in Minnesota, the driver who hit and killed the good Samaritan would be going to prison."
Wouldn't you need to know the race(s) of those involved to be sure?
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