Re: FW: The Posse Ride (From the Ride Manager)

[Tivers@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/10/00 3:20:02 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
DBynum-Boyd@perkinscpas.com writes:

<< At about the same time as the three riders who had been riding together the
 whole 50 mile distance approached the camp on their last leg, and headed for
 the finish, the pastor of the church camp drove in to see how things were
 going.  The pastor was driving a small red pickup and had made it about to
 the beginning of where the vet lanes started.  >>


I think a lawyer would call this the 'primary cause" of the accident. 
Decisions by the riders would be secondary causes.  Say an Indiana farmer was 
allowed to drive his old pickup down the stretch of the Indianapolis 500. A 
sports event similarly described as a "race". What would happen? The race 
drivbers coming out of the last turn would quickly look for a place to escape 
the obstacle--because the obstacle appears to be coming as quickly at them as 
they would appear to be coming on to spectators and in the rear view mirror 
of the pickup. They'd make a decision and pick a new line. 

But then, stuff always happens--two cars might pick the same new line, or the 
new line might cause one to spin--then utter chaos reigns. And whoever finds 
himself in the way of utter chaos is at big risk.

Now, at Indy they have big retaining walls and steel fences to protect 
spectators. If one of the participants dies, that's too bad, but then, the 
drivers and their crews have all been thoroughly instructed in the elaborate 
set of rules at Indy, and they've been duly warned as to the dangers.  

If, for some reason, a spectator go onto the track and was hit, and the car 
hitting him was able to continue, it would--it's more dangerous for that car 
to stop and the driver try to held, than it is for trained officials to try 
to take care of the situation while the driver goes on. When it's time to 
park his car, he parks it where it's supposed to be parked--not on the track 
next to the injured civilian.

It does not seem unreasonable to me that a rider would make a decision to 
take a different line when, at speed, an out-of-place obstacle presents 
itself. But then, stuff happens. Two of these horses didn't behave as their 
riders expected, probably because of the obstacle, and they went a little out 
of control--like an Indy car temporarily losing its grip on the track. And in 
the midst of trying to regain control of the horses, a spectator, unprotected 
from this chaos, is hit. 

For the rider, decision requests are coming as fast as he can adjust--at this 
point he's still trying to regain control of the horse. In the movies, Roy 
Rogers would have made a flying dismount and come to the aid of the 
spectator, leaving Trigger to come to his usual well-behaved stop. But one of 
the things that might have flashed though my mind in the case here is, "how 
many people do I want to kill with my horse today?" I'd opt for 
reestablishing control, then parking the excited horse where he should be 
parked, and keeping him under control there. You have to assume that somebody 
with lesser responsibility than establishing control of a runaway vehicle 
could come to the immediate aid of the "civilian". 

Then, after the dust settled, I'd see about the condition of the injured 
spectator. After that, I'd find out who in hell was the idiot driving the red 
pickup and who in hell was the idiot that let him drive in the middle of the 
path to the finish line. Only later would I consider what the hell spectators 
were doing in the line of fire. 

If this happened at Indy, or on a Thoroughbred or Standardbred track, or on a 
cinder running track for humans--nobody would be questioning what the 
athletes did.  It's like blaming the gun instead of the guy who pulls the 
trigger. The trigger was pulled by the red pickup driver and whoever set up 
the circumstances that could allow this chaos to occur. It you set a bear 
trap and a human falls into it and becomes injured, is it the trap's fault? 
It's the fault of the human who set the trap and then made the environment 
appear safe--the fact that humans can be as stupid as bears should be taken 
into consideration--perhaps by setting out a sign that says "bear trap 
ahead--keep out".  

Unfortunately, with authority comes responsibility. If you take control of an 
environment, then you are responsible for it.  If you set a bear trap, you're 
responsible for what it catches. 

ti