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Split-second generosity
Jan. 6th, 2002 12:10 amI saw a dangerous event once as a kid that really made an impression on me.
Mom and I were driving to school in the morning. Two seconds ahead of us on the road an 18-wheeler shaved off a wheel on its left side. The truck continued on without a twitch, and its wheel did too -- rolling down into the median, up the other side, and into oncoming traffic. We, only just drawing even with it, saw the ensuing series of swerves as cars on the other side narrowly missed this massive truck-wheel coming at them with a delta-vee of around 120mph. It was a crowded highway, and could easily have been the start of a disastrous pileup.
The errant wheel had made it to the middle of the two far lanes when it was extinguished by another 18-wheeler that moved *into* its path in order to take the hit, leaving behind flopping shreds of only mildly hazardous rubber.
That driver made a split-second decision to put him- or herself in danger because theirs was the most qualified vehicle present to survive it. That takes some presence of mind, to do the generous thing in the instant, rather than the survival-focused thing.
Mom and I were driving to school in the morning. Two seconds ahead of us on the road an 18-wheeler shaved off a wheel on its left side. The truck continued on without a twitch, and its wheel did too -- rolling down into the median, up the other side, and into oncoming traffic. We, only just drawing even with it, saw the ensuing series of swerves as cars on the other side narrowly missed this massive truck-wheel coming at them with a delta-vee of around 120mph. It was a crowded highway, and could easily have been the start of a disastrous pileup.
The errant wheel had made it to the middle of the two far lanes when it was extinguished by another 18-wheeler that moved *into* its path in order to take the hit, leaving behind flopping shreds of only mildly hazardous rubber.
That driver made a split-second decision to put him- or herself in danger because theirs was the most qualified vehicle present to survive it. That takes some presence of mind, to do the generous thing in the instant, rather than the survival-focused thing.
