Are people lazy, don’t know how to help or scared of liability.

[dodge man]

I often have a hard time expressing the right words to ask a question, so examples seem best.

A couple of years ago we had a tree fall across the road in front of my house. The township road superintendent had his pickup with a chainsaw and he had a lot of it cleaned up but a lot of little stuff was left in the road. I got on my tractor and cleaned the road off with the end loader, took 15 minutes top. Another time a tree fell across the road a little further away. I grabbed my chainsaw and tractor and had it shoved out of the way in a few minutes, I didn’t even think it was worth the trouble to call anyone.

So why are people not doing this kind of thing? A couple of examples. We had some pretty heavy rain and I noticed inlets in town were plugged up with leaves. People can’t go out in front of their house and clean them off? Another case, a house a couple of miles away has a lot of trees in front of his house, several are dying and will fall on the road at some time. He thinks the road superintendent should cut them down, the road superintendent thinks the home owner should take care of it. I think the road superintendent is correct, they are behind the ditch.

Are people lazy, just don’t notice things, don’t care, afraid if they do something wrong they will be sued? What’s the deal?

 

[Alan W.]

Probably all the above. Society today wants everything done for them. Doesnt seem to be that way around here. Someone will usually have a tree gone from the road before the Hwy Dept gets there. Of course most everybody knows each other around here.

 

[2manyrocks]

Neighbor might not own chainsaw or a tractor or know how to use either one.

 

[dodge man]

I agree, sometimes they don’t have the equipment. The examples I gave are just a couple I’ve seen. Sometimes the only equipment needed is a pair of hands.

 

[Rockbadchild]

I can tell, you still have faith in humanity. I personally don't expect much from the average Joe... I do sometime get surprised, not often but sometime. You still see that in a small town but bigger the town is worse it gets and even then it would be a minority of people who does these things.

 

[ponytug]

Well, I do it all the time here. Just seems sensible to me. None of my eighties have tractors and for many years we had the only chainsaws around. Now one other neighbor has one.

We have a culvert below us that can plug with debris, and I often clean it out, before and during storms. If it gets ahead of me and fills, I don't usually try to clear it. That's above my risk tolerance. With a backhoe, it would be a different story.

I pick up any trash in our area when I see it. I don't understand the folks who park in our front drive, eat their fast food and dump the paper and cups. When it is a pile of tires, I do call the county, as I don't have any way to dispose of them.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ddbackhoe]

I agree, sometimes they don’t have the equipment. The examples I gave are just a couple I’ve seen. Sometimes the only equipment needed is a pair of hands.

Because someone should just call a guy (person). Person shows up job is done. Why do I need to buy stuff or bother to learn how to use it? “sarcasm”.

I’ve noticed two other disturbing trends along those lines. We have a volunteer fire and ems service.
If the ems crew transports a patient, they own the patient until the emergency room staff relieves them. No matter how long it takes. My current record shows 4 hours.

Clearing trees in the roadway is also the volunteers responsibility. Yet, the county has staff to do tree work. The county has bucket trucks, chippers, etc all assigned to a few crews. State roads also has staff to do tree work. Why is either one the volunteers responsibilty? They are the only ones that show up. Nobody can make the others do the job, we just end up paying more and more taxes for fewer services.

 

[Hay Dude]

I often have a hard time expressing the right words to ask a question, so examples seem best.

A couple of years ago we had a tree fall across the road in front of my house. The township road superintendent had his pickup with a chainsaw and he had a lot of it cleaned up but a lot of little stuff was left in the road. I got on my tractor and cleaned the road off with the end loader, took 15 minutes top. Another time a tree fell across the road a little further away. I grabbed my chainsaw and tractor and had it shoved out of the way in a few minutes, I didn’t even think it was worth the trouble to call anyone.

So why are people not doing this kind of thing? A couple of examples. We had some pretty heavy rain and I noticed inlets in town were plugged up with leaves. People can’t go out in front of their house and clean them off? Another case, a house a couple of miles away has a lot of trees in front of his house, several are dying and will fall on the road at some time. He thinks the road superintendent should cut them down, the road superintendent thinks the home owner should take care of it. I think the road superintendent is correct, they are behind the ditch.

Are people lazy, just don’t notice things, don’t care, afraid if they do something wrong they will be sued? What’s the deal?

The increase in selfishness rises with the fall of the belief in God.

 

[bnold]

Litigious society is why there is serious hesitation for helping someone in ‘need’. Especially when it comes to healthcare professionals.

Then you have the scammers that add that question if someone really needs help or not (car broken down)

 

[ultrarunner]

For me it depends… picking up trash, clearing storm drains and hauling out trash from the creek no problem

I had been more apt to use the Deere 110 TLB and still do for my immediate neighbors.

The liability of roading my tractor off property let alone the possibility of causing property damage while helping is a situation I don’t want to find myself here in the SF Bay Area…

Simple case in point… I was heading out and the 18 year old son of a person up the street asked to borrow a floor Jack…. I said yes and left.

I get home and found myself in the middle of a no good deed goes unpunished situation

The son was trying to raise the car of his moms friend with a flat and placed the Jack under the fuel tank and jacked away destroying the tank…

The owner of the car was livid I would loan out a dangerous tool unsupervised… and there you have it…

City Fire Truck got stuck on part of a fire trail that was too soft from winter rains…

I have a bulldozer and would have needed to go 300’ on blacktop to reach the trailhead…

Spoke to fire and they had a D5 from county coming…

It was an all day affair with as many as a dozen city and fire personnel on site…

I’m sure my 350c with my Harbor Freight chains would have done the job but not even allowed to approach as area cordoned off…