Disabled People

[muz]

So was doing some training at work the other day for emergency fire evacuation

In my role I might be expected in a worst case scenario to take charge of an emergency evacuation of a train for whatever reason the most likely being fire or discovery of a suspicious package . We have been told in that case the policy is to prioritize able bodied passengers first and once they are assisted off only get disabled passengers off if you can do so without placing yourself in harms way .

I know im completely following policy if I do that and could never be questioned in a professional sense , but something as a person just makes me feel uneasy with it .I think it would be incredibly hard to turn your back in that situation knowing you'd left one on .
Think its just one of them unfortunate situations Id hate to ever be in . Anyone ever been in a situation similar ?

Brings up memories of the trolley question when I was studying philosophy at university , the whole runaway train on a track . On its current course it will kill 5 people , do you divert it which will kill 1 person but save the 5 .

 

[Life]

I know why you feel bad about it. Because it's against our human code. Just like when soldiers come home with post dramatic stress disorder, because what they did, murdering innocent irag's, is against their human code. Honestly, in this case I wouldn't give a crap what policy or rules are. It's a human being, disabled or not. It's people that make those rules I would leave ON the train. Those people aren't even humans, they have no soul, no heart. That disabled peron might have a whole family who loves him JUST as much, if not even more than other passengers, and you/others would leave him on because it'll be harder to get him off? Too me that's just insanity. I would give me own life if it mean't saving other humans. Because I know my family understand, we alll feel the same about it. But how will the person//and persons family feel, if you just abandon them due to disability? On my side, I could never do such a thing. I'd rather die myself and save the disabled people.

 

[muz]

See I can understand why the policy is the way it is . The employer has obviously got to show it has a duty of care towards its employer first and foremost and unless your job is something like a firefighter telling you to go into a blazing inferno to save other people is obviously putting your employees at danger . I dont blame the employer or the person who made the policy , perhaps its the legal culture at fault whereby if I did die or was seriously injured trying to save others then a massive compensation payment would be due .

I do completely agree though that I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing that I hadn't done my best to save everybody on the train

 

[strollin]

I think everyone is missing the big picture here.

I've never been in an emergency situation like that but recently my wife and I were on a train where there were some disabled people with walkers that were disembarking ahead of us as well as a number of other people behind us. I won't go into details but those people made it so it took far longer for us to get off the train than it should have. It took about 10 minutes for them to make their way down the aisle to the exit.

If this would have been an emergency situation with the train on fire, the odds are that those disabled individuals would not have been able to get off the train in time and since they completely blocked our ability to get off the train, everyone behind them would also have been killed.

It makes sense to attempt to maximize the number of people that survive an emergency situation so it makes sense to evacuate able bodied people first, then those that need lots of help. That doesn't mean the disabled should simply be abandoned and left behind, every attempt should be made to save them as well.

 

[Celery]

I can understand that policy but what about able bodied people working as a team with the rescuers to help the disabled people?

I for one would help.

 

[setishock]

I can understand that policy but what about able bodied people working as a team with the rescuers to help the disabled people?

I for one would help.

As would I.

 

[iPwn]

In my role I might be expected in a worst case scenario to take charge of an emergency evacuation of a train for whatever reason the most likely being fire or discovery of a suspicious package . We have been told in that case the policy is to prioritize able bodied passengers first and once they are assisted off only get disabled passengers off if you can do so without placing yourself in harms way.
[...]
Brings up memories of the trolley question when I was studying philosophy at university , the whole runaway train on a track . On its current course it will kill 5 people , do you divert it which will kill 1 person but save the 5 .

That's exactly how you have to look at it. The loss of any life should be treated as sacred. In the event something like that ever happens, save as many as you can and forget about who deserves to live more. Everyone deserves life equally, so benefit the majority.

See I can understand why the policy is the way it is . The employer has obviously got to show it has a duty of care towards its employer first and foremost and unless your job is something like a firefighter telling you to go into a blazing inferno to save other people is obviously putting your employees at danger . I dont blame the employer or the person who made the policy , perhaps its the legal culture at fault whereby if I did die or was seriously injured trying to save others then a massive compensation payment would be due .

An employer has two things to worry about. Public relations and liability.
If the employer is responsible for the act (e.g. gross negligence) then they are liable for (most) everything. Payment there is unavoidable, although semi-controllable.

If the employer is not responsible, then they are going to do everything they can to ensure they are liable for as little as possible. Not training employees how to handle events, and then poor employee decisions causing deaths could easily spawn wrongful death suits, among many other smaller filings.

[...] the big picture [...] maximize the number of people that survive

+1

 

[muz]

I can understand that policy but what about able bodied people working as a team with the rescuers to help the disabled people?

I for one would help.

If I where in a non work situation and there was a situation like this I would also offer to help , but unfortunately there are some selfish people out there that even if they could do so safely would not assist others in any way .

 

[setishock]

Then there's the ungrateful snots who sue you for rescuing them.

 

[Bahawolf1]

Hopefully you'll never be in that situation to have to make a choice. In times of an emergency, panic will often set in and it'll be difficult at best to organize a rescue. While I wouldn't advise going against policy, perhaps you should ask your superiors why the policy is written this way. Personally, I'd be one of the few trying to help others as soon as I've gotten my wife (and children if we had children at the time) out of harms way.