Late Charges
October 19, 2007http://news.therecord.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/253410
This link connects you to the Record’s website, and in particular to an article concerning the recent developments in an accident that occurred on September 2. It’s a very sad story, and one that particularly upsets me. This is the story about Justin Szucz. He’s a volunteer firefighter who is now being charged with reckless driving, among other violations.
Let me back up a minute, though. On September 2, 2007, there was a minor vehicular accident. A man, Thomas Walker, was there helping the victim, but in the meantime Szucz was rushing to the scene. In the chaos, Szucz hit Walker. As a result, Walker died.
First of all, I cannot even imagine how Szucz must feel. Before this he had a spotless record, and has been made out to be a good guy. Imagine killing someone by accident. Would you ever be able to get over it? I think that that must have done some immense damage to him, and if it were me I don’t know that I would be able to get over that. It would take me serious counselling to be able to pull through a tragedy like that.
From the way this story has been portrayed I get the idea that it was a complete accident on Szucz’s part. I do not blame him in the least for this, and it seems like it was just bad fortune. Now, though, more than a month later they are suddenly charging him and I feel like it is not fair. He was making an effort to help, and I can see why they would suddenly charge him if the family of the deceased were demanding it, but Walker’s widow does not even want this.
Than again, this also brings up the issue: how far are you to go when trying to help someone else? Obviously this particular incident was an accident, but if he had maybe been driving a little more carefully, could this whole incident have been avoided? IS he actually in the wrong? It’s a really hard thing to know the right answer. I’m not sure if there IS a right answer.
In memoriam of Thomas Walker, there was a wooden cross set up with a display of flowers at the scene of the crime. I often drive past this spot, and it always makes me sad. I hope that this issue can get resolved, and I pray for both the families involved.
It seems that the whole thing is just a big mess…
In order to decide if Szucz was driving negligently, we need to know: did Szucz believe his speeding and reckless driving to be absolutely necessary to save a life? Were the lives of one or more people in danger from the crash? Would that justify reckless driving and negligently contributing to the death of an innocent bystander? I think this was just a “wrong place, wrong time” situation. If people want to see Szucz punished, I’d argue that him having to live with the knowledge of what he did may be punishment enough.
Most of you probably know David, his brother, so it was brave of you Amy to tackle this topic. I met Justin by a complete freak coincidence about three days after this happened. We had dinner with a mutual friend. Half way through dinner he started to talk about this and all the joking and laughing stopped. He was nearly brought to tears talking about it, how he almost didn’t go to the fire but then decided to. He talked about the cuncelling he was going through and how horrible he felt. I had read about it in the paper and made up my mind before I met him. He was a careless young firefighter who needed to take his time, he killed someone rushing to save anothers life. How ironic. I didn’t think much of him, until I met him. He was doing his best to get by, to make sense of what had happened. He had spent days at home, just waiting for the police to come arrest him. He was afraid to go back to the fire house because of what people would think of him. He was a compassionate young man, and he earned my respect almost immediately. I think that he was not at fault. He was driving fast, but he was going to a fire, of COURSE he was going fast. He made a mistake, misjudged a hill, and something horrible happened. If he has to be made an example of for other volunteers to slow down, maybe that will put the deceased’s family at ease. I think that there should be policies in place, there should be training for drivers and less pressure. He was a volunteer trying to help someone. He was trying to do a good thing. A man died. It is a tough reality, but sometimes a death isn’t anybody’s fault. Sometimes it is just a freak accident with too many causes to lay them all on one man’s shoulders.
-Amy