Sitting in her car after it broke down on the Eisenhower Expy., Roosevelt University student Khushboo Jani was oblivious to the flames licking the lower part of her car.
Snowplow driver Demetrius Duplessis knew what a Roosevelt University student did not — that her broken-down car was ablaze.
“She didn’t even know,” Duplessis, 44, a highway maintenance snowplow driver, said. “She was talking to her dad. She looked up at me, and before she could lock the door, I grabbed her.”
Is this an example of how far from reality you can get on a cell phone?
After he pulled her out, she still didn’t grasp the severity of the situation. “She tried to go back and grab her books,” said Duplessis. “I had to go back and grab her again. She was like in a state of shock.”
She was thinking only of her test, Jani said. “He was like, ‘Forget your test. Your car is on fire.’
Generally, there are only two reactions when people see an imminent disaster: [1] I’d better get out of here – or [2] they dash in to help.
Kudos to Demetrius Duplessis for the latter.
If people like this don’t burn how will other people learn? Those damn good Samaritans are always getting in the way of natural selection.
I once had the honor of nominating someone who worked for me in the Navy for the highest honor in peacetime for bravery for pulling someone out of a fully engulfed car on the Interstate.
Makes you wonder what would you do in the same situation??
I’m wondering how long it’ll take this woman to sue him for something.
She might have been in the running for the Darwin Award if she had burned up while talking on the cell phone. Can you imagine how horrible that would have been for her dad on the other end of the conversation?
Demetrius Duplessis, you’re the man! A toast to you!
—
Over the years I have observed three reactions to emergency situations:
1) Run away run away run away
2) Here I come to save the day
3) Deer in the headlights
What is with all the cell phone hate? She wasn’t even driving while on the phone as far as you know. She probably called her dad because her car broke down not knowing it was on fire.
I’m not saying she couldn’t have paid more attention but the level of schadenfreude some of you display is disgusting.
There for a while the hip internet forum insult amongst the prepubes was “go die in a fire.” Those of you wishing this poor girl harm sound just as vicious and immature.
Good one, Improbus!
I’m going with “[1] I’d better get out of here”
sayonara.
I’m just glad that Syndrome didn’t kill all of the Supers. Frozone was there to save the day.
Mr. Duplessis did what only 10% of Americans would do… he saved the girl. The other 90% would shoot the event on their camera phones and share the clip on YouTube.
#10 JM – Touche’
What? Did I miss something? I was on my cell phone. Could someone tell me what happened?
Yeah i don’t think this is Dvorak worthy. She was on the phone broken down, didn’t see any flames, and then was in shock. I crashed my motorcycle before and all I could think about was my insurance rate one time. It happens. She wasn’t driving on the phone or anything of that nature. Jagermeister speaks the truth. Your all too quick to point a camera lens
#7 – I’m not saying she couldn’t have paid more attention but the level of schadenfreude some of you display is disgusting.
Now THAT is an accurate observation…
The cavalier attitude toward strangers observed on the Internet, and in real life too, is astounding. The race to judgment is mind-bending. Is it disgusting? Maybe. Is it human? Probably.
Essentially, from the report, I know that Khushboo Jani was on a cell phone and her car caught fire and she didn’t notice. I’d like to think that if I were on a cell phone and my car caught fire, I’d get out.
But I don’t assume Khushboo Jani is an idiot (although the mother who named her might be) 🙂 or a Darwin candidate or deserving of her potential fate. Why? Because I am sitting safely in my office behind the calming glow of the DU website, thinking clearly and rationally. I am not Khushboo Jani and I have never walked in her shoes. I don’t know what was in her head.
Was she oblivious because of a dis-associative episode? Could she even see flames from her vantage point? Did she have a childhood trauma related to a burning car? Maybe she is an idiot. Maybe she’s going to cure cancer someday. I have no way of passing judgment. I don’t know.
We’d be a stronger nation, I think, if we could all say that more often.
Hey… Maybe there actually is a God and this happened to Khushboo Jani because God wanted me to experience joy from writing the name Khushboo Jani over and over again.
Khushboo Jani… Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm… That’s so nice…….
Khushboo Jani…
Say it… You’ll like it…
And this is why natural selection is so slow to work on our species …
Kudos to the rescuer, of course. I doubt I could leave someone to burn either. But, I’m still wondering how we’re ever going to stop breeding stupider if we keep doing the right thing in situations like this.
#14 – bobbo,
I posted before reading your post. Now my post looks really bad in context. I don’t care though. I still want to know what we can do to stop breeding stupider.
But, you’re right. I don’t know enough about the circumstances of this particular case to call this stupid.
People, people. We’re all missing the most important thing: Did she turn on her hazards when she pulled over?!?
If not, she should have burned! Stupid idiots pulling off to the side of the road and not doing the common sense thing to warn people of the “hazard”. Sheesh… 😉
#16 – #14 – bobbo,
I posted before reading your post. Now my post looks really bad in context. I don’t care though. I still want to know what we can do to stop breeding stupider.
I want stupid to stop breeding too. But stupid isn’t something you can see in a single act. We all do something stupid from time to time. Stupid is something you have to diagnose over a history of actions or decisions.
By the way, I’m not Bobbo… Are you stupid? 🙂
I have to say kudos to the snow plow guy! Kushboo(love that name) probably did not know her car was on fire. Demetrius(another good name) was lucky she did not pull her pepper spray on him. Or worse her 9MM.
}} # 1 Improbus said,
}} Those damn good Samaritans are always getting in the way of natural selection.
I suspect the good samaratines are also the cause of over-population, war, and famine. We need to let more people die.
Yes the plow driver did the correct thing. Give the guy a pat on the back and all.
But damn, I can’t get the idea of broiled Khushboo out of my mind. Somehow I suspect, it wouldn’t be low in fat. Maybe it would taste more like deep fried Khushboo.
Ok, I’m bad. I think I’ll go watch Keith Olbermann, just in case I made the list of the World’s Worst Person” segment.
How about deep fried Khushboo with melted cheese?
#18 – OFTLO,
By the way, I’m not Bobbo… Are you stupid? 🙂
One of us must be. Are you sure you’re not bobbo? Then it must be me. Don’t worry though. I’m not breeding.
I once was out on my motorcycle and saw flames under a car beside me. I pulled into a gas station after them and warned them that their car was on fire. They said “I know.” That was my cue to leave. You can’t fix stupid.
My wife and I were driving home after work one day, and lo and behold we saw pretty much the same thing. A chinese woman was talking away on her cellphone, while there was smoke streaming out of the back of her car.
I stopped my vehicle, and ran over to the woman to see if she could use any help. My dad always told me “where there is smoke, there is fire”, and damned if he wasn’t right. The access panel to get to the lights on the rear side of the car seemed to have a yellowish glow, and so I reached in and popped off the panel.
FIRE!
So, seeing the fire, I turned to the woman and asked her if she might have a bottle of water with her. She did. Once I had the bottle of water, I managed to put out the fire. All the while the gal on the phone, was completely oblivious as to what had happened – I’m really not sure if she understood that I stopped her car from burning to the smegging ground.
Did she say “Oh thank you, you kind man! Thank you for saving my car!”. NO! She literally turned her back on me so that she could talk to whoever the F*$& was on the phone.
The moral of the story? Next time you see a smoking car, get yourself some popcorn, and sit back for the show. To be honest, I guess am just lucky the bitch didn’t sue me for spilling water in her car.
No good deed goes unpunished nowadays….
I am so proud of MY COUSIN, yes…my blood relative. saved this dingbat from being roasted to death. I am not sure that I could do this myself. Bravo “D” Love ya-Dana