Inflexible Rules Punish Samaritans

It took two years, but humanity won out over lawfulness.

That’s not to say, though, that good won out over evil.

Kevin Gardner, a former Loomis guard, was fired after leaving an armored truck unattended. He won his effort to show he was justified in choosing to rescue someone in trouble over staying put and guarding his truck.

Clearly, this is a case where both sides were right. The Washington State Supreme Court, in ruling for Gardner last week, made a Solomon-like decision that likely will leave everyone feeling a bit ambivalent.

Neither side disputed what happened. Gardner was waiting in the truck while his partner picked up money from Seafirst Bank on Wellesley. Suddenly, a screaming woman was chased out of the bank by a knife-wielding man. Gardner recognized her as a bank employee, so was reasonably sure the incident wasn’t a setup to lure him out of the truck. When the man went back into the bank with another woman as hostage, Gardner went in after him. He helped disarm the man and avert the bank robbery.

Gardner’s argument is simple. He felt he had no choice but to help save a life, rather than guard some money.

But officials for Loomis Armored Inc. said Gardner, by jumping out of the truck, put more lives in danger - his own, his partner’s and the woman’s. A Loomis driver in the Seattle area was shot in 1991 when he left his truck to help stop a robbery. The rules are clear, Loomis says. Don’t leave the truck.

That rule makes sense, as do most rules and laws that govern a civilized society. But there has to be room for humanity, too. There has to be allowance for split-second decisions made to fit the circumstances.

Kevin Gardner was lucky. He successfully disarmed the bank robber and no one was hurt. And we’re lucky too, that our state’s highest court saw fit to recognize what it called “basic public policy” - what we’ll call basic human decency.

Another example of law overriding decency came Friday in a Spokane courtroom, as prosecutors tried to convict a young man for “failing to obey a fireman.” Shane Petersen was at the scene of an accident where a friend was pinned under a truck.

Even though a fireman told Petersen to stay away, he and some friends lifted the truck enough to free his friend from the crushing pain while paramedics tended to other victims. Sounds reasonable, but Petersen may have to spend 90 days in jail for his efforts.

Now that’s a crime.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Anne Windishar/For the editorial board