As a rule, I tend to avoid silly pop quizzes like the one below, because no matter how I answer the question(s), I always seem to end up proving that I’m actually a libertarian.
This one, however, is different.
Imagine you are driving home on a deserted road in a sports car in the middle of a stormy night. On your way home, you pause at a bus stop and notice four people desperately in need of transportation.
The next bus isn’t scheduled until the morning and you can only fit three of them in your car. You cannot bend the rules to allow you to fit all four in the car with you driving. For example, the child cannot sit on someone’s knee.
The test reads: You stop your car and meet the four people:
- A pregnant woman who started to have excruciating pain and looks like she’s on the verge of giving birth. She’s pleading to be sent to any hospital or at least be helped while going into labor.
- A young child crying and screaming because he/she wandered away from his/her parents and home. The child doesn’t know where his/her address is but knows the full name of his/her parents. He/she just wants to go back home.
- A surgeon doctor with his briefcase that contains his medical tools. He needs to go to his hospital as soon as possible in order to perform a very critical surgery.
- Someone who just wants to go home, but it happens that you already have known and met this person before. To you, that person is a very dear and close friend/love of your life/desired future spouse. It’s been a very long time since you have both seen each other. You’ve always wanted to meet this person again to reconnect and rebuild your relationship with him/her, and you can’t find a better opportunity to do that, because if you don’t take it, chances are that you may not have that opportunity again.”
Adding to the complications, you do not have a mobile phone so you cannot call anybody else for help, and there are no houses nearby to ask to use their landline. There’s no one else on the road to help them but you. The bus stop is located away from any public facilities (hospitals, police stations) and houses, so no one can take it for a walk, especially in this kind of time and weather.
What do you do in that kind of situation? How will you give your help and prioritize it for those people? Which one will you choose to be the first person to be helped? You have to think very quickly to come up with a solution for this predicament.
So, Readers: what say you? Give your answers in Comments. My response will be posted tomorrow.
Too easy – give the keys to the car to the one you met before and tell them to come back and get you when all the others have been taken care of.
Love this answer, but I think it violates the rules. Or knowing my luck she has a track record of compulsive car thievery.
First question is what sports will hold 3 but not 4 people? Answer – a 911 when one of the people is a small child. You can fit two adults and 2 small young children in a 911 or 3 full size people IF you seriously compromise the seating positions of everybody. A GT3 does not hold 3 people of any combination because no jump seats, and fixed seat backs.
My choice for triage – The pregnant woman and the child go to the nearest hospital or police station, then return to pickup the surgeon and the ex girlfriend. and I’m betting the Surgeon agrees with that arrangement, assuming the Surgeon does know the location of the nearest hospital.
I think you misread it. It says you can only fit three of them, plus you, which is four people total.
No, deliberate choice. I’ve just never owned ( or even know of ) a “Sports Car” that will fit 4 total adults. A 911 comes closest. all the 2+2’s I would consider as GT ( touring) cars and not a sports car. Besides, I didn’t want to leave one person all alone. So 2 trips 2 and then 2.
Bravo to the first responder. Perhaps an alternative would be to hand her my EDC carry weapon and let her know I’ll be back a.s.a.p. as well as provide her with a few comforting items always in my vehicle for (no pun intended)… a rainy day. P.S. if she’s the love of my life, chances are she is already packing…
Take the preggers lady and doc leaving the acquaintance and screaming kid behind. Then after delivering both to same hospital, go back for other two. No one says this is inhumane, except perhaps the fellow stuck with screaming waif whom one hopes has calmed by then.
Seconded.
.
Obvious loophole in the question: I may not have a mobile phone, but what are the chances none of the others do?
I’m pretty sure I saw a version of this question about 20-25 years ago, and I had the same reaction then. It’s even less likely now than it was then.
If you absolutely want to rule out mobile phones, it might be a better idea to specify that there’s no reception in the immediate vicinity.
Totally agree. Someone spent a lot of time thinking up dumas reasons why commonsense solutions don’t apply. Surgeon BTW is a serial killer and medical bag contains tools of the trade, WTF would a real surgeon be doing at a bus stop.
Give the car’s keys to the doctor, let the doctor take the woman and the kid, and spend the time reconnecting with your friend.
Yeah, this answer. It was in some stupid Bruce Willis movie. Slightly different version, but the same answer. Give the car to someone you can trust and then you stay behind at the bus stop all night.
My second choice as well — although I’ve met several doctors who lied about their ability to drive a Standard shift, assuming they are not “Graybeards” and already own a three pedal sports car. The ability to drive a standard transmission car is rapidly becoming a lost art.
Leave the kid.
The woman in the front right seat ( she need the most confortable and easy in / out position. the kid and the surgeon crammed in the rear places ( I assume that the car as at least somme kind of space there many sport car do ) the last person which is most probably an adult ( at MY age most certainly ) an if on friendly term capable of taking care of himself will have to wait and considering the medical or emergency situation of the 3 others would do so whithout any protestation.
Keep driving and be happy you are not them.
What?
I concur. Drive on. Yes, I am a heartless bastard.
I don’t help idiots. Doctor has the most agency of the first three – going into labor, and being abandoned by parents is something that happens to you, not something you choose.
I don’t HAVE to help ANY of them. But I’ll help the woman and the kid.
As for the doctor, like I said, he’s there because of bad choices most likely. And hospitals have other doctors. And I’m not required to render aid.
I *will* take the old friend (in the front passenger’s seat) however. Because my car, my passengers. The woman and child are a favor to the universe, but I owe them nothing.
Pick up the friend, let the surgeon take care of the preggie and the kid can stay and learn something.
Stay. Deal with the situations as best you can before leaving.
The kid – Chances are mom and dad have missed the kid and have likely involved local law enforcement. Call 911. Give the child’s name and the parent’s name as well as your current location. Impress upon the wayward child the importance of staying put.
The pregnant woman – While talking to 911 indicate there is a pregnant woman in active labor or in some other form of distress. Determine how long before an ambulance can make it.
The doctor – Still while talking to 911 determine if the closest hospital is the same one the doctor needs a ride to.
The friend – Since this is the only case that 911 cannot help with, and this is an individual I likely have at least a modicum of trust in, that makes the situation rather simple. Any friend of mine in this situation would know what must be done and their leaving the kid or disappearing would only confirm for me that my desire to rekindle any kind of relationship would be misplaced.
The pregnant woman and the doctor both have lives at risk which make them the priority. 911 has the information necessary to retrieve the kid and the friend can linger (with the promise of a dinner on me after I return). The surgeon should have at least a basic medical training to potentially care for the pregnant woman while en route. Take pregnant woman and doctor to his hospital. Return to retrieve the friend (hopefully kid’s parents are long gone by the time I get back).
Misgender the Doctor when talking to them, and when the screaming harpy brigade turn up out of nowhere to howl at you use one of their phones to call for help. (They’ll have a phone to video their social justice warrioring stuff with)
Playing it straight, I would leave future spouse and take the other 3.
Any woman who would push one of those others aside for her own convenience would not be for me.
My first wife was that kinda woman. A narcissistic sociopath, and she blighted my life in ways I can’t begin to describe. I’m wiser now.
You and your buddy take the kid home. Leave the doctor to deliver the pregnant woman. Come back for the three of them. 🙂
If he’s that great a surgeon, he can get another ride. If not, he’s probably an incompetent surgeon so best he doesn’t operate. The pregnant woman, child and the friend/potential lover/spouse get the ride.