Traffic sham: Good Samaritan ticketed for stopping to help accident victims

No good deed goes unpunished. At least according to Ramon Gonzalez, who said he was acting on impulse when he pulled his car over on the Southern State Parkway, jumped out and ran to help the passengers of a car that had slid out of control, flipped and rolled into a guardrail.

“My first thought … was to get any passengers out of the overturned SUV,” Gonzalez said. But, he added, had he known that his selfless action would be rewarded with a parking ticket, he might have reconsidered.

On that rainy Saturday in August — two days before Hurricane Irene hit the region — Gonzalez was driving one of the last two vehicles in a 26-vehicle caravan that was transporting the vehicles to a storage facility (owned by a Lakeview Mercedes-Benz dealer) in Hempstead, right off exit 19 of the Southern State. Gonzalez declined to name the company whose vehicles were being transported, so as not to jeopardize its relationship with law enforcement authorities.

He and the driver behind him, Douglas Jackson, watched as the black SUV lost control and crashed. “All traffic had stopped at this point,” Gonzalez recalled. “I pulled over to the center median curb [and] reversed to approximately 50 yards away in the event that I had to shield potential injured passengers from an explosion.” Jackson followed him, knowing that Gonzalez is certified in administering first aid and CPR, and in responding to emergencies.

The two ran over to the car and after a quick safety assessment proceeded to pull the driver and passenger out. Others arrived to help and call police. When emergency responders arrived on the scene, Gonzalez and Jackson returned to their vehicles. After everyone else had left, state trooper Herbert A. Bonilla told Gonzalez and Jackson to move their vehicles to the right shoulder of the highway. He took their driver’s licenses and other information to his patrol car, and returned about 45 minutes later with the documents and two summonses for parking on the highway.