Lifeguard fired for saving a drowning man outside his company's perimeter

[Jenna]

Orlando-based Jeff Ellis and Associates, the company Lopez worked for, said lifeguards cannot go beyond the perimeter of the beach they are responsible for overseeing.
But that day, a beachgoer rushed to Lopez's lifeguard station to alert him to a man who was drowning.
The man was some 1,500 feet outside the company's protection zone in an area where signs warn visitors to swim at their own risk, a supervisor with the company told CNN affiliate WPTV.
Even though he knew it was outside the company protection zone, Lopez ran into the ocean toward the struggling man and pulled him ashore.
The man, he said, had turned blue.
"He was having a lot of trouble breathing," Lopez said.
A nurse at the beach tended to the victim until emergency medics arrived and rushed him off to a hospital.

Company supervisor Susan Ellis told WPTV that Lopez was let go for violating its policy.
"We have liability issues and can't go out of the protected area," she said. "What he did was his own decision. He knew the company rules and did what he thought he needed to do."

More here: Florida lifeguard fired after saving drowning man - CNN.com

[Broke Hoss]

Wife & I saw this on the news.....absolutely absurd! I was impressed that several other lifeguards resigned to show their support of their friend.

[code3bg]

Absolutely ridiculous... but I really can't say it surprises me. Common sense has taken a back seat in todays contracts and agreements with private public safety entities. In my opinion he went above and beyond to save a life. I'm sure the life guard in this story would do it the same way again if he had the chance... That's all that matters to me.

[code3bg]

I'm sure, somewhere, there is an attorney responsible for this sort of B.S. liability crap... Gotta love 'em! (no... no you don't)

[Cornfed1100]

I'd guess his former bosses voted for Obummer.
Help thy neighbor, unless they are outside your protective zone.(vomit)

[Odd]

I'm no lawyer-hugger, but I think the blame extends a bit further. Liability cases have done great damage to this nation in a number of ways, from all but bankrupting Cessna, which has a safety record Ford can only dream of, to Ford itself which barely fended off a case brought because they failed to install airbags in a 1980s Tempo. Imagine that, cutting edge technology wasn't put in econoboxes, why those heartless bastards!

And now that tech is in even econoboxes so the people who used to be able to buy new low end cars buy used cars instead. Progress.(?)

Bring it more current. We just got opted in to socialized medicine, at IRS gunpoint, in no small part because it had become so unaffordable for the uninsured. Why? Jury boxes full of weeping sheep wanted to punish the big meanies with money - and they did it so well we're all paying for it. Why does a sprained ankle bankrupt the average American if they pay out of pocket? Ask the jury.

Lawyers don't deserve sympathy, but overly sympathetic juries empowered them to ever more reckless claims. Know any lawyers who don't tell lawyer jokes? How about general citizenry claiming unattained purity? Who's more dishonest?

/runt (mini rant)