Does ANYONE understand why people are being allowed to die trapped in cars ?

[SorellaLaBefana]

96. Yes. Lots of information

There is also a strong current of victim blaming running through a sea of assumption and vitriol.

Like many commentators, I've little sympathy for people who deliberately get into extreme situations and then expect someone to come, at risk of their own lives, to rescue them. Such examples are legion, and I've been one of the pissed-off rescuers

However, in this situation most of those trapped were simply going to or from work. Sure, there were some who foolishly decided that they just had to make a run to the store as the storm closed in and am certain that there were even a few who decided to head out for an exciting drive in the storm—perhaps hoping get a viral social media video out of it.

The vast majority of those trapped were people who, for one reason or another, did not feel that they could simply take a "snow day" from their work, or who made the bad decision that the storm would not be as bad as forecast.

They ended up stranded.

Stranded not in trackless wilderness, nor in open fields, but along well demarcated highways packed with other trapped vehicles. It was known where they were.

Many years ago on a forty-below Arctic night I stood in a howling storm. Looking down I could barely make out my bunny boots through the horizontally blowing snow. The person whom I had stopped to help up and I were now alone. My companion thought we should set off in what 'had' to be the right direction.

I knew our only hope was that, upon reaching the shelter to which we were headed—perhaps a quarter of a mile away—the Innuit villagers would realize we were missing and would come back for us. After about half an hour we saw flashlights. Survived the experience with only some frostbite—because people took the risk to rescue us.