I was not the only person who was highly skeptical when the news report came out about George Zimmerman coming to the rescue of a family of four trapped in a flaming car crash.
Here's what turns out to be closer to the truth: there was a car crash, it was reported via 911 calls to the Sanford office of the SCSO, to which a Seminole County Sheriff's officer in Sanford by the name of Patrick Rehder responded, as identified by the accident report --- AFTER apparently calling George Zimmerman, only a mile away at his home in the complex where he shot Trayvon Martin, telling him to come to the crash. Even without the call from LEO buddy Rehder, it appears Zimmerman had a police scanner he was monitoring for such an opportunity to exploit someone else's crisis.
It does NOT appear that the story that George Zimmerman just happened to be driving by, leaped out of his car, and rescued the family is true.
It DOES appear that there was plenty of help from other people pulling out the family from their car lying on it's side in the median, right when it happened, and well before Zimmerman showed up, looking for a situation to exploit to redeem his tarnished image.
In other words, Zimmerman being there was a fake, a fraud, DISHONEST and STAGED. He was not a hero.
It is not a surprise that the Gerstle family does not want to be part of a press conference to thank faux-hero George Zimmerman for coming to the rescue, NOT because of fear of threats, but because they don't want to be a part of Zimmerman and his co-conspirator Rehder's fraud.
Here's what turns out to be closer to the truth: there was a car crash, it was reported via 911 calls to the Sanford office of the SCSO, to which a Seminole County Sheriff's officer in Sanford by the name of Patrick Rehder responded, as identified by the accident report --- AFTER apparently calling George Zimmerman, only a mile away at his home in the complex where he shot Trayvon Martin, telling him to come to the crash. Even without the call from LEO buddy Rehder, it appears Zimmerman had a police scanner he was monitoring for such an opportunity to exploit someone else's crisis.
It does NOT appear that the story that George Zimmerman just happened to be driving by, leaped out of his car, and rescued the family is true.
It DOES appear that there was plenty of help from other people pulling out the family from their car lying on it's side in the median, right when it happened, and well before Zimmerman showed up, looking for a situation to exploit to redeem his tarnished image.
In other words, Zimmerman being there was a fake, a fraud, DISHONEST and STAGED. He was not a hero.
It is not a surprise that the Gerstle family does not want to be part of a press conference to thank faux-hero George Zimmerman for coming to the rescue, NOT because of fear of threats, but because they don't want to be a part of Zimmerman and his co-conspirator Rehder's fraud.
I thought something was fishy about this story. Not surprised. I hope that family is okay.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting on Penigma andiepants.
DeleteHere is the problem that I have with the story, the official report by Officer Rehder does not make any mention in the narrative section - where it would properly belong - of any fire. It notes the wear on the tires, the condition of the brakes as reported by the driver, and that the airbag did not deploy.
Nothing about a fire, nothing about any engine damage; if this were an electrical fire for example, I would expect him to note corrosion on the wiring.
This is significant because fires relating to car crashes do occur, but they are comparatively rare, and they are extremely rare in accidents of this type, where a vehicle did not collide with anything, it just tipped over on its side, due to perhaps a soft shoulder or some other explanation for the loss of control.
More than that, the kind of fire extinguishers designed to be carried in a car don't do much; they can put out a very small fire, but the kinds of fires they are useful to put out are very specific.
Because not only should a report note that a fire occurred, but because the cause of such a fire in the engine compartment could reflect a cause, or a contributing factor, to the accident. And because the absence of such a significant piece of information could make it very difficult for the owner of the vehicle to collect on insurance for that kind of damage.
On the other hand, if there was no fire, in spite of what was claimed, then mention of a fire in the police report, when the vehicle shows no sign of fire, would also raise big red flags with an insurance company.
So the absence of any mention of a fire in the official sheriff's dept report, filed by the responding officer, makes the description of Zimmerman pulling people out of a burning vehicle highly suspect, in addition to that description of events being contradicted by the 911 calls.
I'm trying to verify if the Newsball phone numbers etc. claims are correct, but even without that information this is not a plausible story.
This puts the infrequency of car fires in better perspective:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.onlinelawyersource.com/auto/fires/
"Fires in auto accidents occur in 0.1 percent of all traffic accidents annually ..."
And FYI - that 1 tenth of 1 percent where fires occur? They are rarely this kind of accident.
Hold on, why wasn't anyone else willing to help a family trapped in a car? Not the ones who called 911, not all the motorists who drove by-but it took George Zimmerman getting in his car and driving to the scene to pull them out. You are making him look more like a real hero rather than just someone who was in the right place at the right time.
ReplyDeleteLots of people stopped as demonstrated by the 911 calls. At least one other person helped the family out of the car before Zimmerman arrived - IF Zimmerman was ever actually there. The evidence that he was is pretty thin.
ReplyDeleteThis was not heroic. It was not a vehicle on fire - that piece of factually deficient feces came from Breitbart. He stood there while people climbed out of a car. He didn't pull them out, he just stood there.
Not, per the SCSO information specialist, anything heroic, not newsworthy, not worth the attention of the local media as a car accident.
The only thing that appears to have gained anyone's attention was that Gerstle called a press conference, and people in the media wanted to know why. Then Gerstle called it off, but in the meantime the accident made the national news, by being misreported as something it was not.
The car rescue that Zimmerman participated in did NOT involve a fire. The person writing the article above is confusing the rescue that Zimmerman assisted in with the rescue involving TN Titan football player Jonathan Willard ....that accident DID involve a car fire and it happened on the same day as the accident that Zimmerman helped with.
ReplyDeleteThe car rescue that Zimmerman participated in did NOT involve a fire. The person writing the article above is confusing the rescue that Zimmerman assisted in with the rescue involving TN Titan football player Jonathan Willard ....that accident DID involve a car fire and it happened on the same day as the accident that Zimmerman helped with.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHelena Handbasket, no one is confusing accidents.
DeleteI've personally spoken with the information specialist at the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, looked at the LEO report, etc.
Multiple news media, both print and broadcast initially misrepresented this as a fiery car crash; this appears to have been because 1. Zimmerman supposedly jumped out of his vehicle with a fire extinguishe; and 2. because the Breitbart web site presented the accident that way.
Reports were subsequently corrected, quietly, without making public note of the changes.
I know the difference between accidents, thanks, and this was not about anyone being confused.