criminal-law california traffic vehicle good-samaritan
Does the Good Samaritan law make it legal for a third party driver to interfere with a road rage event while it is happening?
<p>I would like to know if the Good Samaritan law makes it legal for a third party driver to try to break up/interfere with a road rage event while it is happening.</p>
<p>Say for example that you are driving on a highway and you start to pass up a pickup truck that is closely tailgating a small car in the lane next to you. You notice that the driver of the pickup truck looks to be a big man and he looks very angry. You also notice that the driver of the small car looks to be a young woman who looks frightened and is crying.</p>
<p>At this point, you figure that this is a road rage event that is in progress and you fear that the life of the young woman is in imminent danger. If you were to decide at that point to interfere with this event by ramming your vehicle into the side of the pickup truck and then that pickup truck goes off the road and crashes, would you likely be arrested and sent to prison for causing the crash and injury to the pickup driver, or would the Good Samaritan law protect you from being charged with a crime?</p>
<p><em>&quot;...Good Samaritan laws offer legal protection to people who give reasonable assistance to those who are, or whom they believe to be injured, ill, in peril, or otherwise incapacitated.[1] The protection is intended to reduce bystanders' hesitation to assist, for fear of being sued or prosecuted for unintentional injury or wrongful death...&quot;</em>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law</a></p>
<p>Does the Good Samaritan law make it legal for a third party driver to interfere with a road rage event while it is happening?</p>

<h2>No. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_self-defense" rel="noreferrer">Self-defence</a> law does</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>The right of self-defense (also called, when it applies to the defense of another, alter ego defense, defense of others, defense of a third person) is the right for people to use reasonable or defensive force, for the purpose of defending one's own life (self-defense) <strong>or the lives of others</strong>, including –in certain circumstances– the use of deadly force.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Whether you would succeed in such a defence depends on the exact circumstances.</p>
<p>Good Samaritan laws protect you from trying to help, screwing up, and causing further damage.</p>
