"Offering a ride to a stranger," a veteran law enforcement official once noted, "like passing on a hill or a curve, is a dangerous, blind gamble. In neither case can the motorist foresee what is ahead."
We remind Utah motorists of this wise observation because of the death this week of Mike D. James of Payson, who succumbed in a Salt Lake hospital three weeks after he reported being stabbed by a hitchhiker.If this sad episode doesn't deter Utah drivers from picking up strangers along the highways, consider a few other pertinent facts.
Several years ago a survey in Arizona found that 84 of 100 hitchhikers checked at random had criminal records. Twelve others were runaway juveniles or AWOL servicemen. Only four were without police records or above suspicion.
A similar survey of hitchhikers along the New Jersey turnpike turned up 162 runaways, 98 AWOL servicemen, seven escapees from mental institutions and five escaped convicts.
In some states, a motorist can be legally liable for any injury his hitchhiking passenger suffers through "ordinary negligence."
Then there are other risks to hitchhikers. Plenty of them have accepted a ride only to find a sadist or sex criminal behind the wheel.
That's why it's often against the law both to solicit a ride and to pick up a hitchhiker, too.
The lesson should be clear: Either offering a ride to or accepting one from a stranger is a dangerous gamble. Don't take it.