This is what happens when excessive rules sap all initiative

The only thing I’ll add to the my post title by way of commentary is that this is the America that Obama and the Democrats envision for you, since increased government control inevitably presages the rise of regulations that destroy initiative, innovation and courage:

A jobsworth ambulance boss refused to allow his staff to enter six inches of water to treat a man with a broken back – because it breached heath and safety.

[snip]

But they [onlookers] were stunned when a paramedic arrived and refused his pleading staff to enter the water – because they weren’t trained to deal with water rescues.

They had to slide a spinal board under him themselves and carry him to ambulancemen, who were stood on the bank just 6ft away.

One onlooker said: ‘The paramedic wouldn’t treat him.

‘Two colleagues arrived in an ambulance but he stood in their way and told them, ‘I’m incident commander – you aren’t getting into the water.’

‘The ambulancemen were pleading with him. I reckon a good ten or more minutes were wasted.’

Steve Cox, 47, who runs the Middlemoor Water Park in Woolavington with his wife Julie, said: ‘The first bloke insisted they had to wait for the fire brigade.

‘He kept saying, “Health and safety won’t let me get in”.’

[snip]

A spokesman for the South West Ambulance Service said only fire crews were trained for water rescues.

He said: ‘The incident was managed in accordance with procedures.’

In August, heart attack victim Melissa Proctor-Blain, 32, died after a paramedic feared it was unsafe to enter a pub in Spondon, Derbys.

Last year Karl Malton, 32, of Crowland, Lincs, drowned in 18ins of water while 999 crews waited for a water rescue team 50 miles away.

Let me remind you what initiative and courage look like:

Construction worker rescue