"good" Samaritan

'Tis almost Christmas. A young man is driving along on the parkway, near dusk. He's on the straightaway and allows a momentary lapse in his attention to something else: perhaps the phone, the radio, the cd player, who knows. And BOOM! His car has entered the righthanded curve, still going straight, and collided with the metal guardrail along the left side of the roadway.
A couple is riding on that same parkway, on their way to the Christmas party at their church. They see the car that has hit the guardrail and, recognizing the car as belonging to a friend of their son, they pull over into the leftside emergency lane and exit their car, in the fading twilight, to go check on the young man. And BOOM! They are both sideswiped by a vehicle traveling in the left lane of the parkway.
The wife dies from her injuries; the husband spends a long time in the hospital and after, recovering, learning to do simple tasks again, rebuilding his life and family. The young man they had stopped to help was fine and never in danger, but now must live every day with the realization that his friend's mother is dead because she stopped to help him. The stranger driving the vehicle that struck the couple must live every day with the realization that his ordinary day resulted in the death of one human being and maiming of another.
The author of the local newspaper article called the couple "Good Samaritans". Evidently, that author was not familiar with either the origin or the meaning of the phrase. The Samaritans, or "Keepers of the Law" of God, held themselves apart from the other Jews, who they regarded as having altered Judaism. In other words, two different sects of the same religion, both believing they are in the "right" and despising the others for being in the "wrong". According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus told a parable concerning an interaction between a Jew and a Samaritan. The Jew had been brutally beaten and robbed and left on the road to die. A priest and a fellow Jew passed by, but did not stop to help, having concern only for themselves. Then a Samaritan passes by and, asking "if I do not help him, who will?", he stops his travel to give aid to a man who is not only a stranger, but also a man despised as being a Jew. THAT act of giving non-biased aid to a stranger is what made the Samaritan a GOOD Samaritan. To follow in that person's footsteps, one has to give aid to strangers in need, even though one may be biased against their creed or race or gender or sexuality.
It is worth noting that the actions of the good Samaritan had no ill effects on others around him. The good Samaritan aided one who was hurt, but did no harm to others.
The couple in my story were NOT good Samaritans. They KNEW the young man they stopped to aid. They were friendly with the young man, as parents are toward the approved friends of their children. They had stopped that darkening evening to give aid to someone they both knew and respected.
It is unfortunate what happened afterward to the couple. It is more unfortunate what happened to the young man and his friend and the couple's family. It is more unfortunate what happened to the driver of the car which hit the couple, and what happened to that person's family.
A good Samaritan act it was not.