Uncle Reggie stories URSN31: Who is the Highest Authority?
Reggie 叔叔的故事 URSN31：谁是最高权威？
(Sonic 翻译)

Zen and Li were going to celebrate. Zen had just passed an important graduate school test. They had only arrived in the country for six months, and Li was joyfully pregnant with their first child. Zen had passed his Ohio driver’s license test, and they were able to drive off excitedly in their recently purchased car. As they sped along Interstate 71 in Cincinnati, they noticed something wrong with the car, and not being that used to American expressways, Zen moved the car to the narrow pavement next to the fast lane on the left.

小郑刚刚通过了研究生院的一个重要考试，小郑和小丽准备好好庆贺一番。他们刚到这里 6 个月，小丽已怀上了他们的第一个孩子，是一个满心欢喜的准妈妈。小郑通过了俄亥俄州的驾照考试，他们可以开开心心驾驶新买的车到处走走。他们驰骋在辛辛那提境内的 71 号州际公路时，他们感觉到车出了点问题，由于他们不太熟悉美国高速公路的规则，小郑把车停到紧邻左边快车道的狭长地带上。

Zen stepped out to see what was going on with the car, but he did not return. Li was in the car when she suddenly realized that something was happening outside the car. She saw a person lying on the ground far ahead of the car. She could not imagine that it was her husband. A car driving in the fast lane had hit a man and thrown him far ahead in that lane. The rest was a blur in her mind as police cars and ambulances arrived, and whisked the man on the ground and Li to the University Hospital.

小郑出车一探究竟，但再没有回来。小丽坐在车里突然感觉到车外出了状况。她看见一个人躺在车前几丈远，她没有意识到那是她丈夫。快车道来车撞上一个人并把他撞飞几丈远。警车、救护车如何疾驰而至，如何带上地上的人和她到辛辛那提大学附属医院，这一切在她的脑海里都是一片混沌。

Zen was pronounced dead on arrival, but I was called to see if I could help, in view of the language difficulties. I tried my best to console the totally distraught wife, but I wasn’t really helpful. Soon I was able to find sisters from the church to help out, especially for the difficult next few months, as Li tried to process all that had happened.

小郑到医院时已经宣布死亡，考虑到小丽英语交流有困难，我被请去看看能否有所帮助。我尽全力去安慰精神快崩溃的妻子，但无济于事。很快我找来教会的姊妹们去帮助小丽走出困境，尤其是在紧接着小丽处理相关事件的特别困难的那几个月。

To our great surprise, and to add insult to injury, the Coroner ruled that the death was “due to suicide.” Any deaths that are unexpected are considered as “homicide,” and, by law, the Coroner has to rule on the cause of death in such situations. The family was all shocked because there was no indication at all that Zen had intended to commit suicide.

验尸官判定小郑是“蓄意自杀”这让我们目瞪口呆并且让事件雪上加霜。律法上任何意外死亡都被判定为“他杀”，验尸官正是据此法规来裁定在那个场景下他是自杀。小郑的家人极度震惊，因为没有一点蛛丝马迹显示他要自杀。

So I went around to gather information and testimonials from those who knew the couple, to see if there was indeed any reason that this could have been a suicide. I confirmed that, indeed, there was none, and every one attested to the fact that they were a happy couple, he was happy and excited about passing the exam, and their going on this celebratory trip was quite reasonable. I collated 19 pages of testimonials from various people who knew him well and I went to see the Coroner, as the family representative, thinking that logic was on my side, in my attempt to alter his conclusion.

我四处从熟悉他们夫妻的人那里收集证据，去看是否真的有自杀的因素。但我确定真的没有。每一个熟悉他们的人都证实他们是快乐的小两口，小郑通过了考试，他意气风发，他们踏上庆贺之旅是顺理成章的。我从不同的熟悉他的人那里整理出 19 页证据，作为他家的代表我去见验尸官，我认为我的证据非常具有逻辑性，逻辑在我这里，我要改变他的裁决。

To my great surprise, the Coroner rejected all these arguments. He said that it did not make sense for someone to be walking on the fast lane. The deceased man should have known very well that that was a dangerous lane. The driver of the car that hit him had said that he had “thrown himself” onto the driver’s car. And to the Coroner it was an open and shut case of suicide.

让我大跌眼镜的是验尸官驳回所有的争辩。他说一个人在快车道行走是不可理喻的，逝者应该清楚那是非常危险的。肇事车主说过他是“跃起扑上”他的车。验尸官认为这是显而易见的自杀案件。

I tried to explain that this was a new couple that had only arrived in the country a few months ago, that they were not used to US expressways, and that Asian traffic ways were not the same as in the US. For example, if a person was walking on any road in Asia, the cars were usually not speeding at 60 plus miles per hour, so cars would spot him and usually slow down to try to avoid him, often driving around him. The traffic dynamic, even today in Asia, is much more fluid, and there is a pedestrian-driver interactive dynamic that is not black and white. Zen could well have thought that, American drivers are generally quite courteous, and it didn’t seem dangerous to be standing or walking on the car lane. However, in the American way of thinking, the US driver assumes right of way in his own traffic lane, assumes others usually follow the traffic law, and assumes no one indeed should be walking on the expressway. Also, it seemed likely that
Zen was disorientated when the car broke down unexpectedly, and wasn’t thinking clearly about the implications of getting out of the car on a speeding highway.

我试图解释说这是几个月前才来美国的小两口，亚洲的交通状况和美国不一样，他们不习惯美国的高速路。举例吧，如果一个人在亚洲任何一条公路上行走，公路上的车速一般不会超过 60 英里以上，司机可以看到他并减速避让，经常绕着他通过。甚至今天亚洲的交通状况也是杂乱无章的，人车混行随处可见、法无禁止。小郑或许认为：美国司机总是谦逊有礼的，在行车道上逗留应该是不危险的。但是他哪里知道美式思维是这样的：美国司机认为他拥有他所在行车道的路权，他人必须遵守交通法规，没有人会在高速路上行走。车意外抛锚让小郑不知所措，他没有意识到在高速公路上下车的风险。

All of this was not at all convincing to the Coroner, even as I tried to explain to him that if he himself was trying to cross a street in Asia or Italy, he might be more likely than locals to be run down by a car, because he did not have the same instincts as a local person, and could not instinctively guess how the traffic flowed. Even when I cross the street in Asia I definitely walk with the local crowd since I have little understanding of which direction exactly the traffic could be coming from! The Coroner’s face was unchanged.

这些都不能说服验尸官，我甚至告诉他如果他自己在亚洲或者意大利过马路，他比当地人更容易被车撞倒，因为他不具备当地人那样的直觉，他不能凭直觉评估车流状况。因为我不知道车会从何方来，我在亚洲过马路我总是和当地人结伴同行。验尸官无动于衷。

It was all very frustrating, so I called up the former Coroner for Cincinnati, whom I knew, and who had now moved to New York as the Coroner for New York. He gave me some great advice and directed me to an article from the highly esteemed New England Journal of Medicine, which showed what happened when a person was hit by a fast car. The impact of the hit was usually just below
the knee, which would result in catapulting the entire body up in the air. The body would often land on the bonnet or windshield of the car, which would make it look like he was jumping onto the car. So in the confusion of the moment, the driver of the car would naturally assume and imagine that the man had run into or jumped onto the car. With this information in mind I tried to convince the Coroner again, but it was to no avail.

我很沮丧，我打电话给我熟悉的前辛辛那提验尸官，他现已经到纽约做验尸官。他给了我一些好的建议，而且推荐我看一篇刊载在久负盛名的新英格兰医学杂志上的文章，这篇文章关于人被高速行驶的汽车撞击时所发生的情况。车撞击部位往往在膝下，这一撞击把整个人抛入空中。身体往往跌落在车的前盖或挡风玻璃上，看起来就像他扑向汽车。在慌乱时刻，车主会很自然的断定这个人是冲向汽车或者跳上汽车。带着这一信息我试图再次说服验尸官，但是无济于事。

I also found out during this investigation that, to my great surprise, there was actually no legal way to reverse a Coroner’s decision. You could not even take him to court. According to English law, on which this law was based, the coroner is the final authority. This has been based on laws that have existed for hundreds of years in England. There is no higher authority in medical homicide cases when he signs off. I had always assumed that America is a land of laws, and the Courts in the USA were the highest authority for every problem, but I guess not.

我很惊讶，在这个调查过程中实在是没有合法的途径去推翻验尸官的结论。你不能告他。根据英国法律，这是基本法规，验尸官是最后裁决。这是基于在英国存在了数百年的法律。在非自然死亡案件中他签署后他的论断就是权威，没有比他更高的。我一直认为美国是法制之邦，在每一个案件中法庭是最高权威，但现在我发现不是的。

Amazingly, for this story, a few years later the Coroner died. A new Coroner was appointed, and within weeks I visited him with all the documents of the situation. Surprisingly, he was willing to sit down patiently and hear out the case. After that he said, “Let me think about it for a week.” One week later, to our great appreciation, he wrote and said that he totally agreed with our logic, and he changed the Coroner’s verdict from death by suicide, to death by accident. Even though the Coroner is the highest human authority for death certificates, a new human Coroner could over-rule that decision! Actually, if you think about it more carefully, there is also the Final Coroner, who cannot be over-ruled.

这个故事峰回路转，数年后这个验尸官过世了。我带着所有的文件去见这个才被任命几周的新验尸官。让人意外的是，这个验尸官愿意坐下来耐心倾听这个案子。听完后他说：“给我一周的时间，让我想想”。一周后，他写信告诉我们，他完全同意我们分析的逻辑性，把上一个验尸官的裁决由自杀改为交通事故，令我们非常感动。尽管验尸官是开具死亡证明的人的最高权威，新的人的验尸官可以推翻这个决定！事实上，如果你深思这个事件，你会发现这世上另外还有一个最终的验尸官，他的裁决不会被推翻。

A death has occurred, persistence has paid off, justice has come, and Li has moved on to a new life, and her son is now doing well in college. The family now trusts in the Supreme Judge’s infallible laws, better than the human kind.

死亡发生了，坚持见了成效，公正出现了，小丽也开始了新的生活，她的儿子在大学里表现出色。这个家庭对至高权威永远正确的、毫无谬误的法则的信任胜于对人类的信任。