FORT SCOTT — It started with two county employees helping a stranded driver. It has become a question for the Bourbon County Commission.

“Just last week we had a couple county employees pull over and help a lady change out her tire, and we used a couple of our tools to do that,” Commissioner Joe Allen said Oct. 26. Of the proposed personal-use policy, he said, “According to this policy, we can’t even do that. We can’t even be good people to citizens because it was county.”

A week later, Commissioner David Beerbower said the Kansas Good Samaritan law, K.S.A. 65-2891, primarily protects health care and certified first aid providers and does not grant general immunity to county employees. He said the key question is whether workers were acting within the scope of their employment.

Beerbower said he would submit a separate policy on roadside aid to stranded motorists for commissioners to review.