Matt Whiting wrote:
How would that have helped him not hit a truck and ambulance? That was
just plain stupidity, nothing to do with the inherent danger of making a
takeoff from that road. Not asking to have the emergency vehicles
moved was simply stupid.

I agree... but you are making my point. I never said that that taking off
from a road was inherently dangerous, although most roads (other than
interstate highways) typically can have obstacles (i.e. light poles, etc.)
to be concerned with that make steering the plane down the center especially
important.... less room for error than your typical runway.

My point was that he was obviously incapable of making a proper judgement
about that so perhaps someone more experienced would have unsisted on
clearing out all the vehicles before attempting the take off, I certainly
would have.