Indifference kills…
A day or two ago, I started seeing links to a very provocative video that was released detailing a situation whereby a child was not only hit twice by traffic, but that for some time a large number of people ignored the poor child that was struck and moved on about their day. I have two links for this on CBS News and The Sydney Morning Herald (there are more but these two paint a good enough picture). I haven’t been so outraged in a long time. And hopefully this will shed some light for all those friends of mine on why they couldn’t understand why I have to help…
Years ago, when I was 19, we were leaving Ellum going northbound on 75 and were exiting to hit Cafe Brazil I think…our exit was slowed to a stop, but the highway was full speed.
I was looking out at the cars passing by so fast. Then it happened…I watched a biker get rear-ended and hit again twice by cars that did not stop afterwards, the bike with no driver spun into the middle of the highway, further causing another biker and a couple other cars to crash.
My friends in the car were jamming out pretty loud so when they heard me scream “NO!” they didn’t realize what it was I had seen right away. It wasn’t just that all those people were in trouble. I wasn’t just fear that gripped me. I was soooo angry. Because even after all that…the cars weren’t stopping.
I couldn’t stand it, and jumped out of the car I was in and ran onto the highway to get people…anyone to stop and help. The people in the cars that had crashed were fine, and even their cars were relatively okay…but the bikers, no one would come near them.
The second biker was closest and was in full riding gear, he was able to tell me his name, where he was and which day it was. A doctor stopped his car to block the lane properly and help with him as I then ran to the second biker.
The second biker was barely breathing and he couldn’t talk. His eyes were alert and frantically trying to communicate…it was pure fear…and though and I could tell he was trying to move – he didn’t have the strength to even move a finger. I was afraid to even hold his hand his body was in such bad shape and…slightly twisted.
It took the police 5 minutes to get there because of the traffic jam, and it took the ambulances almost 10. It was Friday night around 12am on northbound 75. I don’t remember much after that, I was horrified. At some point I guess I’d given my contact information to the police and that doctor that helped out there, because the next day he called me and thanked me for the effort. Unfortunately, he also informed me that one of the motorcyclists had passed away at the site of the accident, and the other had passed away overnight in the hospital.
That wasn’t my first tangle with Death. But that was when it became clear to me that I’ll never be able to even feign indifference in these situations. I would never be that guy that just kept driving on.
A year or two later on vacation in New Mexico, while I was blissfully asleep in the passenger seat. The driver of the car I was in fell asleep from exhaustion and drove us off the side of a mountain at 60mph. Your best imagination could not describe what happened to us in that fall. The only thing that didn’t happen was the car didn’t explode…
…It took the busload of people behind us over 30 minutes to get to us from the road. It took over an hour for an ambulance to get there, and almost two hours to get us back to the hospital. The truck had bounced and rolled over 100 yards down. Days later, we were shown pictures of what had happened and what happened to the truck, and pictures of where it had happened. If that bus hadn’t stopped and those people on it not come, the sun and environment would have finished the job for both of us.
It wasn’t just seeing a wreck now that influenced me. As far as I was concerned, I felt, and still feel to this day, that I have a moral obligation to help in any way I can. I don’t expect the same from everyone, but from experience, I sure as hell hope that when something like that happens to me, someone will be around that feels the same way I do.
And for anyone that feels they can’t be bothered to stop and help, I hope there was a lesson in this somewhere.
My .02 for the evening. Hope everyone has a great night.
-Tony
That is very VERY sad!
It’s insane to think people wouldn’t stop. Maybe it’s just the “if I pretend it didn’t happen it’ll go away” mentality, which is obviously a terrible mentality to have in this situation…
I studied story in my Psych textbook about a woman (I think it was a woman) who got stabbed in a convenience store and the other shoppers just went on shopping, one of them even stepping over her as she was bleeding on the floor. WHAT. I just think these kinds of stories are completely bizarre.
@Ashton – 1. I thinks it’s incredible that you’re reading my blog 😉 Thank you!!!!!
2. it is REALLY sad. That’s why I get so upset when i see stuff like that.
@Jess – I’ve heard it described as some sort of social phenomena but I think it’s the environment we are raised in. No sense of moral obligation is publicly promoted and some parents don’t even take the time to make sure the sensibility is there. I think it would do us all a TON of good to have mandatory community outreach time during the summers of school etc to make sure everyone is learning how important that sense of obligation to help is to our society as much as it is to us as individuals.
I always and I mean always stop to render aid. Even if it is to call the police, provide first aid, or sometimes to physically redirect traffic until the police get there. We seem to have become horrifically indifferent to others pain and suffering and it’s intollerable to me as well. Good for you for stopping to help, and I am so sorry about the bikers that were lost.