I had the misfortune of witnessing the aftermath of a road traffic accident on my way to work this morning.
The first sign I had that something was wrong was the sight of a man dragging himself from the middle lane (of a three lane road) through to the inside lane, then collapsing on the grass verge at the side of the road. Had I been travelling faster, and had my concentration been so lacking that I hadn't spotted him, chances are I would have been driving the second car that hit him that day. How fortunate for both of us.
My immediate reaction was to turn my hazard lights on, park the car, and get out to see if everything was OK; I was aware that my car was blocking the inside lane, but I thought this was needed to keep more traffic away.
There were already three people at the side of the road: an older gentleman in a suit, a young girl, and a fashionably dressed guy who looked to be in his late twenties. The fashionable guy was on his mobile phone, trying to arrange an ambulance. The young girl and older gent were talking to the guy I'd seen collapse. At that point, I noticed the blood coming out of the guys ears.
A few moments later, another guy arrived. He said he worked at the Police HQ we were stood in front of. Thankfully, he had managed to contact Police control on his radio, and had told the ambulance exactly where we were. We stood, somewhat awkwardly for a few seconds, until the fashionable guy went to move his car from it's position blocking the outside lane. I guess he thought it was something he could usefully be doing.
After the fashionably guy had returned, a nurse came running up the pavement towards us. She started to have a look at the unfortunate chap on the ground, asking a few questions, and trying to be as helpful as she could without making things worse. Understandably, she couldn't move the guy, or do a great deal to help him.
The nurse left as the ambulance made it's presence known. I backed my car up to give the ambulance a good spot to pull into, and it steadily made it's way through the traffic, coming to a stop just next to us. Now that the ambulance had arrived, I thought it would be best for me to continue my journey to work. The older gentleman and the young woman were still talking to the injured man, and I remember the young woman's hands were wet with blood as I said an awkward goodbye and got back into my car.
Every single person who stopped at that scene are superb human beings. I could not, in good conscience, see something like that happening and not try to do something to help. I hope that makes me a decent human being too.
The thing that makes me sick are the mindless idiots who, despite it being obvious that something "bad" has happened, sound their horns and rev their engines, and generally make nuisances of themselves, because some "inconsiderate oaf" has delayed their ritualistic shuffle to work. I'd like to think that these people are in the minority, but there were a hell of a lot more people sitting angrily in a queue of traffic than there were asking if "everything was OK?" or "did he need any help?"
Some people…eh?
