GOOD Road Sighting!

[Jay 2K Winger]

I had to head down to OBX Friday and come back Saturday due to a family medical emergency. Dad suffered a detached retina. Mom took him to the hospital, and they sent him via ambulance to Norfolk to see an ophthalmologist. They had driven down in separate cars, and Mom needed someone to help bring some of the perishables they had in the fridge back. So I drove down, helped pack up and took some stuff back with me on Saturday. (Dad's car was left in the care of a friend of his who has a house down there.)

Of course there's traffic, given that it's a holiday weekend, and while it's irritating, it's nothing too infuriating.

Then I suddenly see a sea of brake lights and a cloud of white smoke. Cars start pulling onto the shoulders and I see why. An SUV had flipped and rolled onto its roof in the ditch by the side of the road.

Now comes the good sighting. There were at least eight or nine cars already pulled over, there were people helping pull the driver (and any passengers, whom I didn't see) out of the wreck, and I saw several people already on their cell phones calling 911.

For all that people in general get dumped on for being self-centered assholes, it's always great to see people rushing to help someone in an emergency.

[bhskittykatt]

It's great to see people willing to help. So often it seems, people don't want to get involved and just drive past. I remember when I was 7 years old, we got T-boned really bad in the middle of a big city, and people just honked and drove around. It was five minutes before anyone stopped, and by then all the witnesses were gone.

However, about five years ago, we were driving home over a mountain pass, in the middle of nowhere, when a freak blizzard came by. We came across a wreck...some people had stopped, but we (being super-prepared Girl Scouts/Search and Rescue people) had lots of equipment. We had to post someone to turn people away, because literally every car stopped to see if they could help, despite the freak snowstorm (I was standing thigh-deep in snow, passing supplies to my friend treating the victim), no cell reception (had to wait for a sanding truck to pass by with a CB to call for help), and with the light fading fast. It was a pretty awesome evening that restored my faith in humanity somewhat.

[RealUnimportant]

There's some fun theories regarding the fact that being in a busy and/or crowded location can lead to you getting less help rather than more, and one significant factor is the groupthink "someone else will do it". Nice to see that (as in the OP's story) it doesn't always hold true!

[AmbrosiaWriter]

There's some fun theories regarding the fact that being in a busy and/or crowded location can lead to you getting less help rather than more, and one significant factor is the groupthink "someone else will do it". Nice to see that (as in the OP's story) it doesn't always hold true!

There's actually a whole thought process (though it happens in a split second) that the human brain goes through. It's called the "By-stander Effect" There are stages and at each stage a group of people end up stopping and not getting to call to help. It's something like:

1) Notice and recognize there is a problem - If a couple is arguing very loudly some might get worried that it would become physical, while others would just shrug it off as a common argument.

2) Understand the problem and know if you can personally lend assistance (like medical)

3) Understand the consequences of personal assistance (like if the person gets worse when you helped you could be sued)

4) Decide it would be better for professionals to take care of it

5) Call the professionals to help

I'm pretty sure there are a lot more stages, I took psychology in sophomore year so I've forgotten it. Maybe a rousing trip to Google would help me remember.

Found it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect

[RealUnimportant]

I was able to help out in a situation today!

I had to take one of my cars for an inspection (MoT), and when walking home via a different I spotted further up the road some congestion; some cars were acting silly, trying to form 3 lanes where there's only space for 2, meaning that the 3rd lane was actually on the wrong side of the road. This struck me as odd, but I was heading into a store so thought little more of it.

When I left the store, I passed the area where the 3 lanes had been forming. It was right by a crossing, so when the truck & bus at the head of the 2 queues didn't move immediately I just assumed the light was against them. Then I saw the bus move, but not the truck, and I saw the driver of the truck was on his phone... I made another assumption that he hadn't noticed the light & was about to pull forward, when I noticed he had his hazard lights on. And finally the facts of the matter fell into place - I realised this truck was in the "middle lane" when I went into the store; the poor bastard had broken down!

I was already heading home, a 5-10 minute walk, so I decided I would try & offer assistance - but not wishing to be rebuffed, I didn't approach him to mention this (it was also unsafe to do so due to the traffic). Instead I just headed straight home, picked up my ex-army tow strops & the keys to my gas guzzling V8, and headed back... Only to come to a stop after a couple of hundred yards to diagnose a clunking, and discover one almost totally flat tyre

Now I feel annoyed & sad that I probably won't be able to help after all. Then I remember my footpump is in the boot! So I whack that on & spend a few minutes knackering myself getting a decent pressure back. Luckily the tyre holds the air, & I set off again to see if they've cleared the truck away yet.

Well, they hadn't, but the queues had become so bad that the local police had noticed & despatched a unit which was just parking up to give the poor trucker some relief from swearing, speeding, swerving idiots.

So there's me, in my beefy car, with my beefy straps, & I pull up to the first copper & say "need a hand?" The looks of joy on all their faces was great, and aside from a warning that the truck was 3.5 tons (my straps have a 9 ton limit, my tow points have to be good for at least 2 tons each due to the size & weight of my car) we were soon up & moving - uphill 100 yards (which the cops had been dreading trying to push the truck up!) then coasting back down another 200 yards before pulling to the side where the road widened for a succession of bus stops. Once we'd got him moved his truck finally gave up the ghost entirely & even the hazards would no longer function...

As I wrapped my straps back up & stuck them in the boot, the trucker came over & thanked me profusely, and revealed that up until this point he'd been stuck for close to an hour and I was the ONLY person other than the cops to stop & offer anything other than abuse!

(Oh, and the tyre had a screw in it at an obscure angle; bad enough to let the air out but seal the hole behind it, at least temporarily... my local shop had just one of the exact make & pattern left to swap it out. Instant karmic payment, as even if I hadn't gone to try & help I'd have needed a tyre, but I wouldn't have noticed until I left for work & ended up being late!)

[Jay 2K Winger]

There's actually a whole thought process (though it happens in a split second) that the human brain goes through. It's called the "By-stander Effect" There are stages and at each stage a group of people end up stopping and not getting to call to help.

That's exactly why I was glad to see people rushing to help. And why I didn't stop, as well. They already had things well in hand, I'm not up to speed on first aid, I hadn't seen the accident happen so couldn't give a statement, and I'd just be in the way.

[bhskittykatt]

I was able to help out in a situation today!

Kudos to you for stopping! I never got why people get abusive towards those who experience a break-down. It's not like the driver intended for his vehicle to die there, and he's probably already plenty stressed about it!

I remember once when Hubby's old Marquis died on a busy road, and I had to get out and push it down to the closest driveway. People would honk at me, as if that would magically make the car start again.

Shortly after that, we saw a car stalled at an intersection near our place...Hubs and I stopped, along with one other kind soul, and between us we got traffic stopped to push the car into the service station. And that car had a similar problem to what stalled the Marquis (both had some sort of hot-short). It was fate.