Hit & Run Accident.

June 6, 2008, 6:52 PM

A 78-year old man was hit by a car, and left to die in the street in Connecticut. The horrifying part about this story is that there were dozens of bystanders, who did absolutely nothing but look on.

The Story:
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/bystand...745x1200410117

The Discussion: How do you feel about what those bystanders did? If you were there, would you have tried to do anything to help? Do you think this is something that has become socially acceptable? Is it all right to just look in on someone else's misery, without trying to actually do anything beneficial for them? Has the world really become this full of apathy?

Please, share your thoughts on this.

June 6, 2008, 6:59 PM

This story just upsets me. If I had seen someone hit by a car I would have immediately grabbed my cell phone and called 911.

I really hope this isn't what is socially acceptable. Seriously, how hard is it to dial 911 ask explain what happened? Or walk over to the man and if anything, just stand by him?

There was another story like this where a girl was brutally raped and people just stood around and watched waiting for someone else to act.

I hope that the person who hit this man spends along time in jail.

And isn't there a law against ignoring something like this? The Good Samaritan Act?

June 6, 2008, 7:23 PM

Quite frankly, disgusting. What sort of people don't act in such a situation? People shouldn't just wait for others to act, they should take the initiative, do the compassionate thing, and help those in trouble. It is, by no means, an isolated incident.
There was this incident where a crowd of bystanders jeered on an animal scumbag who urinated and attacked a mentally challenged woman who had collapsed. None of them realised that it was wrong, and that the woman needed help, they just joined in and laughed. The woman died on the same day. Incidents such as this are a symptom of apathy, stupidity, and ignorance, amongst other things.

June 6, 2008, 7:31 PM

It's the human race...people are being brought up with the wrong thoughts, it is quite disturbing knowing that's how people would react to a situation. I persoanlly, would of got on the phone to the ambulance right away.

It is disturbing...people need to think that if they were that person, if they were in their shoes, what would there thoughts be if there would be no one helping them...just staring at them...if one of them spectators did that...and/or had any soul at all, they would of got on that phone right away.

June 6, 2008, 7:50 PM

As soon as I finished watching the video, I was immediately horrified about how the bystanders acted about with the hit man.
If I were there, I would've go to the pay-phone and call 911 right away and explain everything.
This type of act within the bystanders make me absolutely furious, for they did not bother to call 911 or call for help.
I also hope the hit-and-run man gets caught and spends up eternity in prison.

June 6, 2008, 10:17 PM

I'm not too sure, but if you don't try to help, you can't be prosecuted. But if you try to help and then decide you don't want to anymore or you can't help then you can be prosecuted. So perhaps it's self preservation.
That being said, it is still very cowardly to watch someone die, when you could be helping that person.

And to be fair to the driver, they may have been to scared to stop. It would be absolutely horrifying and I'm sure that they are devastated. They might turn themselves in to the police when he/she hears that the guy died.

June 6, 2008, 10:35 PM

Well, I'll tell you, right now, how it made me feel. I saw the video, on the news, and I wanted to beat the hell right out of those guys who just walked around the man and ignored him, like he was a piece of trash or something. How would they like it if someone threw them into the street and opps, they got hit? Might not feel too good. Anyway, I need to cool my rage.

Just enraged here, frankly. Honestly, I can't understand how people can do that. If it was me, I would've stopped immediately and at least called 911. I would've done what I could. That's someone's father, brother - out there. Stop and THINK: Would you want people to just walk by while your father / brother was lieing in the street - hurt?

The truth is: Most people are selfish, shallow cowards who won't do anything unless it benefits them. You have alot of good people ( Thank God for them! ) but then you have just as many pieces of dirt that deserve nothing better then to be stomped out of existence. If only I had a Death Note. >o

June 6, 2008, 11:00 PM

My husband and I were actually discussing about this yesterday. It is very sad to see that people are not "willing" to help someone in desperate need. There have been many cases similar to this one, where someone would need help, and there would be bystanders not doing anything. Now why does this happen? Well, for many reason, most being the fact that people are idiots...and the high possibility of social conformity.

This is where it gets interesting, somewhat. Social conformity. There have been series of tests and theories about social conformity and the behavior of people in these situations and basically, there are many people who are powerfully influenced by this. The people are most likely depending on the others to make that 9-1-1 call, vice versa. They become very reluctant to engage themselves with the conflict and solve the problem because they think that the person across from them will solve the problem himself.

So they wait, waiting for someone to do something, and when they see that the others (who are most likely doing the same thing - waiting for the others to do something about the problem) aren't doing anything, they are then influenced not to do anything about the damn problem either.

For instance, there was a sad story about a girl who was going up to her apartment building and right before she can go inside the building, she was attacked by a man, who stabbed her many times. People were up above, looking down through their windows but did not help her or make that call to save her. I forgot the details, but I think the man who was brutally attacking her finally stopped because he saw the people watching and thought that help was coming. So he ran and hid for awhile, leaving the girl bleeding. I believe more than 10 minutes have passed and still, no one came for her. She was still breathing...but the man figured that no one was coming to help her so he came back for her and stabbed her some more. She finally died on her way to the hospital, I think...or maybe there in front of the building...I think someone finally did call 911 but it was too late.

So yes, social conformity may be in play when situations like these happens. Is it an excuse, whatsoever? Of course not, but unfortunately it does happen.

June 7, 2008, 1:26 PM

Apparently people did called within minutes, 4 people in total, and I can understand people not wanting to physically move the man, fine, fair enough - you're medically trained. But noone offered that poor man ANY comfort until the police came. People just STARED - some sick fuck took a photo of the man on his phone.

I don't aim to distract attention away from this incident, but something very similar happened with another man. May not have been a hit and a run incident, but how people reacted seemed very similar.

http://timesnow.tv/NewsDtls.aspx?NewsId=7848