A Sad Reality
I saw this video on the Today show last week and it really shook me. It’s footage of a hit and run caught by a surveillance camera in Connecticut. While it shows the impact itself, that, believe it or not, is not the most disturbing part of the video. The part that has created an uproar is the part that shows what happened next. Or rather, what didn’t happen.
If you watch it you’ll see that multiple cars passed by as this elderly man lie bleeding in the middle of the street. You’ll see that pedestrians on the nearby sidewalk stopped to curiously look at the old man left for dead, but not a single one of them approached him. Not a single person bothered to stay by his side and comfort him and tell him that help was on the way. Not a single person knelt next to him there and told him to hang on. No one lifted a finger.
I guess that’s not entirely accurate. There were four calls to 911. And more than one passerby approached the man in the road, before turning their backs and walking away. The cars that passed did swerve to give the dying man in the road a wide berth. Two of them even saw him there and turned back to go the other way.
Can you imagine?
Can any of you imagine, even for a second, coming upon a stranger bleeding in the middle of the road and doing absolutely nothing? The witnesses on the street even saw this man get hit by not one, but two cars. They saw the initial sideswipe that spun him around and caused him to lose his way. Then, they watched as that second car rammed into him and tossed him up the windshield and into the air before dropping him hard and fast to the asphalt below. They saw both of those cars keep driving.
And they did nothing.
It’s a sad day in America when we sit silently by as an elderly man lie dying in the street. A sad day indeed.
That injured man is somebody’s son. Somebody’s brother. Somebody’s father. Can you even imagine how heartbreaking it would be if that man was your son or brother or father? And you watched a video of the accident and saw people who were too busy with their iPhones and Blackberries to pause for a moment and do something, do anything.
That poor man. I can’t imagine living my whole life and then dying surrounded by people who refused to help me. I can’t believe that happened in this world. How awful. I hope he was able to somehow focus his thinking on his previous happy memories, during his last few minutes. Dying sad and alone should never be allowed to happen. God will take good care of him from now on.
How utterly ridiculous. How incomprehensible. I don’t understand how anyone could just leave him there. I don’t understand that. I don’t understand how a person can witness something like that, and then just go on with their day, eat their lunch, check their email, whatever, as if nothing had happened. How do they live with themselves?
I was shocked by the video when I saw it on the news. Unreal. People stop for animals! Shame on them. Shame.
Horrifying! and I would move from that town if I lived there right now, knowing what kind of neighbors I must have. Sick sick sick.
HORRIBLE! THE VIDEO WOULDN’T COME UP BUT THAT’S OK I DON’T WANT TO SEE IT!!! I JUST CAN’T IMAGINE…HORRIBLE! DON’T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO SAY!!! SHAME! SHAME!
This video made me sick. Gave me chills and absolutely made me sick. Those people should be ashamed.
That is so sad! I can’t believe not one person stopped after the man was hit…in fact, it looks like those 2 cars sped around the corner as quickly as possible!
It reminds me of the Good Samaritan story in the bible.
No. I just simply can’t imagine NOT stopping to help. No matter what sort of rush I was in. No matter what. I just can’t imagine not stopping to help.
What were those two cars doing in the wrong lane anyway? Does a double line down the middle of the road mean “no overtaking” in the US, just like here in Australia?
Absolutely devastating. I wonder who was filming….
Pure self-absorbed madness.