People Don’t Stop

The other day my wife and son were in a car accident.  They were hit in the middle of an intersection by an oncoming car.  Fortunately no one was hurt in either our car or the other.  I can’t say the same for our vehicle.

The officer showed up on the scene to do the usual debrief and asked if there had been any witnesses.  The sad answer was no.  My wife and son were T-boned in the middle of an intersection.  The other driver’s car was pretty badly mangled as well.  Yet, no one stopped to make sure everyone was OK.

We asked the officer if this was typical.  He said it was not only typical, but worse, many people will drive by an accident scene filming with their phones and not bother to stop at all.

I thought about all the accident scenes I have been by.  Not once had I ever stopped.  It’s pathetic.

The very next day an ambulance came screaming by my car to an intersection, where it sat for probably 30 seconds waiting for cars to stop or clear the intersection so it could proceed through.

I am not usually one to run down society with sweeping generalizations, but what the heck?  Are we really so busy that we can’t stop for five minutes to make sure someone else is ok, or pause for 10 seconds for an ambulance to go past?

Seems like a pretty big step in the wrong direction.