Passers-by mostly ignore elderly man paralyzed by hit-and-run

Wow...

Ugh, that's horrible!!

Unbelievable! It may have taken me a few seconds to get passed the shock but I think (or at least hope) that I would have responsed in some way. How can you see something like this happen and not do anything?

We had better stop being so self-absorbed or, someday, we may be in a similar situation!
I am so royally pissed off right now!

Shocking! I can't believe this happened!! I hope they catch the person who did this, lock hm/her up and throw away the key.

This is just a prime example of what we, as a people, have become. Sad... truly sad.

Peace

The question that this story raises for everyone is: Has your courage to speak up or help out ever been tested? Did you pass or fail?

How can some people just be so heartless not to help an elderly man.

thats just horrible

Regular people are not trained to respond to an emergency. If you do not know what to do, please, do the only thing you can do, call 911 and report the incident. That is already a start. Stay safe and do what you can if you have the confidence and help of others. Do not risk your own life because instead of one injury we will have two injures or accident on the road.

That is just awful.

It begs the question: are we so conditioned to fear and distrust strangers that we have given up our ability and want to help them? I understand that few would know exactly what to do in that situation, but even the smallest bit of help goes a long way.

its pathetic that in such a populated place not a single car stopped or a single person went to check on him does any one really care anymore?

This reminds me of this study:
"Bystander Apathy Experiment (1968)

The Setup:
When a woman was murdered in 1964, newspapers printed that 38 people had heard and seen the attack, but did nothing. John Darley and Bibb Latane wanted to know if the fact that these people were in a large group played any role in the reluctance to come to aid.

The two psychologists invited volunteers to take part in a discussion. They claimed that because the discussion would be extremely personal (probably asking about the size of their genitals or something) individuals would be separated in different rooms and talk to each other using an intercom.

During the conversation, one of the members would fake an epileptic seizure, which could be heard on the speakers.

The Result:
When subjects believed that they were the only other person in the discussion, 85 percent were heroic enough to leave the room and seek help once the other began the fake seizure. So that's good, right?

It get worse. When the experiment was altered so that subjects believed four other people were in the discussion, only 31 percent went to look for help once the seizure began. The rest assumed someone else would take care of it. So the phrase, 'The more, the merrier' somehow got lost in translation because the correct expression should be, 'The more, the higher probability that you will die if you have a seizure.'"

Every since I heard this study I make sure to ALWAYS be the one who does something because others probably won't-- it's in our nature.
I hope people keep this in mind like I have.

this is bologna. four people called the cops right away.

This would have nothing to do with the fact that every other show on prime time television is about murder, rape, and many other atrocities.

kurka, but how about those people who just stood on the sidewalk and watch the man lie in the middle of the street? I mean, at the very least, stand by him to make sure no one else runs him over!!

I can't imagine not doing something. Those people suck and should be charged with something for being inhuman.

this is sickening. where i am from, 9 out of 10 people would run over to help. atleast i hope anyway.

unfortunately, i think they were being very human.

HUMANE is another story.

I agree with stephenthomson, at least go make sure traffic doesn't hit him! I know you aren't supposed to move an injured person so I can understand that part, but doesn't it seem strange to just stand on the sidewalk and watch the traffic roll past him, rather than protecting him from further injury?

D'oh. Guess I just reuploaded this. It's sad that people can no longer trust those around them to help in the case of an accident.

That is only 45 sec of real film footage, total of 1:03 min. we do not have the rest of the footage and the surroundings to talk much about. It is easy to talk and judge just by looking at the film but actually being there at the scene of the accident is another story. If you touch or move an injured person you might risk to damage their spinal cord even more. What people could have done through was to warn and redirect traffic. We really do not know what happened posterior to that and that is the issue here.

This is a good metaphor for what's happened to our constitution.

Of course what happened in this video was and accident, and the undermining of our democracy has been quite deliberate.

Either way, it'd be nice if more people could be bothered to give half a mouse fart.

Callous disregard for humanity is rampant in the world! This is but a symptom of the malady.

There are research that suggest people are less likely to help when there are other people in the same situation as opposed to being the only one there to see the man get hit. People are less inclined to help because of their peers. Nonetheless, it shouldn't be that way. The initial reaction should have been to go over to the man and help him anyway they can.

I think I know what it is... after watching this video many times.

A show of compassion is, for some reason, a social taboo. it's uncool. i know that sounds ridiculous... but I think that's at least part of the story.

as pogschampion says, people are less likely to help out when there are others around. Not because they assume someone else will do the helping, but because they're afraid of being judged by those people, or looked down upon.

again, i know it sounds ridiculous. but remember your childhood? lots of things were ridiculous. I remember witnessing injustices when I was young, but afraid to speak out on behalf of them.

this is shocking and sickening. several times here in san francisco, i've seen a biker take a spill for whatever reason (car door for instance), and people immediately rush over and ask, "are you okay?"

This is unbelievably harsh. One would like to think that in a similar situation they would act differently, but watching the video is like hindsight, always 20/20. It's impossible to say exactly what I would have done, but it's hard to imagine not helping somehow and driving by the victim, no way!

I'm going to be straight up honest and say that, knowing it happened in the U.S., I'm not surprised to see that. It's hard to find a good Samaritan with common courtesy and generous hospitality these days.

Thanks for deleting my comment current

hope they find the fucker who hit em

Even better question: What kind of person would sit by and videotape this situation without helping?

Of course it's probably just a CCTV camera,.

I'm confused as to what sort of reaction people were expecting from the crowd on the street. You can't hear any talking or really get a sense of what was going on.

In that situation I probably wouldn't have moved him either. Talked to him, directed traffic around him, called 911. sure.

It looks horrible and I feel sorry for the old guy and hope they catch the person who fled the scene... but I'm not going to let this inform my fundamental beliefs about humanity.

You really don't have to look that far to find instances of humans being awful to each other, but take heart that there are many, many examples out there of people being decent, attentive and caring. I'd suggest taking the time to look for them.

remind me to never get hit by a car in hartford.

Those cars were driving really fast, and the second one seemed to be chasing the first car. When he hit the guy, he didn't even miss a BEAT, he just kept on going, chasing the other car around the corner.

Every time i see a chase scene in a movie i think, "this crap never happens in real life." And 9 times out of 10, they show somebody getting run over, like this guy, and i always think, "THATS gotta just ruin your day! Oh man, i wonder what happened to that guy!"

apparently, this is what happens.

I grew up in the Hartford area and now live in NYC. I could not believe how people would talk about New Yorkers being cold and uncaring people when I got here and saw how everyone reacts to emergencies here. In connecticut all anyone I knew growing up ever cared about was themselves (huge generalization I know) but here I have seen massive ammounts of kindness and caring on a daily basis, not to mention when disaster strikes.

This is so sad. So sad.

though this is a blatant reflection of today's accelerated and careless society , i must agree with Stop Noises's comment.

i'm from connecticut, (this happened in hartford), and i must insist that not everyone from my state is this careless. its embarrassing to see people be so useless.

however, in a strange and rediculous way, its good that no one touched him. he had the kind of fracture in his spine where, if anyone had rolled him over trying to help, they could have killed him instantly.

still, i'm completely shocked by the behavior of these people.