MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I was first on the scene of a serious head on RTA this evening in Bristol and once the casualties were being dealt with, unbelievably I then had to stop several people trying to drive through the middle of the accident. WTF??
Their lack of consideration was annoying but what really boiled my piss was a) the kids trying to video the young lad stuck in his car; b) the bloke who thought nothing of walking through the middle of the emergency services cutting him out as he "had to get to the swimming pool" and c) the utter prick who ignored my requests to turn his van around before the emergency services arrived, and drove between the two smashed cars, over debris, forcing me to get out of the way. He then stopped, got out and came back to the accident to ask loudly if the guy was bleeding out and then tell us that he'd saved a mans life once after suffering a catastrophic bleed. This was about 10 feet away from the casualty who was already distraught.
What the hell is wrong with some people?!
On the plus side, the medic who arrived soon after me was great and it goes without saying that the fire, police and ambulance were superb.
Heads so far up their own arses they don't even notice that it's all wrong. And their parents for never telling them, and their friends for also being so far up their own arses, and, doubtless, their kids who'll never how wrong that all that stuff is. It's a losing battle, humanity is racing to the lowest common denominator, and it appears to be the arsehole. Everyone has one and everyone things their own is much nicer than everyone else's.What the hell is wrong with some people?!
And now I've started the thread in the goddamn wrong forum 👿
Edit: and I can't work out how to change it to the chat forum. Brilliant.
Edit 2: whoever made good my mistake, thank you.
Try watching some of dashcam footage from far east.The total lack of anything that resembles help for accident victims is quite awful.
Not part of the solution, part of the problem and all that 😆And now I've started the thread in the goddamn wrong forum
People are ****ing idiots.
Good for you for helping.
I'm afraid we've reached Peak Humanity. And we're now on the slide back down.
Thank you for doing what you did. I'm sure the casualties are very grateful to you.
A few countries have "duty to rescue" laws whereby it is an offence not to give assistance to someone whose life is in danger. There should be such a law in the UK imo.
I've been seeing a noticeable increase in this type of behavior the last few years. It's depressing. Even every day driving on motorways I see people lack the most basic courtesy to get out of the way of an emergency service vehicle be it ambulance or fire engine. Far too absorbed in their own sense of importance. We really need to introduce a cull before it's too late.
Try watching some of dashcam footage from far east.The total lack of anything that resembles help for accident victims is quite awful.
There's a reason for that tho.
If it's any consolation, sometimes the police don't have any better success in trying to reason with these people. The only thing extra we've got is the option of locking these idiots up if they walk through our crime scenes having been told not to.
We're having a nervous breakdown now we realise we're neither rich nor powerful... USA is doing the same. I can't imagine it's going to be pretty.
If that happens in Asia it would be on Youtbue almost immediately then all over snapchta. People will just stand around to stare ... just stare ... while waiting for emergency service, then they continue staring while the emergency do their works ... then more staring, pointing, mobile snap etc. Some people will help some not ... some show respect while others not sure what to do ...
I just don't understand the narcissism that leads some people to think that getting to a swimming pool on time is justification for causing inconvenience to the emergency services whilst they are dealing with a bloke trapped in a car! Frustratingly, I was in civvies; I'd like to think that a 6ft2 soldier would be a bit harder for these morons to ignore.
Hats off to the emergency services though, not sure I could deal that day in day out.
When our car overturned after a blow out it sort of restored my faith a little. The compassion & caring shown to me & my two children by complete strangers was heart warming. Perhaps we were lucky.
It's easy to think the world is on a downward spiral, the danger is that it could become a self fulfilling prophecy if enough folk adopt that view.
People aren't born reckless, selfish or uncaring, but in many folk it's almost become fashionable to nonchalantly go about ones business in the belief that your convenience comes above all else, & that you have a right to do what the hell you want. What's being eroded is a moral code. Just because something isn't against the law, like gawping & filming some poor bugger trapped in a car, it doesn't mean that it's morally acceptable. Sad times but there's a lot of good folk too.
A while back I got stuck in a three-lane hold-up on the M4 just shy of the M5 interchange at Almondsbury. While sitting there waiting, I'd seen a few cars going down the hard shoulder, then after a while, there was a whole procession of Highway Patrol, Police and ambulance vehicles went screaming past, followed, to my astonishment, by a whole bunch of tosspots in their cars! Heaven alone knows where they thought they were going to get to when they got to the incident that was holding up all three lanes of traffic... 🙄
No idea what actually happened, I could see emergency vehicles right across all three carriageways, but when the traffic got moving after about an hour, all that was there were two black and yellow Highways cars, and a rather nice Audi Avant, as far as I could see undamaged with hazards going, all on the hard shoulder, but with the Audi's roof several feet away propped up against the Armco!
I can only assume it had gone under the back of a large truck, but there was nothing at all on the news; I can only hope any injuries were minor ones.
Sad times but there's a lot of good folk too.
@Takisawa2: completely agree. I was there first by virtue of being the car immediately behind. But almost immediately I had a nurse offering assistance, then a doctor, then a theatre practitioner, then the assistant from Tescos came out to offer any food/water if required plus cones to block the road, then someone else volunteered to go down the lines of traffic to turn them around... plenty of gawpers, but at the same time plenty of people stepping up to the plate.
There's a reason for that tho.
Poor countries where people see death on the road a lot....common theme in fast paced poor cities that dwarf London.
Having said that, I had every man and his dog trying to help me after being stung by a jelly fish in rural Phillipines.
Poverty and a sense of community also breeds a level of empathy that you never encounter in the west.
Back in the 2015 Christmas floods I had my fire engine parked right across a road, blocking it completely, with the full set of blues on display while we tried to drain a flooded estate and pump out the sub station so we could get power back on to the houses. A bloke and his wife simply bumped up on to the grass verge in their car and squeezed past. I stopped him to ask what he was doing and had he not noticed the road was blocked. He said he wanted to get home. I then asked why he thought I'd blocked the road and explained what we were doing. His response was to say 'well yeah, but I want to get home'.
Stopped to assist a cyclist who had crashed without a helmet and suffered a head injury a few months ago. In the 20 minutes it took for the ambulance to arrive maybe a dozen people stopped to assist including at least two doctors and nurses. Thankfully it turned out to be more shock and fainting than anything serious
The was a thing in the news recently of someone in Newbury getting in an ambulance to move it out of his way while the crew wodked on a patient in the back!!
A lot of people just shut off to anything that doesn't involve them.
Conversely I saw a lot of people mucking in on an accident on a grim country road the other night.
It sounds a cliché but there's not much in the way of community these days. We have lots of great neighbors but none of us do anything together.
Welcome to humanity, you dont get to the top of food chain by being nice.
Welcome to humanity, you dont get to the top of food chain by being nice.
We are nowhere near the top of the food chain as selfish individuals though. Only by cooperation can humanity achieve what it's done.
Yep, some that too when its required.
However in this situation several people obviously (and probably correctly) thought that collaboration served them no purpose so they didnt offer any.
Humans operate to a fairly basic set of instructions all designed for self preservation even when the action appears to be selfless.
There are more good people than arseholes in the world. Problem is the arseholes somehow mange to make themselves for visible.
Lost count number of times I've had a phone camera in my face whilst dealing with a job.
Social media had turned many into instant on scene reporters. With relatives being informed of accidents on a "live" feed. Horrible way to find out.
Welcome to humanity, you dont get to the top of food chain by being nice.
vs
We are nowhere near the top of the food chain as selfish individuals though. Only by cooperation can humanity achieve what it's done.
This pretty much sums it up for me. Massive generalsation I know - but most people tend to err into either one of those categories. It seems since the advent of anonymity (and a voyeuristic culture) via the internet/social media that there is a sort of a massive growing disconnect amd desensitisation to fellow humans. A race for the bottom. Everything is a 'meme', or a reality TV show, or an opportunity for 2 secs fame. Or to just be a complete tosser because so what? Everything is experienced through a screen/cam. A world viewed through a car windscreen or Youtube. Often both (dashcam). It's surreal enoughto make me wonder whether there is a sci-fi novel that foretold of this sort of thing happening.
@anagallis: seriously?! That's unbelievable!
@chestertockwell: ditto. I don't know how you argue/reason with stupidity
"I need to get to the swimming pool"
"You can't mate, the roads blocked"
"But I want to get to the swimming pool"
"You can't, the road..." Etc etc etc
On the flip side, it's encouraging that most people have experienced either inaction (not knocking it, some people are overwhelmed and freeze) or positive action to assist.
Sad times but there's a lot of good folk too.
A majority are but they're drowned out by the idiots.
wilburt - Member
Welcome to humanity, you dont get anywhere by being nice.
FIFY
New generations have access the internet/tablets from a very young age. This is becoming the predominant tool (and lens) through which to make sense of the world. Soon accustomed, they shall then view life through a lens in their mind. An 'unreality filter'. A fundamental disconnect.
I somewhat feel it myself when not looking. Like many of us here, I have 'only' been an internet addict for 15 years or so. For the Millennials this addiction is normalised.
Us Gen Xers may well be the last generation to have been raised by and among fellow humans who weren't using the internet and neither were we among internet addicts. We as teens had our own distractions (TV, arcade games) but we'd seen the Max Headroom film so could laugh at the thought of shrinking attention spans, sociopathic isolation, 'blip-verts' and endless shallow guff being piped into our minds. Such a world was a 'sci-fi scenario' in the 80s, but it was nonetheless felt to be not too far away. Now it seems everything is a blip-vert or photo-op. Even the food on our plates.
We owe it to our kids to show them to look outdoors and to look inside of their hearts. To learn active awareness and empathy. Because soon enough (if not already) neither will exist to them except as a 'meme' or some kind of sarcastic otherness on a screen.
Watch the film Night Crawler. Superb and chilling. Made me think a lot about this stuff.
[img] 
[/img]
I was riding to work once when I was hit from behind my a motorbike sliding down the road after he lost it when braking.
I hit the road hard, but before I'd even managed to sit up I heard a car beeping. I sat up and the beeping car was the one right behind me. The driver lowered the window and shouted at me to get out of the way as me and my bike were blocking the road. Unfortunately at that point my bike got tangled in her windscreen...
This was in 1991. There have always been idiots, but now they have camera phones.
As Malvern Rider writes above, it's due to TV reality shows having made it OK to intrude on people's shock and stress. The cellphone culture means bystanders hope to catch that cash-earning shot and the worst of it is that most cellphone idiots use their cameras in portrait! Quality doesn't matter, all you've got to do is capture the action.
Then as MR writes lower down, younger people now grew up with the internet and think the world needs to be viewed through a screen. Even my own son aged 17 will sit all evening viewing stupid videos on his phone, occasionally laughing loudly at the antics of idiots, which is quite irritating. Years ago he'd have been out with his pals larking around and having fun.
I dont think we are any different now than we where in generations past or will be in future. I also dont think there good and bad folk, as above we operate to simple instructions.
That is a terrible photoshop.
Jesus...that Princess Breanna picture made my jaw hit the floor. Utterly shameful.
Whilst I have the horrors of driving on Edge Lane in Liverpool the effort people made to clear a way for the last ambulance with his siren on cheered me up. Lots of idiots out there with little concern sadly. I always wish the person in the back well.
Jesus...that Princess Breanna picture made my jaw hit the floor. Utterly shameful.
It's not real.
No. This was her original one.
[url= https://pics.onsizzle.com/princess-breanna-follow-princess-bmm-selfie-in-the-auschwitz-concentration-1039475.pn g" target="_blank">https://pics.onsizzle.com/princess-breanna-follow-princess-bmm-selfie-in-the-auschwitz-concentration-1039475.pn g"/> [/img][/url]
It's not real.
Surely any respectable princess will always have a full lighting crew on hand for those all important photo opportunities, won't they?
When I was in Auschwitz, about 10 years ago now, I saw just as bad behaviour. Well, probably worse. Not to paint all with the same brush, but it was a group of brash Americans who were acting like they were trying to get to the front of the queue at Disney. Demanding to get to places etc. Everyone else just looked at them like they were from another planet. It was like part of them was somehow broken, and they just couldn't comprehend what had taken place in the very spot we stood, so maybe, just maybe, one should not act like a colossal douche bag.
...but then this thread is obviously all about people not being considerate or empathetic.
Just to add to the "plenty of good'uns about" side of it, when I was lying in a cold puddle by the side of the road waiting for an ambulance, a random passer-by stayed with me for nearly an hour just talking to me, keeping me company etc. He could easily have gone on his way (continued his ride) after the Police had arrived (they were there pretty quickly), but he chose to hang about just to be nice. People living in a house nearby lent blankets and provided a warm kitchen and tea for all concerned (including driver who had hit me, who was pretty shocked apparently). A passing GP turned up after, I dunno, 40 minutes or so. He gave me a bit of a once-over and decided that there was nothing that needed his urgent attention, but nonetheless waited until the paramedic arrived to do a decent handover.
The Police and ambulance crew were truly excellent throughout.
I think most people are decent.
It's not real.
Damn it. Can't believe I failed to see her transparent arm. Bollocks.
I was first on the scene of a serious head on RTA this evening in Bristol and once the casualties were being dealt with, unbelievably I then had to stop several people trying to drive through the middle of the accident. WTF??
Had a similar experience a couple of years ago. I was cycling to work and found a young boy lying in the middle of the road, he was a victim of a hit and run and was unconscious.
The incident happened just after a mini roundabout, so there was an island in the middle of the road, he was just beyond this. It was unbelievable the number of drivers that tried to squeeze past the child, 2 of us looking after him, and the oncoming traffic.
****ing idiots.
It's not real. Part-case in point 😉
**** idiots
Too kind by far.
You did good though. That's all that matters.
Along the same lines as Princess up there, another moron-shaming site: http://yolocaust.de/
Riding along the river near Irwell Vale we came across a group of riders one of whom had had an off and was lying on the path .We ascertained that all was well and services were on their way before carrying on [ there was nothing to be done that wasn't being sorted ].
Riding back later I met a policeman who was searching the roadside , the rider's wife , a nurse had arrived in her car.While she was with him and the paramedics her car was broken into + needles and medicines stolen - ended up with me riding up and down the road picking stuff up and the woman panicking that she get disciplined in the work in the morning .
That sounds awful OP, think i'd be pretty narked off at that too.
Twice I've seen people knocked over by cars, (someone on a scooter outside my office, and a friend on a bicycle), both times the driver just slowed down, looked, then drove off 🙁
But there's good stuff too. I saw a guy collapse as he got out of a taxi, and several strangers and I helped him up, and then waited with him for 30-45 minutes or so until an ambulance arrived (rush hour in London). I remember holding him in a chair and he gradually went weak and got heavier in my hands until he lost consciousness. Never found out what happened to him.
And i know it's a small thing, but i couldn't find change for the car park a while ago and a stranger just gave it to me 🙂
Just to put some of the comments/judgements you might make into context,
1) There are all sorts of reasons people do this. People plan what they're going to do and don't know what to do in an emergency, well done for doing the right thing OP, but it's just common idiocy that makes people walk past/through etc.
2) A while back me and a mate were out riding, a car came past us, then a few metres up the road clipped something on the verge and ended up on its roof (it can't have been doing more than about 40mph). Me and mate put bikes by the side of the road, stop traffic, and with a few others get the police called and car back on its wheels and out of the way. Police arrive just after the car's been safely pushed into a layby and traffic starts to move again, and have a go at us for leaving our bikes "in the way". It's easy to make judgements that when you don't know the full facts!
[quote=burchill ]Along the same lines as Princess up there, another moron-shaming site: http://yolocaust.de/
br />
😯
I work as a Senior Adjuster in the overseas team of an insurance company, so basically deal with personal injury claims on behalf of other European insurers, often involving Polish and other Eastern European HGV drivers or our insured having had an accident abroad.
The amount of casual racism i hear is shocking, i've tried taking statements from people who have witnessed an accident where a foreign national may have died in the accident, but where the witness starts the call with "i'm not racist, but...."
Or the number of horrific accidents where you are trying to piece together what has happened in an accident only to be told that there are no witnesses as no-one stopped to help, or where i had one recently where the lady was trapped inside her car for 50 minutes, but the two drivers behind has pushed her car off the road into a verge, so they could get past, then buggered off!
And don't get me started on those that stage accidents for profit....
TV reality shows having made it OK to intrude on people's shock and stress. The cellphone culture means bystanders hope to catch that cash-earning shot
This is bloody depressing.
The accident I helped out at just before Christmas, was thnkafully nowhere near as bad as described by the OP - no-one injured, no-one tried to squeeze past or get the video, but equally no other bugger got out of their car to help! Until I waved some young bloke over the only person in the road was the driver of the car that hit the other one saying "Did you see that?!"
Yeah, like I said, I can't blame people for freezing and not helping as the shock of seeing an accident often overwhelms individuals into inaction. I've trained over 300 soldiers in the past and you put every one under increasing pressure to ensure that they develop the ability to continue to work under challenging/dangerous circumstances. For some it's natural, for most it needs to be developed.
It's when individuals carry on regardless, unaware that in doing so they are hampering efforts to get a grip of the situation, help casualties, link in with emergency services, control traffic etc etc...that's what I just cannot get my head around.
The amount of casual racism i hear is shocking, i've tried taking statements from people who have witnessed an accident where a foreign national may have died in the accident, but where the witness starts the call with "i'm not racist, but...."
I had a similar experience on a motorway slip-road, old guy cuts across the roundabout to make the exit and clips the wing of a 4x4.
He completely lost it, his only rational for being right was a) he was older, b) they were (at a guess) SE Asian (although he wasn't quite so polite).
Anyway I left them my details and filled in the witness form when it arrived.
Then I started getting the ambulance chasers asking for statements, by the 3rd phone-call I think my response was "sod off, they lost a headlamp, no one suffered an injury, and you can write that down as my statement".
Everyone (apart from me, I'm awesome) failed to meet the "don't be a dick" rule.
burchill - Member
Along the same lines as Princess up there, another moron-shaming site: http://yolocaust.de/
The 'please remove my picture' e-mail address is genius
"I'm on one of the pictures and suddenly regret having uploaded it to the internet. Can you remove it?"
Yes. Just send an email to undouche.me@yolocaust.de
...and don't know what to do in an emergency...
😀
I carry a high-vis vest in the car for this very reason. I see so many near misses and aftermaths of accidents on my daily commute that I suspect that sadly I will have to deploy it one day. It is surprising how much better a response you get if you are wearing one of those !
Also, people do respond quite strangely sometimes to traumatic events. I had a call an ambulance once at an event where we had a VERY serious incident. I dialled 111, the New Zealand emergency services number. I haven't lived in EnZed for more than 20 years. This was a long way from the first ambulance I have called in this country and a very long way from the first event I have managed. (for the record, I figured out what I had done very quickly when I got a voice telling me I had called NHS 24 to read the internet first !)
Ambulance moved as it was blocking a parking space!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-38568000
Oh my God! What a prick!
Ambulance moved as it was blocking a parking space!
How come they can't find the car/owner with the details they have? Can't be many red minis with plates starting like that?
How come they can't find the car/owner with the details they have? Can't be many red minis with plates starting like that?
And video evidence - AIUI ambulances are littered with cameras
While it's tempting to believe that we're approaching the end of days, this:
I think most people are decent.
is the salient point. We only notice the idiots because they're conspicuous.
It's easy to blame technology, or the Internet, or "the youth of today," but I think there's a couple of other factors at play too.
The first is that crowds get a type of "group think." If you shouted "someone call an ambulance!" everyone will assume someone else will do it. If you single someone out, "YOU call an ambulance," they'll do it without question.
The second I think is a more uniquely British problem, that of not wanting to get involved. It's almost an extension of the "great British reserve." I see it all the time at supermarkets, people will stand and wait watching someone take an empty trolley back and park it up in the bay with the others, then walk over and take the same trolley straight back out again for themselves; the first won't offer and the second won't ask. This silliness would simply never happen in somewhere like the US, "hey bro, you done with that?" In the case of an accident, people won't offer help for fear that it's not wanted, or that they might do something wrong, or they read the Daily Mail and think it's an elaborate ruse by foreigners to steal their wallet, or any one of a million other excuses to avoid interacting with strangers.
And i know it's a small thing, but i couldn't find change for the car park a while ago and a stranger just gave it to me
Were weren't late for a Wedding in Lichfield were you ?
If so, that was me. 😉