We were stopped at the traffic lights on a hot and humid Friday afternoon in Darwin.
“OMG! Ross”, I yelled, “Nobody is helping” as I pointed to a young guy who was laying underneath his motorbike at the traffic lights on the side street to us.
As we were waiting for the lights to turn green I watched in horror as I saw the guy and the bike fall over.
I was stunned that nobody rushed to help.
There was a car in front of him and a car behind him and a long line of traffic.
Our lights turned green and we crossed the intersection and pulled up.
Without thinking, I jumped out of the van and ran to his aid.
Thankfully, by this time another man had appeared to help, amidst the women from the front car who only seemed interested in whether he had damaged their car before taking off.
We got the bike off him and picked the broken pieces up off the road and moved to the grass across the road.
He was shaken but okay.
He was more concerned that it wasn’t his bike.
He mentioned he was the apprentice and was able to call someone to come with a trailer to pick him up.
The other guy on the scene was able to wait with him.
I raced over to the motorhome and got him a bottle of water.
With that we got going.
“Wow, I can’t believe people didn’t rush to help”, I said to Ross.
It really upset me to see people just sitting in their car watching.
I know I’m not supposed to judge. Well that’s a judgement of myself, isn’t it?
It was another sad example of what psychologists call “The Bystander Effect”.
What this means is that if you’re in trouble, you’re better off to have just one other person around because if there are many, they will all stand back, thinking that someone else will help and of course, nobody does.
I’m curious. What would you have done?
Would you have sat in your car or would you have gone to his aid?
No judgement.
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