Fell off the Train

squashy

A nice story though: My husband is a cab driver and stopped because he saw a blind man at a bus stop looking confused. He got the guy to jump in and dropped him off for free in the next town. Call it Karma if you want but he was then flagged down there by a businessman who had missed a train and needed to get from this little district in Manchester to Birmingham Airport- kerching!

dollyrocks

Funnily enough, it was when living in London for 10 years that I experienced the most helpful people (and helped most people myself, I think, though that was more because I worked in a very touristy area).

Having said that...a few years ago I got a viral infection called labyrinthitis (sp?!) that affects your inner ear and screws up your balance. The first sign I had of it was when I was travelling on the tube to work and felt very dizzy, so I got off the tube and decided to go up to the entrance of the station to get some fresh air. I can't remember what station this was now (North London somewhere as I was eventually taken to the Whittington hospital) but there was a bus station there too so I made my way over to a bus stop so I could sit down - and fainted, smacked my head off the pavement and totally knocked myself out. Came to about 20 minutes later with an ambulance there and the first thing I could hear was some woman saying to the paramedic "look, I'm sorry for her and everything, but do you know how long you'll be because your ambulance is in the way of the buses." The paramedic and a couple of bus drivers gave her short shrift! It quite upset me at the time, though, but now I think it's really pretty funny.

kataklysm

Wow.. I'm just uttlery gobsmacked at some of the stories here, even after having lived in London for 7 years, I can't remember seeing anything as tragic as these stories. I did once pull a man from the gap between a tube train and the platform, while his girlfriend just stood and squealed, and everyone else gawped and backed away, watching for the inevitable outcome. Or perhaps they thought they'd be electrocuted..! And I had a fall of my own in St Albans a few years back, got both feet tangled in a hubcap ring (I still look for those things on the pavement and curse the ones I find) and landed facefirst on the concrete, damaged a few ribs and passed out. After a few minutes of getting my breath back (I assumed no one would help), I spotted a couple who were trying desperately to cross the road through traffic to get to me. So there is hope
That said, I got a flat tyre last year and had to park on the tarmac cycle path to get a purchase for changing the tyre, and was LESS than impressed by the self-righteous cyclists who insisted on squeezing through the inch of space between my car and the hedgerow just to prove a point. Not one offered to help, a few even grumbled at me, despite the miles of space I'd left on the other side of the car... and that from an apparently-educated rural East of England town. Goes to show I suppose.
I guess there are the odd occasions when you might genuinely fear for your safety, walking alone late at night for instance I would probably think twice about approaching a stranger, unless they were bleeding profusely. But that doesn't extend to walking over elderly ladies!! Be ashamed Britain! And to those like me who would drop everything to help, give yourselves a gold star

WhiteHorse

Introuble28 wrote: »

Anyway, the thing that made me sad was that when I fell and I was obviously hurt, no one stopped to see if I was ok. People actually stepped over me!

I broke my thighbone last winter. Whilst flat out on the pavement, I asked a female passerby to phone for an ambulance. She said "I'm not getting involved" and quickly walked away. With no-one else around, I had to get my mobile out of my trouser pocket and dial 999 myself.

This is a very sick country.

WhiteHorse

InaPickle wrote: »

How is it possible that people have become so self-absorbed and selfish that they can't spare just a few minutes of their time?

The liberalism (the Me, Me, Me culture) of the 1960's, and then the Thatcherism of the 1980's (another variety of the Me, Me, Me culture).

lolly1981

i would like to add though there are lots of acts of kindness that goes unnoticed.

i was 6 months pregnant with my DS1 and on a long trip from devon to norwich, i was due to be paid some money in my account that day which meant i could get food for the trip, it wasnt there we had no food in the cupboard so i had the prospect of a long trip with no food. my ex managed to borrow some money and put it in my account but for whatever reason i couldnt access it so i was sat in victoria bus station waiting for my bus which had then been delayed by an hour or so, with no money and no food, talking to my ex i was crying (very hormonal lol) on the phone. the lady next to me had been listening, when i stopped talking she handed me some money and told me to go get something to eat and drink, i felt awful taking from a stranger...i did however go and get a sandwich and drink and gave her the change./...i only got what i needed, i know i wouldnt have died to have gone those few more hours with no food or drink but being PG it was making me very dizzy and unwell so i was very grateful to her.

another story of kindness...wasnt me but a lady had written to the local paper, she had just ben diagnosed with cancer and was sitting in a supermarket cafe and was crying, a guy walks over with a bunch of flowers and hands them to her ...saying you look like you need a little cheering up then walked away.
she said it really helped deal with the bad news and that life wasnt all that bad. people made it worth it.

gaz_jones

WolfSong2000 wrote: »

I seem to remember there being sort of psychological explanation (apparently)...something along the lines of, if an accident/incident happens in a crowded place, everyone assumes that someone else will deal with it. This is men have managed to get away with raping women on subway trains (think it happened in New York). You're actually better off having an accident/getting attacked in an area with less people as theoretically those fewer people will feel more obliged to help? Who knows?

It's called the Bystander effet. Very interesting read.

I don't doubt a lot of it is just a sign of the times too though.