This morning on our way home from the beach, the huskies and I were waiting to cross Highway 1. It stresses me out when it’s busy and I always make sure to keep the huskies on tight, short leashes while we are near the road, especially after hearing a story of someone who didn’t :(
We went to the harbor beach today, and not Surfer’s Beach. We have a standard place to cross Highway 1 for each beach. As we stood there waiting for traffic to stop/clear I heard a loud CRACKBOOM! I saw a car swerve out of the oncoming northbound lane and go sideways and then saw 2 other cars in the southbound lane swerve and heard BOOM, CRASH! Very, very loud. One of the cars actually jumped up on the sidewalk/trail and was basically now sitting exactly where I would have been with the huskies had we been coming back from Surfer’s beach. Creepy. Didn’t like thinking about that.
Anyway, there was a giant truck behind the 2 cars in the southbound lane and he just drove right around the wreck and kept going. As did ALL of the cars in both lanes. Now, this was not a little fender-bender. There was car carnage all over the road that you could hear being crunched as cars drove around the accident. Like, actual fenders and pieces of cars, not tiny bits of of headlights or something.
2 of the 3 cars were sideways on the 2-lane highway. And not 1 car stopped to see if everyone was alright. I saw 2 bicyclists stop and talk to the passenger of one of the cars. The fire station is right across the street so I ran there and told them and they zoomed over they very quickly (they also were pretty cute and liked the huskies! Bonus!)
I remember several years ago I was driving on Highway 1 through Pacifica during a heavy rainstorm and I saw a small truck skid off and overturn. I pulled over and the lady was crawling out of her truck (which was upside down) and she seemed physically OK but obviously very shaken up. I then realized that no one else stopped. A truck just flipped over and not one other car stopped to see if the person was OK. As she was using my cell to call her husband another car pulled over and the guy said he called 911 and he stayed with us as well. But just 2 people out of countless cars during AM commute stopped to see if another person in obvious need was alright.
What the hell people? I am not the most compassionate person in the world. If you aren’t fluffy, you are pretty much on your own. But jeez…in situations where someone could be really hurt, of course I stop or do what I can to help. As I hope someone would stop for me. But I am actually pretty disabused of this idea and don’t look for help from others. I mean you might be late to your stripper pole exercise class, or your meeting at Starbucks with the other dorks.
I swear every time I might start forgetting how horrid most people really are, I get reminded of it.
6:33 am on October 17th, 2010
first of all – i’m so glad that you and the huskies are okay!
i think you’re absolutely right – people have become de-sensitized to the pain of others – why? who knows – is it as you said because of their “busy” lifestyles? are some people only nice on Sundays? or when it’s convenient for them?
it’s very sad.
but good call going to the fire station- i would have done the same thing. ;)
8:30 am on October 19th, 2010
The real horror movies and shows are the people that you encounter on a daily basis. Living here in the City, you often see some really vile stuff and yes, I have seen people step over someone who has obviously just had a heart attack or seizure in order to get to their subway train or catch a cab.
No one wants to get involved for fear of lawsuits or other stupid reason. When you think that it can’t be worse, there is always someone who is such a lowlife that they have to stretch as far upward as you can imagine just to hit rock bottom.
10:39 am on October 19th, 2010
I know! The car ended up right where we cross. That was creepy.
It is very sad how people don’t care. Hopefully they never heed help…