It was beautiful weather here this past Monday. Perfect weather for going for a walk, or a ride, or playing in the park. I had the day off work and K wanted to show me the colors on a particular building on the beach. Colors that maybe we could use to paint the exterior of our own house. As it turned out the colors were not quite as he remembered them to be. Go figure. As we headed towards Sid's school, driving down the middle of three lanes, we came upon a crumpled figure. The man was lying there, literally in the middle of the road. He couldn't move. He was barely breathing. At least five people had already gotten out of there cars and all were on their cell phones. Further down the same lane, maybe fifteen feet away, was an almost unrecognizable bicycle. I knew I couldn't help. Authorities had already been called many times over. We maneuvered slowly into the right lane to go around the scene. He was probably in 40's. One man, the one I believed hit him, was shaking as he tried to tell the 911 operator the condition of the man. He went over and I heard him say that the man looked like he was having trouble breathing. There was a river of blood leading away from the pool by his head. We kept driving. The news soon reported that the area we had just left was blocked due to a fatality.
I think about that man. How he was lying there. Dying alone. Couldn't I have at least stopped and held his hand?
7 comments:
I am the worst about things like that. I never give serious thought to stopping. If there's a road hazard caused by an accident I am more focused on getting past the traffic so I get to my destination.
I went to lunch with a friend of mine who noticed an accident on a freeway we were passing over. She stopped me in mid conversation, stretched her hand in the direction of the accident and started praying. I was looking at her like she was martian. I was thinking "Why is she praying? She don't know dem like that!"
thats a tough place to be... i mean... really, what do you do?
i suspect that the man wasn't alone in his progression to the NEXT level... wherever the choices in his life led him... paradise or not... he wasn't alone.
hugz,
neena
That's a tough situation. My 2nd hubby always wanted to stop ... when I asked him why he said, "If it were you wouldn't you want someone to stop?" I guess he's right. I still don't stop but I do pray for those involved.
ShellyP: You are a sweet and tender-hearted person. Don't ever change. The world needs more people like you.
You might have stopped if no one else was there I guess.
One winter, I once saw a cyclist run right into a moving car. he was on the ground in pain but a whole bunch of folk rushed in to look after him so I moved on.
If he were alone or you weren't going to pick up your baby, I'm sure you would have stopped. Don't feel bad about not stopping. Most people wouldn't have given it another thought.
i'd like to think i'd stop, if i was first on the scene and no one else was there to comfort/help him. otherwise, if it's an accident or something and police,etc. are already on the scene, i try not to rubberneck and rather just drive by (with a thought in my head how sad and hoping that it's not too bad) - so that i don't contribute to the slow down of traffic.
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