Left to Die!

Crowding Around I saw the most horrible thing the other day. As I was walking along one of the main roads with my friend Chris, we saw a crowd of people up ahead. It seemed strange that such a crowd of people would have gathered around on the main road, but we are getting used to seeing such unusual things. I never once expected to see what we found however. On getting closer, I could see that amongst the crowd there were both young and old, professionals and workers, locals and visitors. Yet not one of them moved. They all stood there standing around the center point of interest, not doing anything more than observing, and occasionally talking amongst themselves. Left to Die What was this point of attraction? This incredible center of interest? A body. Run over. Nobody had checked to see if this young lad of about 16 to 18 years of age lying face down on the pavement with a shoe forcefully removed during impact lying many meters to the side and parts of the car scattered around him was still even alive. Nobody had stooped down to check his pulse, or determine if there was anything that they could do for him. There he lay, just as he had landed, straight after the impact of being run over. The very life of this young man was ebbing away, his being starting to drift from this earth. Yet not a single person did a single thing. Nothing more than look. And wait. Look and wait. Total Confusion For what did they wait? I was confused. I could not understand this non-involvment. I could not make sense of their apathy. What if it had been their son? What if it had been their brother? I was aghast and at the same time bewildered at this profound display of nonchalance amongst so many and so varied a group of people. I needed to ask somebody... too many questions were burning in my head that just did not make sense. Senseless Answers A group of young girls huddled around the gate to one of the nearby houses provided the perfect opportunity. With incredulity I asked them how it could be that someone lay dying in the street and yet nobody did anything to help them. Their response... "you are not from here are you?" caught me off guard. They continued, "we can hear by the way you asked the question, expecting somebody to actually help." I explained to them that in Australia and New Zealand, you are compelled by law to help someone that had just been run over, and it was in fact illegal to do nothing. Their response was simply, "yes, but this is Argentina." On further inquiry and discussion I still got very little in terms of a reasonable response. It turns out that this is the expected thing to do in this country, and that everyone just hangs around watching, often as a person dies, without providing any assistance whatsoever. Of course somebody will have called the police, who can take up to 30 minutes to arrive on the scene, and they then call the ambulance, which can take all of an hour to arrive. So any chance that the person may survive should it be a critical situation is all but gone. So Much For The Police Just as we arrived on the scene, so did the police. Evidence that the accident had taken place a considerable time before. Even though I would have assumed it part of their responsibility, even the police did not rush to the boy still lying face down on the road surface and obviously unconcious - if not actually dead. Eventually, after wandering around the accident site and kicking around a few parts of the car that had been broken off during the impact of running a person over, they moved closer to see if he even lived. Checking the pulse, and moving an arm was the extent of their help. The boy remained in his original position. No further help was offered. Medical Help It was only a very short time later, something like 10 minutes, that the ambulance turned up at the scene. I did not see what they did with the boy, only that they loaded him into the vehicle and drove off at a slow pace, lights flashing as they always do, and no alarms. There was no hurry. For all indications, he was probably dead. A police officer threw away the impact-removed shoe so it landed into the gutter. I guess the lad would not be needing that any more. Too Many Questions An event like this leaves so many questions burning in my mind. It leaves me wondering why, why, why? It shakes up my whole world-view on the goodness of mankind. It leaves me sad for the possibility that if only one person had intervened perhaps that young lad would still be alive now. Or perhaps he still was alive when they took him. It did not look that way, but so many things are still so new to me here I may have misread the signals. I just have no idea. The whole event was so mind-blowing to me. Cautious Ever After After seeing the response of the people, something happened in Chris and me. Our usual carefree attitude, frogger type road crossings, suddenly took on a solemninity and cautiousness brought about by the awareness that we could very well have been that lad. Large gaps between the cars and double checking that all is safe. We had been sufficiently warned.