‘Bystanders’ criticised after death
Motorist hits out at people’s failure to stop their cars and help after pedestrian fatally hit on busy road
Amotorist who stopped at an accident in West Auckland that killed a pedestrian has hit out at “bystanders” for not pulling over to help. The driver, who went to help a critically injured pedestrian hit by a car on Te Atatu Rd, was shocked several others drove past the fatally injured woman without stopping.
The man, who did not want to be named, spotted the woman lying on the road about 6.30pm on Tuesday.
“From a distance I thought it was a rubbish bag, she was wearing all black. But when I got closer, it was a person,” he said.
“I pulled over to see what is going on and it looked like she had been hit by a car. I moved her on her back and she was unconscious.”
The man said about seven or eight cars also drove past the woman but no one stopped to help.
“They all slowed down and saw her on the floor but no one could bother to stop. I’m not sure how long she had been there for, but I’m sure somebody could do something or at least call the ambulance,” he said.
“That lady is somebody’s family member . . . What if she was your mother or your sister? Would you want people to treat her like that?”
The man was about to call an ambulance but one happened to drive past so he waved it down.
The paramedics tried for about 40 minutes to revive the woman.
“It is hard to see something like that happen to anyone out there, but what’s harder is people have gone sour these days,” the witness said.
St John said they did receive a call
What if she was your mother or your sister? Would you want people to treat her like that? Motorist after pedestrian’s death
about the accident shortly before the first ambulance arrived.
Police said later that night that the pedestrian had died in hospital.
They said she had critical injuries. The serious crash unit is investigating.
Danny Osborne, lecturer in psychology at the University of Auckland, said the incident was a pretty clear example of the bystander effect.
“We like to believe there is safety in numbers, but we are actually probably less likely to receive assistance when we are in a large group rather than if there is only one or two people around,” Osborne said.
“It is almost like there is a diffusion of responsibility when you are in a large group, so each individual feels less responsibility and we assume someone else is going to act rather than ourselves.”
He said that phenomenon would have affected the people who failed to stop at the crash scene.
“When you are in your car and driving by, you assume someone else is taking responsibility.
“It very well could be that they saw this good Samaritan helping the pedestrian who had been hit, and assumed someone else was already taking care of it.”
Osborne said there were multiple stages people had to go through when deciding to help someone, and if you understood the stages better you were more likely to help.
“The first stage is noticing that there is a problem unfolding.
“The next stage is interpreting that it is an emergency situation . . . the passersby presumably saw the person on the side of the road and interpreted it as an emergency.
“The next stage is responsibility and that is where I think things went wrong here and people didn’t take responsibility for helping,” he said.
“After the responsibility phase then there is the decision stage. The final stage is stopping and helping.”
St John assistant director of operations Tony Devanney said generally the NZ public were very willing to help and act as first responders.
“Where this doesn’t happen can often be attributed to a fear or lack of confidence about not having the right skills or first aid to help.”