Hundreds walk past a collapsed teenager

When you read articles like this one about a collapsed teenager who received no help from hundreds of people who walked past, do you suppose this is an indication of today’s society in general? Or is there a reason people don’t like to help out?

This isn’t the first article I’ve read of this nature, but it’s always a little intriguing – what makes someone walk past another person without checking that they’re ok?

“The young university student, who did not want to be identified, collapsed to the pavement outside a crowded Perth department store as she was walking to the train station, but received no offers of help from the hundreds of people who walked past. ”
 
“The young woman was described by her family yesterday as slightly built, well-dressed and kind.”


It’s difficult not to notice someone collapsed on the ground – I wonder what goes through people’s heads? Is it judgmental thoughts, like “those teenagers and their drugs – serves em right!” Or maybe “they’ve obviously had too much to drink last night!”

Possibly it’s thoughts of worry or fear, uncertainty of how to help – “I’ll just pretend I didn’t see THAT!”

upset
credit: nyki_m

Honestly I would have thought that most people would help someone else out (particularly in Australia where this happened, where there’s a huge culture of mateship), however this doesn’t seem to be the case in reality. Maybe when it comes down to the crunch, most people avoid getting involved for some reason or other.

I wonder if rather than fear of the situation, it’s more of a selfish act:
“No time to stop! I’m in a hurry to get somewhere. Sorry, can’t really get tangled up with giving statements or wasting my precious time.”

Could we give the benefit of the doubt and say it has more to do with lack of first-aid knowledge? Hardly….

The school chaplain in the article feels it may be a combination of things, stating:

“It was disturbing that anyone would be treated so callously, but a combination of fear and selfishness would have kept people away. ”
 
“My fear (if we don’t change) is that we will become more anxious and more fearful as a society. Then we’ll have to say to ourselves, that if everyone thinks the way I do, if something happens to me, if I have an asthma attack or if I faint or something else awful happens, no one is going to come to my aid either.”

Why are we so worried about helping someone out? Perhaps our good intentions don’t amount to much when we’re actually put in that situation. Would you stop to help someone who’s collapsed? Would it make a difference if they were elderly? Younger? A tramp? Think about it…