"SO INHUMANE" Hartford Hit & Run Video - Is it Really?

[El Pinko]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/06/05/national/a093844D25.DTL&tsp=1

Video shows bystanders ignoring hit-and-run victim

By STEPHEN SINGER, Associated Press Writer

(06-05) 14:57 PDT Hartford, Conn. (AP) --

A 78-year-old man is tossed like a rag doll by a hit-and-run driver and lies motionless on a busy city street as car after car goes by. Pedestrians gawk but appear to do nothing. One driver stops briefly but then pulls back into traffic. A man on a scooter slowly circles the victim before zipping away.

The chilling scene — captured on video by a streetlight surveillance camera — has touched off a round of soul-searching in Hartford, with the capital city's biggest newspaper blaring "SO INHUMANE" on the front page and the police chief lamenting: "We no longer have a moral compass."

"We have no regard for each other," said Chief Daryl Roberts, who on Wednesday released the video in hopes of making an arrest in the accident that left Angel Arce Torres in critical condition.

However, Roberts and other city officials backtracked on Thursday. After initially saying he was unsure whether anyone called 911, he and other city officials appeared at a news conference in which they said that four people dialed 911 within a minute of the accident, and that Torres received medical attention shortly after that.



POLICE BULLETIN:
http://www.hartford.gov/Police/PR_2008/2008_06_04_TorresHitandRunPR_Video.htm

VIDEO:
http://www.hartford.gov/Police/Video/35%20Park%20St.%205-30-08.wmv


Okay, now I watched the video. First off, the man in the video is not feeble for 78, and for some reason walks out into the middle of a busy street without the using a crosswalk.

Then, for some reason, some idiot drivers swerve into the left lane/opposing traffic lane - it seems almost as though they deliberately want to hit the guy. (?! :wtf:)

So the guy lays there on the ground, and for a little while, bystanders are looking at him (definitely not ignoring him) and then a police car shows up exactly one minute after the accident.

I think the complaints about these people are unfair. We've all heard you shouldn't move or touch an accident victim because of the risk of causing even worse injuries. I think the bystanders were considering this, and that's why they didn't touch him. One person seems to be telling the driver of a car something (possibly suggesting he call the cops on his cell?)

It's impossible to judge what these people were saying or thinking at the distance the video is shot at, especially considering that they only had seconds to think what to do between the accident and the arrival of police.


I'm more disappointed that people are so judgmental and cynical than I am about the behavior of the bystanders in the video.

[Prefer]

1. You are open to be sued if you touch the person

that's one consideration.

[lonestarnot]

2. No you aren't!

Good samaritan law offers protection from suit in circumstances just like this one.

[El Pinko]

5. I still wouldn't touch him for fear of hurting him.

I like to think I would try to flag traffic away until the cops came, but it's only ONE MINUTE in the video until the cops come. I can't say with any certainty that I would think so fast in an emergency.

[lonestarnot]

8. an eye witness never knows how they are going to react until they are an eye witness.

So it's ok.

[seabeyond]

3. i owuldnt have touched, that is for sure. i would have had body in front of man

to make sure another car didnt run over him. but if you didnt see the actual hit and going forward in your day in thought, to see the body as moving forward it may not register. when watching video it is clear in brain what is happening, ... when on sidewalk or something focused elsewhere, everything is right there cognitively.... ergo action

[anigbrowl]

4. Nobody ever got sued for kneeling down beside someone and asking if they were OK.

Naturally I wouldn't try to pick someone up and move them unless a building was about to fall on them or something. I think this is a silly objection.

[El Pinko]

6. The people are clearly talking to the man...

...and he appears to be responding to them.

Many of us have been told to "not touch" an accident victim, and some people take that literally, although in reality clasping hands would do no harm.

[lonestarnot]

9. Best policy not to try to ever move someone or any of their parts after something like that.

I was taught to cover them with something. Something about shock causes the body temp. to drop? or am I senile?

[Runcible Spoon]

10. yes, especially if they are losing blood

:hug:

[aikoaiko]

7. People should have at least verbally conforted him if not physically.

Yes, I've been there where I had to help bloody people in a car accident. Sure its a little scary. I thought about HIV, accidentally hurting the person, not knowing what to do exactly, etc/ In the end, I couldn't do much except apply pressure to bleeding and tell them that help was on the way.