Helping broken down motorist

[Ravenbait]

Well done you for stopping. I've helped out motorists in the past as well, even giving one a push in ice. It's amazing how insulated people are, though. Very few people seem to care enough actually to do something any more.

Sam

 

[bauldbairn]

How good looking was she??Pretty women never wait long before help arrives!!!!

I've got two good intelligent female friends who are quite happy to rely on men stopping to help them!!!

I bought each a telescopic tyre lever and showed both individually how to change a tyre - both are nurses / work shifts / are married and niethers husband drives or has a clue about cars.

 

[bauldbairn]

Well done you for stopping. I've helped out motorists in the past as well, even giving one a push in ice. It's amazing how insulated people are, though. Very few people seem to care enough actually to do something any more.

Sam

Too true!

+1 - well done IanR.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

I agree most people do not care. I was surprised the other day though when I was changing a snapped coil spring in my car on the verge at the rear of my house (It is just a small road that goes to a rugby club). I was having a sh1t time and could not believe that I used to and enjoy this when I was younger. Anyway a guy in his late 40's whom was parked in the rugby club car park walked down and asked me if everything was ok and did I need a hand. I was just shocked as this is the first time that this has ever happened to me. But I just said its ok mate, thanks very much though. There are still some decent people about, just not many.

 

[661-Pete]

It's not always that bad. There are some Good Samaritan tales to warm the heart!

I hesitate somewhat before telling this rather sad and wistful tale, Mrs P didn't want me to, but it's been several months ago now.

Nothing to do with cycling, we were in the car going up to Steyning Bowl, one fine day last summer, with the idea to park there and walk to Cissbury Ring (a local beauty spot). It's a narrow 1-in-6 hill and quite tricky to negotiate even by car. Here. Well, there was this car in front of us going rather slowly, suddenly it started belching clouds of grey smoke and came to a halt. We couldn't pass so we stopped: then the driver got out, he was very elderly and looked rather frail and distressed. We asked him if we could help, he said he couldn't understand why his car had suddenly stopped. I offered to roll his car (a Renault clio) back and guide it to the side of the road, so that traffic could at least squeeze past. Then he told us his story, he lived in Steyning just down the hill, and sadly his wife had passed away the night before in Worthing Hospital, he was going to the hospital to pick up her effects. What could we say? Anyway it turned out that he had AA membership but no phone, we called the AA on his behalf. It's a fairly quiet road but another car with a family stopped, also offering help. I explained the situation to them, asked if they could possibly give this man a lift to the hospital. They agreed - I don't know if Worthing was out of their way or not (it would certainly have been a huge detour for us). So the man handed us his keys and we offered to wait for the AA man for him. Luckily it was a fine spot to sit on the bank and have our lunch while we waited.

When the AA man arrived he immediately diagnosed the trouble - worn-out clutch (as I'd guessed). He then mentioned (probably shouldn't have) that this man's date of birth was down in their files as 1915 - making him ninety-five. And still driving! The AA man was somewhat dismissive - made some remark about 'these old geezers don't know how to use the clutch' or something. I felt like retorting 'Hey, I'm no spring chicken myself, I've been de-clutching since you were in nappies'... but I held my peace. He didn't mean any offence: it just came out.

The AA man then took over responsibility for the car and arranged for it to be towed back to the owner's house in Steyning. We went on our way and still got our walk to Cissbury in - although we had to shorten our route.

I hope that old gentleman got savely delivered to the hospital, even under such sad circumstances, and was properly looked after. The folks who gave him the lift seemed genuinely sympathetic. We didn't really help much - just offered to stay around - but these others went way out of their way. People can be really decent sometimes...

 

[meenaghman]

Just as a quick hint.. if you do find your car broke down but there's a bit of juice in the battery you can use the starting motor to bump it up onto the kerb out of traffic...

 

[Arch]

I've been in this situation myself. I had a flat tyre outside a pub in Cannock and the pub was full of people. The people in the pub sat and watched me jack up the car, take the tyre off (which took a while as the wheel nuts were really tight), put the spare on, do up the wheel nuts again, un-jack the car and put the knackered tyre in the boot. I'd never had to do that before. Just after I'd finished, I walked into the pub to ask to wash my hands, as I was covered in dirt, when some bloke walked up to me and asked me if I needed any help, having watched me do the whole thing. If nobody had asked I wouldn't have minded, but it's the fact that he asked just having watched me change a tyre which was annoying.

When I was a kid, we were all woken in the small hours one Sunday, by an almighty crash. The milkman had driven his float into the telegraph pole outside our house. The canopy had been pushed back, and had pushed several crates of bottles off the back. Mum and Dad pulled on their dressing gowns, went out, got him inside and let him use our phone to call the dairy, then gave him a cup of tea. The dairy sent out a comedy recovery team* and a spare float, and the rest was transferred and off they went, leaving a slick of milk and broken glass in the gutter, and a free pint of double cream** in our fridge as a thankyou. After breakfast, Mum and Dad went out with brooms and dustpans, and swept up all the glass, for fear of all the neighbourhood cats lacerating their tongues.

The moment they finished, various neighbours came out and said "Oh, did something happen, can we help?". One woman, my sister and I had watched her come out when it was all being sorted out at 5am, on the pretext of putting something in her dustbin, to have a good gawp, and then go back in. There had been lace curtains twitching down the whole road.

*If you are going to turn a stricken milkfloat round in a cul-de-sac, towing it with a Land Rover, better to turn it round by pushing by hand, then attach to the towing vehicle, than attaching a 6 foot towbar, and then trying to turn the whole lot in the road.

** an unheard of luxury for us then.

 

[661-Pete]

Just as a quick hint.. if you do find your car broke down but there's a bit of juice in the battery you can use the starting motor to bump it up onto the kerb out of traffic...

Not if you have a worn out clutch, or a gearbox failure, or a broken drive shaft, or things like that.

 

[biggs682]

in this day and age i would never stop and volunteer help unless i had a witness with me , i know its not the done thing but how many times do we see people getting accused of doing wrong , when they were trying to do good

 

[Norm]

Not if you have a worn out clutch, or a gearbox failure, or a broken drive shaft, or things like that.

... or any form of automatic or computer-controlled transmission.

 

[Night Train]

I used to offer to help anyone broken down, truck, car, motorbike, cycle, walking and lost, trying to jump off a railway bridge...

I do so less often now due to potential for car jacking, bike theft, compensation culture, also I've come across a few people who, on the offer of help, cease to do anything to help themselves and don't even thank me for assisting them.

I still can't help stopping and offering though.

 

[Fnaar]

I'll always offer a push or whatever... same when out on the bike, I'm not very good at fixing stuff, but I'll always ask if someone is stopped/looking at their bike etc... I find I get the same too... only t'other day a bloke cycling past asked if I was OK (I was just adjusting a pannier)...

 

[avalon]

People are just the same here in Australia. Recently a pregnant woman spent several hours trapped in her car after hitting a tree on a country road, several cars passed before anyone stopped to help.

 

[darkstar]

It's not a car drivers thing, it's just a people thing, unfortunately.

 

[redjedi]

It's not a car drivers thing, it's just a people thing, unfortunately.

Especially in cities or large towns.
When I was knocked off my bike by a minicab in Turnham Green a couple of years ago I remember only one woman asking if I was ok even though it was right outside the tube station, next to 2 busy bus stops and a pedestrian crossing, there must have been at least 15-20 people crossing or walking past at the time, not to mention the queues of traffic.

I didn't need any help luckily but it did cross my mind afterwards. I know that if I ever saw someone get knocked down I would go out of my way to help.