Stop and ask!

[Moodyman]

A couple of months ago I was commuting home (by bike) with one of those colds that was ok in the morning but had deteriorated by the afternoon. I was really struggling up a long steep climb and when I reached the top I pulled up onto the pavement for a breather.

I was in such a bad way that I was hunched over the handlebars.

A woman stopped her car, wound down her window and asked if I was ok and whether she could give me a lift. I declined as I was now on the long drop to home.

But it was a staggering beautiful gesture considering I'm 6ft 2in and was wearing a balaclava.

 

[screenman]

Not at all. Just questioning the odds.

 

[summerdays]

I've stopped a couple of times, even when it's just a small child crying with a cut with their parent. Sometimes the offer of a plaster to make it better is all it needs to help the child stop crying. I'll also approach young children where I can't see the parent and ask where Mum is.... (I think being on a bike and female makes that easier as it would be hard to run off with a child on the bike so you are less of a threat when the parent suddenly appears trying to find their child that has run on ahead.)

 

[Moodyman]

On another occasion, in the days leading up to Christmas during the harsh winter of 2010, I pulled off a main road into a quiet office park to attend to a recalcitrant front derailleur.

This was in the middle of the evening and all the lights were out. Just then a man in a suit opens the front door of his office, sets the alarm on the way out and locks the front door. As he's walking to his Range Rover, he spots me in the corner of the car park and walks over.

After asking if everything was ok, he offers to chuck the bike into the back of his plush car and to drive me home. I declined the offer and reassured him I'd be on my way in a few moments.

Never underestimate the goodness of other people.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Hence the call to police..dont put yourself in a position you cant prove with young people.
but as said that's what we have become and Why lots just dont stop and ask

About 20 years ago i worked Friday and Saturday nights in a bar in Blackburn. As i got into my car to drive home one night,a young woman came up to me and asked how far she was from Halifax(about 45 miles). She was clearly very drunk. I reckoned she'd been left behind by her friends. This was in the days before mobile phones,so she had no way of contacting them. I offered her a lift to the nearest police station. She took up my offer and fell asleep on the back seat. I drove her to the police station about 5 miles away. I took a risk as much as her,as she could've told them anything when i got there.This was in the days when police stations were open 24 hours a day. I don't think i'd do the same thing now. Where could you take someone in times of distress these days?

 

[mark st1]

Where could you take someone in times of distress these days?

Cheeky Nando's ?

 

[Accy cyclist]

Cheeky Nando's ?

How about the overstretched local A&E department? I'm sure they'd appreciate that on a drunken Friday or Saturday night.

 

[Flyboy]

I was driving down a local hill a few years back, the rain was torrential. There where several cars in front of me , as we got half way they all slowed down . When I got to the point they where slowing down, I could see there was an old man (70,s) crawling in the gutter , the water was actually lapping over his head ( it really was ) I just could not pass by.
I got him back on his feet , and ok he had had a drink or two, but knew where he lived etc etc etc , I got him home save and sound. I always wonder what would have happened if I had not helped him.

 

[ColinJ]

From my experience the reason most people dont stop is because of fear...not because of lack of care

The 72 year old man lying in the road in THIS SHAMEFUL INCIDENT must have really frightened the dozens of drivers who swerved round him and left him there!

 

[jonny jeez]

The 72 year old man lying in the road in THIS SHAMEFUL INCIDENT must have really frightened the dozens of drivers who swerved round him and left him there!

Don't blame me for telling you how it is.

For every shameful incident of a poor fellow lying in the street needing help, there are just as many incidents of people exploiting others sense of responsibility by pretending to be that poor fellow.

I don't like it, I don't agree with it, I don't support it

but I do recognise it.

People moan that in the "good old days" we were more caring and more likely to offer help. That's just not true. The real truth is that we are just as caring as we have always been (as a society) but that criminals and those out to exploit now stoop much lower than they have ever done before.

Good people are still good but bad people have just gotten badd-er

 

[screenman]

Don't blame me for telling you how it is.

For every shameful incident of a poor fellow lying in the street needing help, there are just as many incidents of people exploiting others sense of responsibility by pretending to be that poor fellow.

I don't like it, I don't agree with it, I don't support it

but I do recognise it.

People moan that in the "good old days" we were more caring and more likely to offer help. That's just not true. The real truth is that we are just as caring as we have always been (as a society) but that criminals and those out to exploit now stoop much lower than they have ever done before.

Good people are still good but bad people have just gotten badd-er

Proof please of your shameful incident paragraph.

 

[screenman]

Proof please of your shameful incident paragraph.

Must be spending a lot of time looking.

It makes my blood boil that people could even think for one second about themselves when a person could need help.

 

[Saluki]

Well done on helping.

I once saw a chap, probably in his early 20s, looking poorly on a verge. I carried on driving for about 1/4 mile, stopped and called 999 for him. Someone came and he got up and scarpered. I'd seen in the local paper that there were people pretending to be hurt to then steal a car with their friends who were hiding in the bushes. I wasn't, as a woman in the car alone, going to to take the risk. Had he been a genuinely hurt person, the ambulance and police showing up within 10 minutes would have been helpful to him.
Had it been an elderly chap, stuck under a scooter, I would have got out of the car though.

 

[jefmcg]

For every shameful incident of a poor fellow lying in the street needing help, there are just as many incidents of people exploiting others sense of responsibility by pretending to be that poor fellow.

Seriously? This is errant nonsense. Thousands of people across the UK need help every day - I have a few times over the nearly 2 decades I have lived here, and I am not feeble. Even it faking illness was endemic - it's not - in the UK, it would still only be dozens or maybe hundreds of times a day. Still way less than ordinary people who need help.

Oh, unless you live in Russia. I gather it's a big problem there.

 

[jefmcg]

One day, at the end of a training session, I was in a carpark by the Thames talking to a friend. It was late - 10 pm, and it was dark. We were outside our rowing club, but everyone else had gone home. The club is a little bit isolated for London, in a dead end street with a crematorium next door and few neighbours except for the recycling centre. A few hundred metre away you'd be protected by street lights and passing cars, but just in the carpark, anything could happen.

A woman ran towards us from the riverside tow path. "My boyfriend is chasing me. I think he wants to hurt me." I sized her up, and knew straightaway that if she pulled a knife on me, she'd win. There were two equal possibilities - that she was in trouble and I could easily help her, or she wanted my cash and phone and credit cards. She looked desperate, but I have no idea how to tell which was true.

I decided immediately that I had to help her. If she was telling the truth, she was in immediate physical danger. If she wanted to rob me, well, hey, it's only money. Luckily my friend was less of an idiot than me. Once she realised I was going to drive this stranger to the nearest station, she said she'd follow me. So, yeah, no risk at all. But if I left her there, and something had happened. I'd have never forgiven myself. I've been robbed, and it "only" took a year for me to get over it.

Bonus points if you can identify which rowing club based on the above information.