The Boston Globe for March 9 reported this tragic story. Only four people in a crowded T Station stopped to help. Would I have walked by? How about you? Why didn't more people step forward? What were people thinking as they walked by? How did they excuse themselves from involvement? Would I, would you, have had the same excuses? I want to believe that I would have been a fifth person had I been there. I'll bet you want to believe the same.
But how many times have you and I passed by others in need in less dramatic situations? last week? last month? yesterday? How have I numbed myself to responding to those in need? Am I learning, slowly, to excuse myself from involvement?
I think of yesterday morning's prayer asking God for a servant's heart... Perhaps I need that prayer more than I thought...
As 82-year-old Helen Jackson lay dying, pinned to the metal grating of an MBTA escalator that clenched her scarf and hair, commuters walked past her toward the exit, either unaware of the dire circumstances or unwilling to get involved.
A few good Samaritans intervened. One slammed the button that stopped the rising escalator. Another pleaded for any sort of help - scissors or even nail clippers to cut her free. Amid the muted chaos, a municipal security officer just outside the station radioed an emergency, then waited by his car for paramedics to arrive.
Moments mattered, and in the end, as one middle-aged man crouched at the top of the escalator, holding Jackson's hand while urging her to keep breathing, her grip loosened, her hand fell away, and she died. She was pinned so tightly to the escalator grating that the man couldn't fit his fingers between her scarf and her neck.
Two eyewitnesses, a father and his son, relayed these observations to the Globe, the fullest version yet of Jackson's death on an escalator at the State Street Station a little before 10 a.m. on Feb. 24. Although their account doesn't directly contradict any official reports, it adds a chilling level of detail to an elderly woman's final moments in a very public place. It also offers a sobering undertone, in the view of the witnesses, of a frustratingly casual response in a crowded place to a victim in dire need.
"I just felt they all let this woman down," said Larry Fitzpatrick of Framingham who said he was one of but four people who stopped to help Jackson of Dorchester. She was on her way to an eye doctor appointment when she somehow fell on the escalator and got tangled in the machinery.
"All we needed was a box cutter, knife, even a nail clipper, but we had nothing available," Fitzpatrick said. "She was struggling so much before she finally let go."
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(read the complete article here)
I encountered a situation 2 weeks ago. I was riding the T and I blind man stepped on. A woman was sitting in the handicap seat , which he quickly realized. He made his was back to the door and stood in front of it. We all watched. At the next stop, as people were boarding, he became disoriented as the boarders were pushing past him. The doors closed, and only THEN did it occur to me to offer him my seat. I went up to him and said "I have a seat directly across from this door, I want you to have it"
ReplyDeleteSomeone else that was standing said thank you to me but I was still embarassed. I KNOW better. This was a blind man and it didnt occur to me to give up my seat until he was distressed??
I use that as a reminder to keep my eyes and heart wide open. I like to think I would have stopped for that woman. In fact, I really believe I would. But I keep remembering the blind man boarding and me just sitting there from Harvard to Central doing nothing but watching him awkwardly stand...
I am sitting here weeping and wondering. Did anyone have a cell phone? What did people think as they went by?
ReplyDeleteThank God for whoever stopped the escalator, thank God for that man int he video and his son. But still - it just seems so sadly wrong.
I am so glad you addressed this. I read the article and was truly shocked and saddened that this could happen. A situation like this sort of crystallizes for me man's inhumanity to man. I know that terrible things happen in war but when they happen so close to home, it rattles me. I'd like to think I would have stopped to help. I pray that I would have stopped to help.
ReplyDeleteI liked your questions, thought provoking, and to the point. I’m going to give my opinion to you questions in the order you posed them.
ReplyDeleteWould I have walked by?
Having known you for some time, yes, I believe you would have stopped.
How about you?
I definitely would have stopped, stopped the escalator, and tried to free her.
Why didn't more people step forward?
People are selfish, self absorbed and SCARED! This social psychological effect has become known as the “bystander effect.”
This occurs when individuals are less likely to offer help in an emergency situation when other people are present.
The probability of help is proportional to the number of bystanders. The greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help
What were people thinking as they walked by?
Basically they were thinking, “This is … Someone Else’s Problem.”
They are apathetic and assume someone else, the police, Fire Dept, will handle it.
They also may not have recognized the severity of the situation, the likelihood that this was a lethal situation was low, this woman most likely suffered heart failure or another complication as a result of fear and stress from her current situation.
Diffusion of responsibility is a
social phenomenon which tends to occur in groups of people above a certain critical size when responsibility is not explicitly assigned.
Diffusion of responsibility can manifest itself: through action or inaction, allow events to occur which they would never allow if they were alone. In this situation the group of people responded by; lack of reaction and completely non-responsive.
How did they excuse themselves from involvement?
Like the Genovese murder in NYC years back, by thinking, "someone else will handle this."
Would I, would you, have had the same excuses?
No way.