To set the scene, there was a big truck in the middle of the street, a guy on the ground with quite a bit of blood all around him kind of rolling around in pain, and three other people just standing around him watching. It's the three people just standing around that I have a real problem with. Two of them were the other members of the three man crew on the truck picking up our recycling. The third bystander was one of the ladies that works as a caregiver for my 95 year old neighbor. The poor guy that had been hit was in a lot of pain. He was covered in blood around his face and was missing some teeth and his head was already swelling. He had a puncture wound or deep gash just below his rib cage, and possibly a broken arm at the very least. The three bystanders had already called 9-1-1, but they weren't doing anything for the poor guy on the ground. He was literally just rolling around on the concrete moaning in pain while they stood near him and watched.
I grabbed a towel from the back of the truck and put it under his head and then started to converse with him. He was actually pretty lucid so I used an old triage trick to get him to be still by getting him to focus on keeping the soles of his feet on the ground. I checked his wounds to make sure nothing looked immediately life threatening (none did) and generally just tried to keep him calm and still.
The lady from next door actually just went back into the house! I know she isn't a nurse, but as a licensed caretaker I imagine she has some kind of medical training but she didn't seem interested in doing anything.
More disturbing were the actions of the injured guys' co-workers. When I first walked out, before I even got out of my driveway, one of them yelled to me (and I swear these were the first words said to me) "He wasn't paying attention!" The guy was so worried about himself and what might happen to him that he was already trying to blame the guy who got hit for everything. I don't know whose fault it was. I don't care. The fact that these guys were only worried about themselves when their colleague was rolling on the ground choking on his own blood is the disturbing part to me. The second guy either didn't speak English or pretended not to.
When the firetruck and ultimately ambulance showed up the EMTs were trying to figure out exactly what happened and the two guys just acted like they had no idea! I got annoyed and pressed them for some answers and finally got that he was hit while the truck was backing up. That's all they would tell us.
After the ambulance left with the guy I went back in the house, washed the blood off, changed clothes, and then headed back out to run the errands I was going out for in the first place. As I drove past the two guys in their truck, undoubtedly waiting for an incident investigation team from Waste Management to show up, I was just thinking to myself "What's wrong with people?!?" If you see someone that at the very least is a co-worker in this case suffering and in real danger and the only thing going through your mind is "Am I going to be in trouble or get fired?", there's something wrong with you.
I've often said that the world would be a much better place if there were a lot fewer people in it. What I saw today just re-emphasized that point.
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