People not dialling 999

[Conniebygaslight]

A couple of months ago, DH & I driving along a motorway nearish to home, noticed a young guy straddling the railings on the overhead bridge. I immediately dialled 999 giving details as best I could and carried on our journey.
later that evening I noticed on a local community page that the motorway had been closed for a couple of hours. People were speculating about it being ‘a jumper’ and lots of people were saying they’d seen him straddling the bridge. I commented that I’d seen him and had dialled 999. The next day there were a few replies to my comment from what I presume to be his family thanking me profusely as he had been helped by emergency services.
What staggered me was the amount of people who had simply driven past this obviously distressed individual and didn’t think to call for help.
I just wondered what other people would have done out of interest?

@Comicalanatomical

Maybe they were alone in the car and it wasn’t legal for them to ring.

You can hold and use your phone when driving if you need to call 999 or 112 in an emergency if it is unsafe to park up and do so. Multiple police web sites.

You're right OP, many people won't bother. There have been reports of women being attacked and raped in broad daylight, even on trains and no one has intervened. I know of child abuse cases where neighbours and bystanders have done nothing and domestic abuse cases where people haven't intervened

I drove past a similar situation about a year ago. Didn't stop because I had DC in the car and wouldn't want them to see if it went badly, but called 999 on hands free. Loads of calls already apparently because I only started to give the location and the call handler said, ah yes we've had a lot of calls about that, police are already on their way. And literally 5 seconds later we saw the unmarked car speeding towards.

I know not enough people call, and there are a lot that will walk on/drive on by, but there are enough people that do call/stop/help.

Thank you for understanding my post and not thinking I’m looking for glory…

I also remember going on holiday about a month after Madeline McCann had gone missing. Everyone was hyper vigilant around their children and posters were everywhere. We got talking to another family staying in our hotel who told us there was another couple leaving their baby in its cot and going down to eat and even out of the hotel. I asked if they’d reported it, they said no, they didn’t want to get involved……🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️