So, would you drive round a screaming eight year old in the middle of the road and not stop to find out what's wrong with her?

[Caligula]

Very disturbing story \link{http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/news/thenews.html?in_page_id=1770\here}

Can't believe the excuses some of the readers are giving for the behaviour of the drivers who left this child bleeding by the roadside - people being scared of being accused of paedophilia, or that the child might have been a decoy for a gang - really, have people totally lost all sense of proportion and what's right?

Not sure it's any worse now than it used to be though - I collapsed in Hammersmith during the day when I was a student - and people walked over and around me tutting - not a single person stopped to help me and I ended up crawling to a nearby phone box to call dh (was bf then) to come and get me ! That was twenty years ago - and No I didn't look like a drunk etc.

The child decoy thing - is that gangs use a child or quite often a woman who pretends to be in distress or hurt - and you stop your car and get out - and they leap out from behind something - jump into your car and drive off - leaving you stranded ! And yes they often mug you for good measure - but the handbag would be in the car so not that much point ! It does happen here in the UK I'm afraid - and not just in BAD area !

My friend stopped a few years ago to help a young woman who ran into the road crying - my friend - who had been abuised herself - stopped to help thinking she was running from an abuser - and before she knew it she was alone in the country lane - no car, no phone no nothing ! She had to walk for 45 mins before reaching civilization and a phone ! This was in Herefordshire !

Oh and forgot to say - Yes I agree it is desperately sad - but the reality of it is that I believe you have to look after yourself and your own family first - so wouldn't risk my own or dd's safety.

Still think 8 is too youg to be crossing main road alone by the way !

It's reminded me of the mum on here whose little boy wandered out of nursery and along a busy road. Lord knows what would have happened to him had the man who stopped, sat him in his car and called the police had decided the risk of being called a paedophile was too great to help.

I just can't believe that your first instinct would be that a broken and bloodied child was a gang decoy.

That was 'your' in a general sense. Not directed at anyone in particular.

I agree - first instinct would be to help a child. Hate to say it but would be more suspicious if it was a teenager. Perhaps, once my dds are teenagers I'll feel differently. Maybe we respond best in situations that closely mimic our own lives/can imagine happening to us, like if young person involved was same age as your own child?

Bystander intervention theory is, I think how psychologists refer to the situation: if only a few people about, help is more forthcoming. When loads of people are about, everyone assumes someone else will help.

And theres a herd mentality in humans im sure of it. In supermarkets, if theres a queue people join it. Same in car parks. Doesnt matter that theres 2 spaces RIGHT there and a checkout girl waving shouting can I help you.
The 1st car drove past, so the 2nd did too, the 3rd....possibly.
If I was the driver I would have stopped. I have been the passenger in my mums car and have saw old men fall into the road and she has drove on and I have had to really shout at her to STOP for gods sake....and she always says someone else would help....

Cars are little cocoons too - perhaps its much easier to ignore someone from within your own little world, focused on where you are going rather than interacting with immediate environment.

Oh come on Norah, she was running ahead of her mother, she wasn't ALONE! And it's NOT the mother's fault or the girl's fault, it's the hit and run driver's fault and I DO think we can blame motorists who didn't stop tbh.

I'm going to stick my neck out here and say that I think this is a bit of a non-story blown up by the Mail. I am also unsure how people can say with absolute certainty that they would have stopped. For a small handful (maybe 2, 3 or 4 cars) the accident and/or the girl might have been right infront of their eyes and unmissable and for them - including the one who drove round her - that's pretty shocking I agree. But for the rest of the drivers teh accident or the girl afterwards may not have been obvious; and as a driver one of your first priorities has to be careful driving, not straining to see what's going on on the pavement. or the other side of the road. Secondly if it was busy and there were pedestrians about you may well make a considered judgment that the best thing to do might be to drive past. or you might make the considered judgment that the best thing to do would be to drive past and stop at the next safe possibility pull over and dial 999 just in case no-one else has. I've done first aid training and I think that is what I would have done - but I've never been in that situation so I'm not sure, and each individual who was in that situation was in a slightly different situation iyswim, in terms of what they saw and when they saw it. If she had been lying in the road immobile, then I would have stopped and prayed that my first aid training would flood back to me, as that would be a very different story.

I do think it's mad too, this idea that there are huge gangs roaming the streets waiting to mug motorists, this was Aylesbury at 8.45pm, it was daylight! Sorry, but I just don't believe that's the case.

I agree that the story has been a little over sold. Hit and runs are dreadful, and it is very sad that this little girl was seriously injured. However they are talking about 6 cars, not hundreds. I wonder how many of those drivers even registered that there was anything seriously wrong. I doubt that they really had the time to think, "there is a little girl who is badly injured but may be a decoy for a gang/may accuse me of paedophilia should I stop and help". Probably more like "what was that?" and by that time they had gone past her. I did think it was very typical of a child to comment about losing their bubblegum! I would expect an eight year old to be in bed at 8.45, but I guess it was half term (and I know I am an old fogey!). Hope she recovers well.

OK WWW so if she wasn't alone what's the story all about - people didn't stop their car to help an injured child whose mother was with her ??

I thought that was the point - the mother was complaining because no-one stopped to help her - and she was on her own ?

Also - who is talking about large gangs roaming the streets ?

I thought the point was that there was an injured child in the middle of the road and people drove past without stopping to help. Doesn't matter that her mum was there, she still needed help, for heaven's sake. You need to stop the traffic while you establish whether the child can be moved at all, for a start.

Years ago, a friend of my mother's stopped to help a boy who had been hit on a pedestrian crossing outside his school. Other motorists were complaining that she should have moved him out of the road to let them get past. Selfish gits.

A 21 year old man has been arrested in connection with this hit and run incident.

I grew up in this area and would like to say that this was on a housing estate on a side street outside a corner shop. It comes off a very congested slip road and roundabout.
Reading the local paper it is obvious that she was quickly attended by a passer by on foot but that motorists continued to drive by.
I think with the level of traffic and pedestrians it is almost 100% certain that the little girl was not alone for more than seconds.
She did have her mother with her who was still inside the shop and her friends who ran back in to tell her Mum (leaving her alone only for that time)
So in summary the bit about people driving past a "lone" child is exaggerated a bit.
The ambulance depot attatched to Stoke Mandeville Hospital is in the next street so I would assume that people really did think with a helper in attendance and kids running about pannicking they would create more hazards by stopping.
The real worry is the fact the driver did not stop and probably the disregard people have for safe parking in hazardous places.
the poor little girl said she stepped out but could not see passed the parked cars so stepped out again and was then hit!!!!!

that's what I though giddy. the real story is the hit and run and the fact the child got hurt. The Mail is using it to trot out the usual tosh about the collapse of society which is almost certinly Someone Else's fault. I'm suprised they didn;t manage to get a side swipe in about the England flag being offensive, or asylum seekers being, well, scum.

That clarifies it a bit Giddy. I thought it sounded all a bit overblown. If there was a pedestrian with the child already why would a driver stop? How many people did she need with her? I know bugger all about first aid (I really must do a course) so would have been no help to her at apart from trying to comfort her - if there was someone with her already presumably that's what they were doing. Too many people crowding round would only have made her feel worse. So if there would have been no practical purpose to people stopping what is the problem? Is it simply that we feel disgusted that people were uncaring? How do we know that they were uncaring ? Perhaps they either didn't see or did see and were horrified but didn't feel that they could help if they did stop, or couldn't find anywhere to stop without possible causing a traffic jam and/or another accident.

I get a bit narked with everyone assuming that everyone else is selfish and uncaring in our society. I must walk round in a little Pollyannaish cloud because the people I encounter generally seem to be more more or less decent, reasonable and caring. I don't think any of those drivers were behaving badly unless we can prove that they saw the girl, decided that they didn't give a toss and drove on. I don't think the evidence points to that.

Absolutely agree with you joelalie !

The child was being attended to - if the other drivers had stopped it would have gummed up the road and maybe delayed the ambulance reaching her.

It's such a non-story - sorry I bothered to get involved really !