Hit and run
A woman runs into a 14-year old boy on his bike. The boy falls and is injured. The woman gets out of her car, inspects the damage on her car and then goes off without even looking at the boy.
A 7-year old girl gets hit by a car. She suffers a complicated fracture in her upper leg and literally has to crawl to a nearby house to get help. The driver did not stop to see if the girl needed any help, and simply drove away.
These are just two examples in one week about hit and run accidents in the very neighbourhood of my home. The 7-year old is the younger sister of a girlfriend of my daugther's, so it makes the impact of the latter accident sort of personal. In my opinion the two accidents illustrate a more general trend towards avoidance of responsibility. I don't believe anymore in explanations calling these events 'incidents'. There are just too many occurences of incidents nowadays. Individualistic behaviour (me, me, me, materialsm, hurry, "I want it, and I want it now") are key drivers. There is trend in society in which only indivdualism is the most important thing. If people can't get it soon enough they become frustrated. In the last 10 years I had to make a lot of kilometers on the highway (about 60.000 km a year), and it seems to become a jungle more and more everyday. People trying to "push" you from behind (even in a traffic jam), overtaking by using the right lane are daily practice. There is no consideration of consequences and lack of responsibility seems to become the default modus.
I do not consider myself a preacher of morality or anything like that, but it's a f.... disgrace that some adult people think they can hit a child, run off and leave it seriously injured on the street. The girl could have been run over by another car when she was crawling on the street. Yes, hit and run is considered a criminal offense, but the problem is that you have to catch them first. The only thing we know is that it concerns a white-coloured car.
As a psychologist I try to imagine what makes the decision to hit and run. Is it indeed this lack of responsibility I was writing about, is it a panic reaction, or is it something else like the driver had no liability insurance? Whatever the reason was, it's no excuse. Even if in panic, you could at least make an anonymous 112 (911) call for help.
A 7-year old girl gets hit by a car. She suffers a complicated fracture in her upper leg and literally has to crawl to a nearby house to get help. The driver did not stop to see if the girl needed any help, and simply drove away.
These are just two examples in one week about hit and run accidents in the very neighbourhood of my home. The 7-year old is the younger sister of a girlfriend of my daugther's, so it makes the impact of the latter accident sort of personal. In my opinion the two accidents illustrate a more general trend towards avoidance of responsibility. I don't believe anymore in explanations calling these events 'incidents'. There are just too many occurences of incidents nowadays. Individualistic behaviour (me, me, me, materialsm, hurry, "I want it, and I want it now") are key drivers. There is trend in society in which only indivdualism is the most important thing. If people can't get it soon enough they become frustrated. In the last 10 years I had to make a lot of kilometers on the highway (about 60.000 km a year), and it seems to become a jungle more and more everyday. People trying to "push" you from behind (even in a traffic jam), overtaking by using the right lane are daily practice. There is no consideration of consequences and lack of responsibility seems to become the default modus.
I do not consider myself a preacher of morality or anything like that, but it's a f.... disgrace that some adult people think they can hit a child, run off and leave it seriously injured on the street. The girl could have been run over by another car when she was crawling on the street. Yes, hit and run is considered a criminal offense, but the problem is that you have to catch them first. The only thing we know is that it concerns a white-coloured car.
As a psychologist I try to imagine what makes the decision to hit and run. Is it indeed this lack of responsibility I was writing about, is it a panic reaction, or is it something else like the driver had no liability insurance? Whatever the reason was, it's no excuse. Even if in panic, you could at least make an anonymous 112 (911) call for help.
posted by Stanley Portier at
1:37 AM
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