Helping other motorists in trouble

Twice now over the years I have driven past a nursing home in Orange and seen a frail old body lying in the street with no-one stopping. The first was an old man who had fallen over and I went to his aid making sure he was ok then another bloke who was walking past went inside and got help. The second was only a few weeks ago. A very old woman was face down on the side of the road trapped under her up-turned wheel chair. I stopped and a woman came from over the road then after a while another car stopped. My wife and the other woman got the wheel chair off her, she was strapped in, and someone got staff from inside then the other bloke and I lifted her into the chair. The poor thing had blood everywhere, she had been on the footpath which ramps down to the gutter and she had obviousely lost control and rolled straight off the gutter face first into the tar. This was in the main street, the Mid Western Highway, hundreds of cars passed. Two stopped.
Steve.

Good on yer Craig.

I was asked by a young lady in a shopping centre for assistance some years ago as her old Holden wouldn't start.
Of course I'd help 'cos she was loverly and I lifted the bonnet to have a look. Battery connections were loose and very corroded so I cleaned them up and refitted the leads then gave her a shove down the car park and vrooom it burst into life............. and then 20 metres away she stopped and her boyfriend jumped in and they drove off without so much as a wave!!!
Grrr, caught again by a pretty face.
But the next time was in England when we'd been following a new Fiat along some country lanes in Hampshire and we could see (and smell) smoke coming from it. Eventually it ground to a halt and we stopped behind and put our hazards on and I went up to check if we could help.
Turned out to be an old bloke and his wife and he'd just come out of hospital after having a leg chopped off!
I lifted the bonnet and it stank of burning material and very hot oil, I dipped the auto and it came out dry, not a drop on it.
Nothing for it but to get them a tow as we had nothing in our hire car to do it with.
Left the cook there to warn motorists who were flying down this lane of a hazard around the corner and I went to seek assistance and eventually found a garage where the bloke showed no interest whatsoever but eventually agreed to go and "'ave a look at it".
He did arrive sometime later and we left him to it and hopefully he managed to find he could indeed assist the old couple.
Has a couple of instances when driving a cab where I was very cautious about giving assistance especially in some of the dump suburbs around Perth but will help whenever I can.

Alan.

Good on you for stopping.
I do 1 rescue a month on the Barton Highway. The last time 2 other vehicles stopped to help with traffic control as everyone was rushing past refusing to slowdown or wait.

It is rare for people to stop these days. Local cops know my rig and will flag me down to help pull cars out of the drain ditches.

Last year a guy from work stopped to answer a call. He had a heart attack after the call. Police found him dead in the car with the engine running at 4am. Hundreds of cars would have gone past him over the time he was there.

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Originally Posted by Bundalene

Good for you Craig.
Like you Stuuu, we have stopped many times to help and hope others would do the same for us. Last year just out of Bullman we came across a couple who had driven their COMMODORE out of Gove, heading for Darwin. They'd hit a rock and put a hole in the sump the day before (surprised they got as far as they did!). They had managed to get a message to a recovery mob in Katherine and were waiting for the truck. They had no supplies and the blokes partner was very stressed out. We gave her a lift to the Mainoru Roadhouse as she was hanging out for a coffee.
Don't know how much the recovery would have cost. Probably would have been cheaper to fly to Darwin. He was a local too.

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You'd be surprised how many 2wd's do the trip. Goyder usually stops them or the Wilton before the bridge went in.

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Originally Posted by martinozcmax

Young bloke was very grateful, funny thing was he was amazed you could disconnect the battery once his car had started. This amused me somewhat as this tradie was a sparkie ! :D


Martin

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12V and 240V don't mix - especially in most sparkies heads. 'Tis rare to find a sparkie who knows 12v well.

Dale

Good on everybody who stop to enquiry whether people need help/provide assistance.

It is a great pity that the morons/scumbags etc are putting the fright on to decent people who would like to help but are too frighten to help for the fear of being attacked/sued.

It is a sad state of affairs when decent people are too frighten to stop and offer people assistance.

Regards


Brendan

Craig,

Well done We applaude you .:):)

JC

Welldone Craig
A nite in the cold wouldnt have done him any good at all.
Andrew

A few years ago travelling home from Coral Bay (Exmouth) we stopped to help a young couple who had broken down about 1km north of Cataby roadhouse (we were going the other way). It was a hot day, they had two kids in the car, a toddler and a 1 month old baby, they were going to Geraldton to visit the grandparents.

It was the first day of the Easter break, the traffic going their way was almost bumper to bumper, they had been there for three hours and no-one had stopped! :mad:

He had walked to Cataby but they had refused to help, and he had resorted to making a sign pleading for help, stating that they had a baby in the car. Still no-one had stopped. It was the middle of the day and they were a young couple in an old Volvo who did not look at all dangerous.

We towed them to Cataby, using my snatch strap which was all I had (and it got stuffed in the process). He offered me $100 but I said to keep it as they obviously weren't well off and just said do someone else a favour one day. I was just passing on the Karma as someone who helped me previously said the same thing when I offered them money. ;)

I was blown away that non-one had stopped. :angrylock:

On the way to Cooma for the 60th I was waved down by a bloke in an 80 Series Cruiser on the Hume Highway during the middle of the day, who needed a jump start after he ran out of deisel.
I gave him a jump and he offered me a $50 note, I declined as the rangie hadn't been driven further than 20 km's for the 2.5 years previously and I didnt want to tempt Karma.

He said he had tried to wave heaps of people down for about 20 mins before I stopped. He didn't look threatening just a farmer on his way back from the city.

It was a shame when he overtook me a little later as he pulled into the service centre that there was a large bang and lots of smoke and metal bits coming out from underneath it. I think it may have been a long trip home for him.

Thomas