Accident Scene Callousness

[OnMyWay]

Some of you have described seeing this before, but this is the first time it happened close to me.

There was a horrific accident just down the hill from our house, in Olongapo, on the National Road.  I didn't see it personally.  Someone posted videos and pictures of it on FB, in our local residents group.  Most of the pictures and videos had the "Warning, graphic content" message on them.  And they were very graphic.

A Victory Liner bus broad sided a trike.  From what I could see, it seemed that the trike had made a wrong move and didn't realize the bus was coming.  Judging from the amount of damage to the bus, it was still at good speed when it hit the trike.  One of the comments mentioned a truck was involved too, but I didn't see it.  Perhaps the truck forced the trike into the path of the bus.

The first set of videos showed just after the accident.  The video showed many people taking videos.  Nobody really helping.  A woman was face down in front of the bus, apparently a passenger.  Victory Liner staff were calmly walking around.  A man was 15 feet in front of the bus, writhing on the ground with bad injuries including a bad head injury.  Probably the trike driver, in shock and trying to get up.  Nobody even approaches him to offer any help.  Vehicle traffic is going around the accident scene and an ambulance, apparently unoccupied, drives right by.

The second set of videos / pictures were after the fire and rescue personal arrived.  The writhing man was gone/moved.  Apparently a small child was trapped under the bus.  The firemen were using jaws of life type of equipment to lift the bus and get the child out.  During this work, the injured woman, probably his mother, was still lying in front of the bus, uncovered and apparently dead.  In one of the last pictures she was finally covered.  The child was shown being carried by a fireman and it appeared that his injuries were not life-threatening.

I was stunned by the callousness.  Lots of people looking on and taking videos.  Nobody helping.  A very sad picture of the culture here.  This reminds me that I need to refresh my emergency medical training, if that is possible here.

[GeoffH]

I have been lucky never to have seen anything that bad but I did witness a motorbike accident a while back, my first aid training is still current and my (without thinking about it) reaction was to ask for the car to be stopped.  SWMBO (and her papa) looked at me like I was asking something a bit odd and I explained that I wanted to help and they quickly told me NO! It is a bad idea to get involved, you might be held responsible if someone is hurt or dies.  That was an angle I hadn't previously considered... but rich long nose... injured local... I understand what they were saying.

Edited October 9, 2018 by GeoffH

[OnMyWay]

8 minutes ago, GeoffH said:

I have been lucky never to have seen anything that bad but I did witness a motorbike accidenta while back, my first aid training is still current and my (without thinking about it) reaction was to ask for the car to be stopped.  SWMBO (and her papa) looked at me like I was asking something a bit odd and I explained that I wanted to help and they quickly told me NO! It is a bad idea to get involved, you might be held responsible if someone is hurt or dies.  That was an angle I hadn't previously considered... but rich long nose... injured local... I understand what they were saying.

Very true.  I didn't think about that, as far as being a foreigner.

Would that apply to locals as well?  Could they be blamed for something that happens while trying to help?

[Jollygoodfellow]

1 hour ago, OnMyWay said:

I was stunned by the callousness.  Lots of people looking on and taking videos.  Nobody helping.  A very sad picture of the culture here. 

I have seen 4 motorbike accidents near by in the time I have lived here and on each occasion people went to help the injured. In one case I helped a guy with a badly scraped knee and my GF at the time used his phone to call his friend so it's not always a case of no one helps.

26 minutes ago, GeoffH said:

I wanted to help and they quickly told me NO! It is a bad idea to get involved, you might be held responsible if someone is hurt or dies.

That's the culture in China. Sometime back someone innocent got blamed for something while helping so after that no one helps. I unfortunately watched a video of a toddler in China who walks in front of a delivery van. After knocking the child down you could see the van rocking to get the back wheels over the body which was still alive. The van left then the video showed motorbike riders slowing down and some stopping for a look and leaving. The child was still alive but doubt if it survived.

[LUFCinMakati]

It's pretty standard in this part of the world.

When I first arrived in Malaysia I was told if you hot a motorbike, don't stop. A few months before this an English Guy had hit a motorbike, no idea who's fault and a group turned up and beat him to death with their helmets whilst his pregnant wife sat terrified in the car.

[Snowy79]

I was a passenger in a vehicle in Manila. The traffic was slow as usual but more vehicles were trying to edge in beside my taxi.  I looked to the right and there was a body in the road with 4 traffic cones around it to stop anyone driving over it. I don't know how long it had been there but it took me a good 20 mins to cover the 100m leading up to it. 

[Medic Mike]

12 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Some of you have described seeing this before, but this is the first time it happened close to me.

There was a horrific accident just down the hill from our house, in Olongapo, on the National Road.  I didn't see it personally.  Someone posted videos and pictures of it on FB, in our local residents group.  Most of the pictures and videos had the "Warning, graphic content" message on them.  And they were very graphic.

A Victory Liner bus broad sided a trike.  From what I could see, it seemed that the trike had made a wrong move and didn't realize the bus was coming.  Judging from the amount of damage to the bus, it was still at good speed when it hit the trike.  One of the comments mentioned a truck was involved too, but I didn't see it.  Perhaps the truck forced the trike into the path of the bus.

The first set of videos showed just after the accident.  The video showed many people taking videos.  Nobody really helping.  A woman was face down in front of the bus, apparently a passenger.  Victory Liner staff were calmly walking around.  A man was 15 feet in front of the bus, writhing on the ground with bad injuries including a bad head injury.  Probably the trike driver, in shock and trying to get up.  Nobody even approaches him to offer any help.  Vehicle traffic is going around the accident scene and an ambulance, apparently unoccupied, drives right by.

The second set of videos / pictures were after the fire and rescue personal arrived.  The writhing man was gone/moved.  Apparently a small child was trapped under the bus.  The firemen were using jaws of life type of equipment to lift the bus and get the child out.  During this work, the injured woman, probably his mother, was still lying in front of the bus, uncovered and apparently dead.  In one of the last pictures she was finally covered.  The child was shown being carried by a fireman and it appeared that his injuries were not life-threatening.

I was stunned by the callousness.  Lots of people looking on and taking videos.  Nobody helping.  A very sad picture of the culture here.  This reminds me that I need to refresh my emergency medical training, if that is possible here.

I know exactly what you mean. I have been to countless accident scenes over the years, and can report it is always the same as you have described.

However, I have found that the people are only too willing to help if you can organise them and give them jobs. That is often what I do when I arrive at a big scene and everyone is just standing around doing nothing.

[Jake]

9 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

I was stunned by the callousness.  Lots of people looking on and taking videos.  Nobody helping.  A very sad picture of the culture here.  This reminds me that I need to refresh my emergency medical training, if that is possible here.

It's an open secret that sometimes the bus driver would purposely run his tires over the body again.  My friends in Makati said that it's cheaper for the victim's funeral rather than providing compensation for long term medical treatment.  

As far as being a good samaritan......that's a hard decision to make.  Ordinarily, because of our western culture, we render assistance immediately to save lives or prevent further injury.  In other countries where western culture is not recognized or even frowned upon, we need to proceed with caution.  Perhaps have someone videotape your actions.  For example, not moving the victim with possible neck or spinal injury or you took extra precautions and proper procedures to move the victim away from a burning vehicle.   

But if someone is bleeding profusely or not breathing at all......hell yeah, I'd go in without hesitation.  Take command of the situation and direct others to assist you (crowd control, calling EMS, CPR assistance, etc).  I often times hear that life is cheap in the Philippines.  The hell with the typical mob mentality.  I'm going in to help.  

Respectfully Jake  

[Rooster]

2 hours ago, Jake said:

It's an open secret that sometimes the bus driver would purposely run his tires over the body again.  My friends in Makati said that it's cheaper for the victim's funeral rather than providing compensation for long term medical treatment.  

As far as being a good samaritan......that's a hard decision to make.

A classmate of my wife was murdered that way in Manila. She was standing with her sister at a crosswalk. A huge truck/trailer backed into the crowd by accident and ran her over. The truck driver got out, saw the girl was run over but still living, got back into the truck, ran her over again then ran. The other sister is married to a foreigner so they had the money to file/pursue a case and the driver is in jail for murder.

PI Senate has a Good Samaritan Bill but I don't think it's law yet so hopefully in the future when it becomes law, more may come forward as good Samaritans.

https://www.aseanlip.com/philippines/general/legislation/bill-of-the-good-samaritan-act-of-2017/AL15530

  

[Mick]

Reminds of my time in Nigeria, bodies just stay on the street, and there's lots of them, until they almost pop, then they put tyres and burn them, if you touch them, it's your responsibility to Bury them, we had one outside our compound, it was eaten by dogs, and eventually crushed in to the tarmac by traffic, horrendous