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Witnesses Ignore Seriously Injured Hit-and-Run Victim
June 12, 2008 05:35 PM
After being struck by a car, Angel Arce Torres lay seriously injured in the street, while none of the pedestrians and drivers who witnessed the accident came directly to his aid.
30-Second Summary
Angel Arce Torres was hit by a car on May 30 while crossing the street in Hartford, Conn. Many pedestrians and drivers witnessed the event, though no one came directly to his aid.
Hartford police have subsequently released a video of the accident, hoping that the tape will lead to information and an eventual arrest.
Torres’ son hopes to shame the hit-and-run driver into a confession: “The people who did this to my father: Come forward. Don't be a coward. Come forward. Face the consequences. Turn yourself in,” he told the Hartford Courant after the accident.
Hartford residents have been shocked that no one came to Mr. Torres’ aid as he lay injured in the street. Although several called 911, no witness directly took action.
The Hartford police chief commented, “At the end of the day we've got to look at ourselves and understand that our moral values have now changed. We have no regard for each other.”
But some human behaviorists and psychologists say that human beings are inclined to be unresponsive when accidents occur in front of large groups. One psychologist explained, "If no one rushes to the scene, people assume the others know more than they do."
Hartford police have subsequently released a video of the accident, hoping that the tape will lead to information and an eventual arrest.
Torres’ son hopes to shame the hit-and-run driver into a confession: “The people who did this to my father: Come forward. Don't be a coward. Come forward. Face the consequences. Turn yourself in,” he told the Hartford Courant after the accident.
Hartford residents have been shocked that no one came to Mr. Torres’ aid as he lay injured in the street. Although several called 911, no witness directly took action.
The Hartford police chief commented, “At the end of the day we've got to look at ourselves and understand that our moral values have now changed. We have no regard for each other.”
But some human behaviorists and psychologists say that human beings are inclined to be unresponsive when accidents occur in front of large groups. One psychologist explained, "If no one rushes to the scene, people assume the others know more than they do."
Headline Link: ‘Tragic News for Elderly Hit-and-Run Victim’
The injuries Angel Arce Torres suffered from the accident paralyzed him from the neck down and he will always require a respirator to breathe. Police continue to search for the hit-and-run driver. “We lost my father,” Torres’ son told reporters. "We might as well say they killed my father. Someone has to know something. Somebody has got to say something.”
Source: CBS News
Background: Witnesses unresponsive to hit and run
The Hartford Police released a video of the accident in an attempt to gather more information about the driver. The images were captured by a camera on Park Street and enhanced by the Conn. State Police Forensic Science Laboratory. The video shows Angel Torres crossing the street and being struck by a car that crossed into the wrong lane. The video also shows pedestrians and other drivers observing and ignoring Torres’ body.
Source: Boston Globe
Reactions: Citizens and police respond
The Hartford Courant received more than 100 responses to the accident on Park Street. One letter is addressed to the citizens of Hartford and reads, “The video shows just how much heart you don't have. So be proud, very proud. The whole world has found out just what kind of a city you are.”
Source: Hartford Courant
Police Chief Daryl Roberts said of the video: “We have no regard for each other…That's not a police problem. We no longer have a moral compass. Anything goes.”
Source: Hartford Courant
Opinion and Analysis: The ‘bystander effect’
A staff writer for the Hartford Courant interviews several experts on human behavior to determine why so many witnesses were unresponsive to the accident. According to social psychologists, the event is an example of “bystander effect,” which occurs when many witnesses are present at an accident and nobody knows who should respond. An ethicist at Duke University said that the accident reflects “a deep chasm between our ethics and our reactions.” A psychiatrist explained that when people are afraid, they often turn inward and isolate themselves.
Source: Hartford Courant
Related Topics: Kitty Genovese and ‘mean world syndrome’
Human beings hardwired not to respond
On March 14, 1964, Kitty Genovese was murdered in the courtyard of her apartment building; nearly 40 residents in the building heard her scream, but none came to her rescue. The New York Times reported on the event: “For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.” Psychologists used the incident to study “diffusion of responsibility”: when several people witness an emergency, each individual feels “less personal responsibility to intervene.”
Source: findingDulcinea
Is TV behind witness inaction?
More recently scholars have identified “mean world syndrome;” people who television more than four hours a day begin to feel that violence is a more prevalent, and more acceptable, aspect of the world than is actually the case. According to the director of the Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy, “Research has shown that (TV violence) desensitizes people to violence, it limits their ability to respond to conflict with nonviolent means.”
Source: Muskegon (Mich.) Chronicle
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