Recently, I watched a motorcyclist crash at the intersection of Camino del Rio, Main Avenue and 14th Street. A car had abruptly stopped, then flipped a U-turn in the complicated intersection, and the motorcycle rider laid his bike over instead of hitting the car. After parking my own motorcycle, I walked out into the road, stopping traffic and wondering why I was the only one responding with help. During the minute it took to gather broken motorcycle parts, help the rider pick up his bike and wheel it to the curb, no one else left their car. Instead, cars tried to drive around us as we worked our way across the lanes. I was shocked, then frustrated at the lack of response and empathy.
Later, I began to wonder about the long-term resiliency of our human community until I recalled a time when I looked the other way, avoiding eye contact just as someone searched a crowd of strangers for a friend. Since then, I have tried to always be that friend, to not be a stranger, making the choice stop my life for someone else. I have always been glad to know the choice exists and choose to help another. After 20 minutes, the motorcyclist was OK, head was clear and the scrapes where not too bad. Someone else stopped with a pickup and offered a ride to a bike shop. The driver who flipped a U-turn had driven away and didn’t return.
Daniel Fullmer
Pagosa Springs
