Superheroics
A couple of years ago I was driving to visit an old mate when just as I stopped at a set of traffic lights I saw an old gentleman fall to the ground like a sack of spuds and lie twitching and trying in vain to crawl away from the roadside and grab onto the wall of the nearby building.

Cognisant of how often you hear of people callously walking past dying souls and ignoring them I pulled over and leapt out of my car (imagining my coat falling away to reveal the familiar red and yellow 'S' on my blue superhero leotard.)

Sprinting across the road to imagined cries of "It's Superman!" I got to the poor old gentleman, put my arms around his chest and pulled him up with sympathetic enquiries as to his wellbeing. It was only as I realised that the warm wet feeling on my hands and arms was fresh vomit that he volunteered that heartwarming phrase "Help get me to that pub, will you mate?"
(fergus the bogeyman Beware of geeks bearing gifs!, Mon 13 May 2013, 11:18, 3 replies)

And on that day you learned precisely why people ignore pissed up wankers lying in the street.

( BraynDedd Natasha Kaplinsky's labia majora, Mon 13 May 2013, 11:21, closed)

This is probably why there are no bobbies 'on the beat' any more,
they'd spend all their time dealing with alcoholics.
( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Mon 13 May 2013, 11:46, closed)

You did the right thing and I bet you'd do it again, only more carefully next time!
I always go over to collapsed people to see if they're OK. They might just be drunk, true, but then they're vulnerable and still need help.

I don't know why someone'd need to get drunk enough to lie down in the street. I think 'there but for the grace of God' and all that. Could be me lying there if my life had been harder.

If they're not getting up you can just ring 999 and sit there until the ambulance rolls up. I've done this, it's no trouble.

Even when the parameds curse because the patient is a drunk who's always collapsing and being collected, it's still their job to make sure he's safe.

So I hope you haven't been put off doing your Superman duties!
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Thu 16 May 2013, 9:25, closed)