Streaming someone drowning instead of helping

While there is merit in minding yourself, I see so many young children and adults who are headless of their surroundings which makes them unknowingly open to accidents of all kinds. Its not possible for people who are not brought up with or had traumatic incidents to gain that kind of awareness in a short time period. There is only so much people can do against circumstances they didn't know would happen or have a plan to mitigate.

Some time ago a family member fell into a body of water and was screaming for help, it was a small town so ppl left to call the emergency services and find a lifesaver, in the meantime a pair of men coming from signing on jumped into the water and swam him back to safety, performing basic first aid while the audience jeered at them. I asked the two later on why they did that in a town that thought so little of them, and they answered that it was their training(both being from countries where some kind of military or community service was mandatory)

I feel sure that some of those filming will be shortly diagnosed with PTSD, and some will never know why their MH went downhill shortly after this incident. Likely that some will attempt to sue the local authorities for some kind of distress payment.

That said, we must tackle this lack of connection between people that causes others to not think in emergency situations to do the basics, as my mum used to say, you never know when it will be one of your own, no matter how much you think it will never be one of your own.

I have been involved in/ witnessed situations where I was exposed to, So:-

(1) my first/only reaction was to be there to see IF I CAN BE OF ANY ASSiSTANCE. It is not an excuse to think that you would be of no use. how does one know that they would be of no use until they ‘survey ‘ the situation first

(2) Two things I find ABSOLUTLY shocking about the Cork drowning

(a) of all the people around there was no strong swimmer/ life saver amongst them and if there was they did not act

(b) Incredible that there was not a life buoy to be seen in the water even though they were within yards of the accident

(3) if I was there apart from throwing in a life buoy or two, what would also come to mind would be the usefulness of a ladder and things that float like spare tyres

(4) when ‘curious ‘ people stop at ,say, traffic accidents they park within yards of the accident and it could be on a bent of a road rather than parking well in off the road and in a safe place well away from the accident.. there was a very serious accident in Limerick a few years ago where a person parked very near the accident to help and was ploughed in to and got killed

Jesus Christ. I feel sick to my stomach.

I think the life buoy and throwing it to the person while contacting emergency services is honestly the only course that should be followed. I'd consider myself a strong swimmer but equally not sure if I'd be capable of rescuing a person in that scenario, so going in has the strong possibility of me becoming another variable that emergency services need to save. But fully agree on the buoy, those who stood by will have to live with the consequences of their actions.

Except it isnt' true.

There are three lifebuoys on either quay, and only one person threw one in to help the first guy.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025/05/02/it-was-like-a-circus-watching-my-son-drown-instead-of-trying-to-help-him-luke-hyde-34-drowned-in-river-lee-cork/

the Examiner versions says

But both got into difficulty. One managed to get out and raise the alarm but his friend sank and was carried downstream.

was there actually a target to throw the lifebuoy to at the stage?

no one needs to be putting their own life at risk to save someone else (and when training for lifeguard they drill it into you at every opportunity NEVER EVER put yourself at risk!)

But what I can’t get over is that instead of throwing a Life Ring or dialling 999/112 and seeking help for this guy the phones came out and went to TikTok or Facebook Live streams. How does your brain work like that??

A person is drowning- I better stream this!
if I see someone drowning I’m doing my level best to save them- no for kudos or anything but because I couldn’t sleep at night if I thought I left someone to die in such a horrendous fashion.

These warped cretins are unfortunately our future.

The next generation of medics, teachers, gardai.

The future is fcuked.

I remember hearing about the good samaritan rule in some US states. If there's an emergency and you do nothing, it's actually OK so long as

1. Someone else is doing something.
2. You don't stop. Because if you stop others may think that the situation is being taken care of and they won't stop to help.

Iirc good Samaritan laws generally legally protect the person helping so they won't be found at fault.

The first paragraph absolutely kills me: you don't know? Why not develop a set of values and think about how you'd behave in that situation? And not just to commit to the first dumb idea that crosses your mind (eg, filming something to put into a WhatsApp group later). Isn't that what we are supposed to be teaching young people?

In France, there has been for a very long time a criminal charge "failure to assist a person in danger". For the most part, it gets used to penalise someone in authority for putting their political interest ahead of an individual's, or for sheer incompetence. However, in recent years, it has been promoted as a way to prevent idiots from filming various incidents rather than doing something about it.

The "something" doesn't have to be jumping into a river or trying to break up a fight, but it does mean not putting your social media likes ahead of common sense.

Anyway, to counteract all the negative end-of-civil-behaviour that's been posted, here's something a little more positive:

My own photo (Normandy) - I couldn't intervene because I was on top of a 200m cliff at the time, but happend to have proper camera with a zoom lens). A paraglider smacked into the opposite cliff and dropped into the sea. That group of people on the beach organised themselves to rescue him, with the two lads on the left swimming out to catch the parachute and haul him in.

They all understood those waters, especially the force of the current in that inlet. You can get a sense of why it is not a good idea for any old body to just leap into the water: getting in was easy, getting out again was incredibly difficult. It took six extra people to pull the two rescuers the last three metres up onto the beach; the three shirtless guys were completely wrecked by the time they got there.

I don't know if the victim survived, but I do know that he'd been pulled out of the water before either the coast-guard or the fire service arrived on the scene.

I can understand how somebody could freeze or run away when faced with a terrifying situation, it's a natural fight or flight response but no excuse for taking out your phone and filming it for social media likes; just mindless ghouls.

Yes there is that aspect for a man they don't want to be accused of being a kidnapper or paedophile. That is why it was strange seeing so many woman noticing the child and just ignoring her. In that situation I would always imagine a middle-aged or older woman being the first to help a child.