Lesson 1: If you injure another person, check that they’re okay.

It’s a sad fact that people quite often value possessions much more than they should.

There was an incident that highlighted this to me tonight, my father was riding his bicycle home from work and crossing a busy road using a dedicated bike crossing. The traffic lights had gone red, and my dad started cycling across. A lady in her SUV came roaring through the red light, not slowing at all, this is a 70kph zone, and collected the front wheel on my dad’s bike. The impact knocked him off his bike in the middle of the road. He fell backwards, hard on to his back, smashing the light on the rear of his helmet to pieces, and grazing his hand and arm. The lady pulled over up the road, got out, and checked HER CAR. No sympathy for the poor cyclist who she could easily have killed if he had just been slightly further across the road. No, she’s more concerned about her car, and in fact waits by her car, until my dad limps up the road to get her details.

I’m not big on human relations… I see little point in small talk unless it’s genuinely interesting, I don’t believe in helping the poor, I have a low amount of people I genuinely call friends because I so easily lose respect for ways they think or things they do. But if I injured another person, it would certainly concern me to check that they’re okay and help them out.

If you injure another person, whether you’re at fault or not, check that they’re alright, help them out.