Man Slammed Bystanders For Taking Photos When Woman’s Leg Was Stuck at Buona Vista MRT Platform

Picture this: you’re on your way to work, and dreary-eyed as you are you can only stumble half-awake to the train door when it opens, amidst a crowd of evidently late office workers.

“Outta my way bitch,” one snarled as she pushed you aside. “I need to catch my eye candy at 7:30 sharp.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome,” you shout back.

But the danger’s over; you’ve successfully cleared the grid, and well on your way to being early. For once. But then you look back for some inexplicable reason, and to your utmost horror see a woman struggling helplessly.

Her leg had gotten caught in between the train and the platform.

Flabbergasted, you rush forward to help. Taking her hand in between yours, you try to reassure her, and calm her down.

“You’ll be alright, okay?” you utter softly. “Everything will be fine. Everyone will help…”

You trail off, for a glance around told you another truth.

They were more busy taking photos than actually helping.

“Sad reality of life, huh?” you mutter.

“What a joke.”

Man Slammed Bystanders For Taking Photos Instead of Helping When Woman’s Leg Was Stuck at Buona Vista MRT Platform

Granted, the introductory paragraph might’ve been a tad bit over-exaggerated. I, for one, have no idea whether the 7:30 eye candy really exists.

But even so, the gist of it is undeniably true.

Yesterday (8 April 2019), a young lady, amidst a crowd of fervently alighting passengers, was pushed and subsequently fell, during which her right leg went through the gap between train and platform and got stuck there, from the knee down.

The entire experience was chronicled by Facebook user Brandon Wong, who had taken it upon himself to assist the poor lady.

You can read his post here:

Should you be unable to open the post for some inexplicable (data-related) reason, however, here’s a rough breakdown of what transpired:

• Brandon had been on the Circle Line train towards Harbourfront when a young lady’s leg got caught in between the train and platform. The accident happened at 8:45 a.m. at Buona Vista MRT station.
• The lady had been pushed while passengers were rushing to get out of the train. Falling, her right leg ended up being caught in the gap between and was stuck from the knee down.
• Brandon assisted the lady alongside the other SMRT service staff.
• A medical student came by to allay the lady’s fears.

Thereafter, the user also made a number of observations:

• Bystanders simply took photos and videos while the entire incident was taking place, and there were some that voiced their displeasure at the prospect of being 10 minutes late.
• Other commuters simply ogled at the scene and even created inconvenience for onrushing first responders and SMRT service staff.
• There should be more first aid training on SMRT’s part, as the emergency response time was sorely lacking.
• Staff members need to possess more situational awareness.
• Commuters should not prioritise their personal gratification but help to assist instead. SMRT should incorporate more first aid training immediately.
• Brandon also emphasizes that he has no wish to vilify SMRT; he simply wishes that there will be no more incidents like this one.

Netizens react

While Brandon undeniably did a terrific job at the time, with all things considered, some Netizens didn’t take too kindly to his observations, or ‘accusations’:

“45 seconds is already quite fast unless the MRT staff was just standing 20m away.”

But as a whole, the comments section was filled with nothing but applause.

Now I don’t normally agree with netizens, but this particular comment seems to really resonate with me.

Shazam who?

Nevertheless, however, Brandon still felt compelled to address the negativity on his post.

He first addressed the criticism on his original post, in an edit inscribed at the end.

Five hours after his original post, however, Brandon wrote up another clarification.

SMRT speaks out

The alleged incident was later confirmed by SMRT vice-president of corporate communications Margaret Teo, who stated that the “emergency stop feature at the platform was activated immediately before station staff and other commuters helped to free the woman’s leg”.

“Our care team is reaching out to her and we hope she recovers quickly,” Ms Teo said.

Apparently, the incident led to a 10-minute delay in train service. Commuters were informed of the service delay through in-train and station announcements.

Bystander Effect

You might be shocked to know that it’s common for people to just look and do nothing.

The reason why people decided to buy popcorn and watch is simple: according to the bystander effect, the people around didn’t feel pressured to take action, since there are other people around. Simply put, it’s the mindset of “I not the only one around mah, they also there, they help lah.”

The second reason is a “monkey see monkey do” mindset: majority of people are mere observing, so people don’t want to be the “extra”.

But we can break this effect. In fact, if you’re reading this, you’ve just broken it.

Psychologists Suggest that Knowing About Bystander Effects Would Break this Phenomenon

You see, people take no action because it’s a subconscious reaction: they’re frozen and just do what their heart tell them to do, and that is to merely observe.

However, psychologists suggest that if you do know about the Bystander Effect, you’ll break this subconscious reaction and help out.

‘Coz deep in our mind, we might have always wanted to help; we’re just locked by the Bystander Effect.

So yeah, if you see people helping, they might have the Goody Feed app with them and read it daily #justsaying