Nothing Happened
I saw something disturbing last night. I saw a kid on a bike get hit by a car.

I was headed to my late night softball game. The street where the fields are located is very dark, but very busy. There are no streetlights on this stretch of road. People drive down it at high speeds, so it's not exactly the safest place to drive, let alone ride a bike at night, in the dark. I turned onto the street and wasn't really paying attention to much except messing with my cd player. But when I looked up, I saw a kid or young man struggling on a bike on the other side of the road in the oncoming traffic. He was wobbling along, not really riding, kinda half falling over, half pedaling, no momentum. Then I saw a car driving slowly behind him speed up a bit and run into him, knocking him off his bike and onto the pavement.

It took a second for me to realize what I'd just seen. It had all happened in just a few seconds, so I really wasn't sure what I'd witnessed. I also tend to freeze up when I see car or bike incidents occur. Bad memories and personal experience. My heart stops, and I immediately think worst case scenario. So this scene shocked me, and my mind immediately began to scramble about what to do.

The car hadn't hit him hard, but it had definitely caused the kid to fall off his bike, possibly injured. It almost looked like it could have been some other kids in a car picking on this kid on the bike, driving slowly behind him then going too far with the prank by actually bumping into him. As it happened and I passed the incident, I suddenly slowed down. Several cars slowed down on the other side of the road near the kid. I didn't know what to do. I had never actually called 911 before, but I had never seen anyone on a bike get hit by a car. I now had my phone in my hand pondering if this was a 911 moment.

He laid there for just a second, then slowly got up and moved his mangled bike over to the sidewalk. He walked slowly, but didn't indicate in his movements that he was hurt. He also didn't seem upset or angry. Maybe he was stunned. I wasn't close enough to see much detail, but he just seemed to wander out of the way, dragging his bike along with him. The car that had hit him had taken off, and a few other cars were still stopped, but it was hard to tell if they realized what had just happened and had stopped to help, or if they were just waiting for him to get out of their way.

This is not a very good part of town. This street is really dark. I really didn't know what to do, being alone, young, female and in an unsafe neighborhood. I kept watching the scene in my mirror for a minute or two. This all happened in a very short amount of time, and I couldn't think fast enough to keep up with what I was trying to see to make sense of it. My car was a ways up the road past the incident. I wanted to go back and see if he was okay, but I also didn't want to be the girl who went missing after stopping on an unsafe street to help a stranger late at night. This may not have been the right time to be selfish about my own safety, but I nevertheless found myself considering if it was safe enough for me to assist someone possibly in need.

I watched for another second, seeing a few cars stop on that side of the road and look, then move on. Were they checking on the kid? Was he okay? Was this really no big deal? Over, just like that? Then I realized I couldn't see the kid anymore. I'd lost sight of him in the dark shadows on the sidewalk. Cars were moving on that side of the road, as normal. As far as I could tell, he was gone.

I noticed I was stopped in the middle of the street, and since the kid must have been okay enough to get out of the street and go somewhere else, and no one else seemed concerned about what had just happened, I decided to pull into the parking lot and head to the field for the game. I felt uneasy about this, having just witnessed an accident, now heading to my softball game as if that was no big deal. I took my phone with me as I walked to the field, staring over at the street where I'd seen the incident. I was still prepared to call 911 if I saw something indicating that needed to be done. I was still looking for the kid along the side of the road in the distance, but it was so dark I couldn't see anything. No more cars stopped, no one else had called an ambulance, no police arrived. The street seemed dark and quiet as usual, traffic flowing normally as if nothing had just happened. I asked a few other people standing around if they'd noticed it from where they stood. They were close enough to the street to be able to see or hear an accident occur. They hadn't seen or heard anything.

Did I imagine it? Did I not see what really happened? Is this a common occurrance on this street? Maybe the kid just fell off his bike? Maybe he was messing around, getting spooked by cars behind him? Maybe he wasn't being safe on his bike? Maybe he was older than he looked at first glance in the dark, and possibly drunk? He was pretty wobbly before he ended up off his bike and on the pavement. I just didn't know. But the whole scene bugged me for much of the night.

When the game finished and we headed home, I drove slowly out onto the street to scan once more for any signs of the kid, the bike, or anything that had happened. I looked as hard as I could into the dark, but I saw nothing. Not even pieces of a bike. No trace of anything unusual. As far as life on this street was concerned, nothing had happened.

I'm disturbed that someone can get hit by a car, and it's as though nothing happened. I'm disturbed that I had to stop and think about whether it was safe enough for me to stop and help, or even just to check on the kid and what really happened.

I'm disturbed that I saw nothing happen.

C.T.