People are good

Driving home from my a visit to my parents house this afternoon, I was stopped at an intersection leading to the freeway entrance. It's a busy and complicated intersection any time of day but especially during rush hour. I was the first car in the line-up at the red light so I ended up with a pretty good view of what happened next. A girl maybe a few years younger than me riding a bike with a basket/box on the back somehow lost her balance and crashed right in the middle of the crosswalk across the intersection from me. East/West traffic was traveling at the moment so the cars she fell in front of were stopped by a red light.

 Being a biker myself, my heart thudded to my shoes as I watched the scene between the cars whizzing past. Was she hurt? Could she get up? She looked stuck....would she be able to get out of the way before the light changed to green? I felt helpless because realistically, being clear across the busy intersection there really wasn't any way I could go to her aid. So I was mightily heartened when I saw a man from a couple cars back behind the crosswalk, jump out and come over to her. A few seconds later another man, and then another. They got whatever was stuck, unstuck. They lifted the bike upright and off her. They helped her stand and seemed to ascertain if she was hurt. They gathered the things that had fallen out of her basket. And then they stood together, all three random samaritans, and watched as she walked her bike the rest of the way across the street and up onto the sidewalk to safety. Then they returned to their cars, the light turned green, and we all continued on our way. The whole thing only took a couple of minutes. But when I watched those three men get out of their cars to help this girl, I have to admit I got a little misty-eyed and said out loud... “People are good!!”