But in Andhra Pradesh: an absolutely awful case has led to worrying aspects of civic duty and responsibility that could be questioned very soon. When a truck traveling to receive soft drinks collided with a car the driver and cleaning crew didn’t quickly help them to get the glass. A few people in different areas looted the truck and took drink bottles at a certain price. So far this story was going viral and it left many saying it was sad as an example of “peak civic sense.”
The truck was traveling on a packed road at the time of the crash. The driver and cleaner were injured and needed immediate help according to its sources at several schools. But instead of lending their help locals stormed to the vehicle and took over the soft drinks. The drinks were stolen and burned away in large quantities; yet men who were injured were left unaccounted for.
Witnesses said the situation was chaotic and people were fighting over crates of drinks. The driver and cleaner, in this instance, would have been regarded as being the priority and not as things that matter to the truck's owners. That absence of empathy shocked many who saw videos and images from the incident out there early on as online.
The incident was denounced widely by Internet users. Social media users condemned the behavior and criticized it in a Facebook post as showing bad manners for lack of civic conscience and humanity. People did not even try to help the victims of the accidents and more selfish people only benefited when they could, in turn, say of the people and what was seen to be shameful and disturbing.
Others claimed, among other things, that these types of actions are an indication of how society has always placed things like money above human lives and safety so much more often than anyone does. There are also those in town whose accident victims have been overlooked while people in the crowd watch them go to their deaths, do looting or take pictures or video.
This case is a testament to something more fundamental in society: lack of empathy and responsibility in public spaces. Accidents are a case when immediate help can save lives but if others take advantage of a situation to benefit in such a dangerous vein, this makes a dangerous mindset surface; that is bad.
Civic education and understanding is important, academics state. Citizens have to know the value of helping victims to it, one is not only legal, but it is also moral. In light of these tragedies, authorities need to take tougher action to protect accident sites and those who took such looting quickly.
The Andhra Pradesh truck accident has become a source of misplaced priorities while the driver and cleaner were desperate to aid in their own rescue and people were buying soft drinks. The incident shows how basic civic sense comes first and foremost from a sense of duty, caring for others in times of crisis is not just opportunistic.
