Old man collapsed in bank in Bremen Germany and died - nobody helped

[Deleted]

EDIT: City is Essen, Germany. Not Bremen.

http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justi...a-1118746.html

Didn't find an english version sorry.

TL;DR:

82 years old man collapsed in bank, for about 20 minutes 4 other bank customers walked by without doing anything. Finally the 5th customer entering the bank after the collapse called the ambulance in the end. The old man died in hospital eventually.

What the fuck is goin on with those fucktards who do not give a fuck about a dying mans life that could have been saved with a single short phone call. I am of cause aware that things like that happen each day all over the planet but if this happens in a middle european first world country, that quite often claims a moral supremacy for itself and points finger on the baddies in the world, this level of apathy regarding a human life still disturbs me.

[Independent voter]

Something happened like that in New York a long time ago. Scientists studied it and if I remember right, everyone in the crowd of onlookers is expecting someone else to take action or that someone already did take action and help is on the way.

People in general are good, and will help, but sometimes they get confused and are unsure of what to do.

[Daedius]

Wonder if the family can sue the bank for negligence of its own customers inside its premises... that's beyond disgusting if employees didn't give a shit of a person collapsed right outside their till.

Can expect this sort of "no shits given" attitude in China, not in Europe though...

[Celista]

Bystander effect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect

[Deleted]

couple reasons people will use to justify not taking action even if they feel something is wrong:

-people assume someone else will take action/have already taken action. especially authority figures, which in this case would be the bank personnel.
-people don't want to look like an idiot for making a fuss if it turns out the man was just napping. (though thats a bit of a stretch if hes on the floor instead of collapsed in a chair)
-people probably have had negative experiences "minding other peoples busines", and might be afraid of getting yelled at by the old man if it turns out he is just napping.

[Wyrt]

Northern Germans have a reputation for being cold and minding their own business.

[Deleted]

The bystander effect cannot excuse here imho because there were no other bystanders. The article says 4 people separately entered the bank within 19 minutes and two of them left more or less at the same moment. According to the text people literally people stepped over the man or passed with extra distance. So all of the 4 should have been aware of that they are the only person who can help here, if somebody else already acted that person probably would be present. If the bank employees can be blamed is questionable, the bank customer service might have been closed already.

[lonely zergling]

Wonder if the family can sue the bank for negligence of its own customers inside its premises... that's beyond disgusting if employees didn't give a shit of a person collapsed right outside their till.

Can expect this sort of "no shits given" attitude in China, not in Europe though...

Who says there were employees? Banks often have their ATM's inside rooms for security reasons that can be access even after the customer service is closed. The people who didnt help are in serious trouble now.. could even get prison sentence.

[Deleted]

They should sue those bystanders who did nothing at all, in the Netherlands you are breaking the law if someone is dying and you do nothing, i can't imagine it being different in Germany.
Quote from the Dutch law before someone says bullshit:

Wetboek van Strafrecht, Artikel 450:
Hij die, getuige van het ogenblikkelijk levensgevaar waarin een ander verkeert, nalaat deze die hulp te verlenen of te verschaffen die hij hem, zonder gevaar voor zichzelf of anderen redelijkerwijs te kunnen duchten, verlenen of verschaffen kan, wordt, indien de dood van de hulpbehoevende volgt, gestraft met hechtenis van ten hoogste drie maanden of geldboete van de tweede categorie.

Basically says:
Criminal law, article 450
He, who is a witness of a life threatening situation of another person and neglects to provide help to that person (without putting himself or other people in danger), where it is in his power to do so (don't know how to exactly translate this sentence becuase it is very formal Dutch which is hard to translate), can be penalized with a jailtime of a maximum of 3 months or a money fine.


There have been cases where people neglected to call the alarm number when someone was dying in the street and they got penalized by that law.
I wouldn't be surprised if a similar law exists in Germany.

[jdbond592]

Can we blame Obama and ISIS for this?

[Deleted]

Not really sure if someone lying on the floor is life threatening situation. I am not saying that no one should helped (I have to write this because moderators tend to misunderstand). I am saying that law you just quoted does not have to be related with this situation at all.

Someone collapses on the floor and you are saying it is not a life threatening situation? please...

[TirielWoW]

Weird.

Why didn't the workers at the bank do something? We would be on the phone in less than 60 seconds if someone collapsed in our branch.

[Nitro Fun]

It turns out that people don't really care about others. Must be shocking for people who think most people care about others misery.

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They should sue those bystanders who did nothing at all, in the Netherlands you are breaking the law if someone is dying and you do nothing, i can't imagine it being different in Germany.
Quote from the Dutch law before someone says bullshit:



Basically says:
Criminal law, article 450
He, who is a witness of a life threatening situation of another person and neglects to provide help to that person (without putting himself or other people in danger), where it is in his power to do so (don't know how to exactly translate this sentence becuase it is very formal Dutch which is hard to translate), can be penalized with a jailtime of a maximum of 3 months or a money fine.


There have been cases where people neglected to call the alarm number when someone was dying in the street and they got penalized by that law.
I wouldn't be surprised if a similar law exists in Germany.

Such laws are ridiculous as hell.

[lonely zergling]

Weird.

Why didn't the workers at the bank do something? We would be on the phone in less than 60 seconds if someone collapsed in our branch.

You have 24/7 customer service in banks? From the article it seems like it was just the public ATM room. There are no workers.

[Deleted]

Weird.

Why didn't the workers at the bank do something? We would be on the phone in less than 60 seconds if someone collapsed in our branch.

More then likely by Bank. They mean a small room with a few ATMS and a Machine that print out Bank Statements and a few leaflets laying about. Not every Bank needs Workers to function these days.

Think of it like a Vending Machine except for Banking. Fast and easy to do what you want with a few presses of a touchscreen.

[Forogil]

There have been cases where people neglected to call the alarm number when someone was dying in the street and they got penalized by that law.
I wouldn't be surprised if a similar law exists in Germany.

Germany have something similar - and up to 1 year.

"§ 323c Unterlassene Hilfeleistung
Wer bei Unglücksfällen oder gemeiner Gefahr oder Not nicht Hilfe leistet, obwohl dies erforderlich und ihm
den Umständen nach zuzumuten, insbesondere ohne erhebliche eigene Gefahr und ohne Verletzung anderer
wichtiger Pflichten möglich ist, wird mit Freiheitsstrafe bis zu einem Jahr oder mit Geldstrafe bestraft."

I hope you get the idea - I skipped the messed-up google translate-version.

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More then likely by Bank. They mean a small room with a few ATMS and a Machine that print out Bank Statements and a few leaflets laying about. Not every Bank needs Workers to function these days.

It seemed it was during the afternoon - and it seemed the old man wanted to transfer money; I don't understand why he entered a bank for that - unless there was staff.

However, it can be that the ATM-lobby wasn't visible for the staff, but more importantly it seemed they have security cameras but don't look at them.

[Tommy T]

So glad I'm not like this.

Basic human instinct. Help people in danger.
Sadly, I've seen many people prefer to take their mobile phones out and take a video of it rather than call an ambulance. Disgusting

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It turns out that people don't really care about others. Must be shocking for people who think most people care about others misery.

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Such laws are ridiculous as hell.

How is it ridiculous?
If someone collapses in a bank and you're the only one around who saw it, it's your fucking duty as a human being to seek help.

[Forogil]

Probably thought it was a drunk.

But then they should have at least contacted the bank - at least I don't want drunk (and/or homeless) people sleeping in the ATM-lobbies.
Unless that part of Bremen is so messed up that seeing homeless people sleeping in lobbies is perfectly normal.

[Nitro Fun]

How is it ridiculous?
If someone collapses in a bank and you're the only one around who saw it, it's your fucking duty as a human being to seek help.

No, there is no such duty that comes with being human. I don't really care about random people I don't even know.

[TirielWoW]

You have 24/7 customer service in banks? From the article it seems like it was just the public ATM room. There are no workers.

In the afternoon? To transfer money?

We don't have 24/7 staff in our branches, but our branches are only open until 4pm. If our branch is open, there are staff inside.

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Probably thought it was a drunk.

I don't know, here if someone was drunk in an ATM room people would call the cops.