A Regina business owner says he is deeply disturbed after his security cameras captured a man apparently trying to flag down passersby for help for several hours before he died out in the cold late last month.
“When you see a guy sitting there, and you’re watching him die on video, it’s not a TV show — it’s real life, so it’s going to hit you,” Jeff Holt said in a Thursday interview.
“What kind of society are we?” he remembers asking himself when he saw the footage.
The video, which Holt shared with CBC News, appears to show the man talking briefly with a driver on a bus around 8 p.m. on Dec. 30. The video then shows the man stumbling out the rear door of the bus and falling onto a lawn on Fourth Avenue E.
The bus waits for a couple of seconds before driving away from the man, who appears to be unable to get up on his own.
Over the following hours, several pedestrians, vehicles and at least three more city buses can be seen in the surveillance footage passing by the man, but none stopped for more than seven hours.
Around 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 31, a cyclist passing by stopped and checked on the man, according to the footage, and called emergency services.
Oh please. All someone had to do was call emergency services. Dress it up with all the excuses you like, all this demonstrates is the ongoing callous disregard for anyone unhoused.
Yeah I’ve called ambulances for a couple people I’ve found that I wasn’t comfortable approaching. It doesn’t take much and could save a life
Ambulance rides in Alberta aren’t covered and cost $390.
I’m not sure I’d have done any different than those who passed by.
Whenever I drive by someone waiting for a bus in extreme cold, I’m always torn because I want to pick them up but my instinct is to mind my own business because not everyone wants a ride from a strange man in a pickup truck.
And those fees are waived for people experiencing financial hardship:
“In cases where an ambulance service fee is incurred and patients are uninsured, reasonably believed to have no fixed address, and collection is not reasonably assured, AHS will waive the fee and absorb the cost,” the representative said.
There is literally no excuse not to call 911 or, in my area, 211 if you witness someone whose health appears to be in danger.
