Kindness on the roadway

We all know that the world is full of kind-hearted people, but how far does generosity extend between total strangers? I unexpectedly experienced the latter on the receiving end this evening as I drove off to a store when suddenly one of the wheels locked up upon approaching a (slightly busy) intersection, effectively rendering my car undriveable. While this was completely extraordinary — first time in my > 6 years of driving! — I naturally entered a problem-solving mode, inspecting the underbody and axles for defects, and planned to call AAA soon if the problem was hidden from view.

Though it was already dark and cold — November in New England, after all — my car was in an ideal spot where it wasn’t too much in the way of others, so I had no expectation that anyone would stop by, this being a Saturday night.

Not two minutes passed when a local passerby parked to the side and offered to help explore and locate the issue. He introduced himself as Skye. It turned out that Skye and his girlfriend were out for a Doordash delivery, but he saw me kneeling under my car on the road, so he felt he had to stop. Unprompted, Skye took out a mattress from his vehicle and crawled underneath my Hyundai Accent to check the wheel/axle positioning, ultimately determining the right rear wheel to be the culprit. In the meantime, I talked with the friendly AAA dispatcher and arranged for tow service, expecting Skye to leave at that point. To my surprise, he not only chose to stay around and wait for AAA together (despite AAA predicting > 30-minute wait time), but also asked his girlfriend to complete their Doordash delivery for him. (This was an incredibly generous gesture on Skye’s part, and totally not asked for.)

A minute later, an off-duty AAA employee driving by stopped behind me and offered help as well. While he was not in a position to tow anyone off-hours, he voluntarily chose to stay for as long as it took the on-duty AAA to arrive. Both he and Skye pushed my car from behind to the other side of the traffic light, onto a neutral yellow zone in the middle, and the off-duty AAA driver chose to redirect traffic turning from the side street around our cars, while beaming his bright headlights to incoming traffic. I was astounded to see so many people passing on both sides of my car slowing down to ask if they could do anything!

After 40 minutes, an animal control driver who knew the off-duty AAA driver happened to be passing by and also stopped his truck in front of me to see if he could be of any assistance! Learning that everything was under control, he nevertheless stood nearby and briefly carried out small talk to pass the time. In another five minutes or so, a local police officer who knew the off-duty AAA driver drove by and … offered help, too.

Perhaps the thought of such visual idiosyncrasy was not exclusive to me, so the animal control officer promptly left the scene and wished good luck, while the off-duty AAA driver had his assistant bring over a “skate” — a plastic support in the shape of a triangular prism placed under the non-rotating wheel to prevent the tire from being damaged by the ground — and instructed me to slowly drive a couple blocks until I could exit the main road to a parking lot, flanked by the police car from behind for safety.

In the parking lot, the police officer checked my license and gave an all-clear to his supervisor, leaving me, the off-duty AAA driver, and his assistant, both of whom voluntarily continued to stay around, until — at long last — the designated AAA driver arrived and carefully pulled up my car onto his truck.

While I was adamant that I’d walk home myself after seeing the car safely towed (it wasn’t far away from my place), several people during that hour offered to drive me: the very first hero of this adventure, stranger Skye (after his girlfriend returned from the Doordash delivery to pick him up), as well as several passersby, the off-duty AAA driver, and the on-duty AAA driver. The latter ultimately did drive me back — before turning around to bring my vehicle safely over to the service shop — even though I’m aware this isn’t included in AAA service or the driver’s responsibilities.

One lesson of this extraordinary incident tonight, if any might be drawn, is that most people are willing to help when they see someone in a precarious situation; we just might not fully appreciate the collective scope of this phenomenon until we ourselves are on the receiving end of such situation.

The feeling of providing or receiving selfless help is one of the most freeing and elevating experiences human nature has masterminded. Let’s nurture this feeling and build a world of mutual support and giving, together!

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This Sunday while reflecting, on last weeks intention to respond and not react. I concluded that while I achieved my goal in some respects, there were incidents where I fell or nearly fell short…