I usually try to stop for stranded motorists, and likewise, I've been saved by strangers.
The most memorable was when I was a newly licensed driver, well over a decade ago.
I stalled my vehicle in the middle of a T-junction where the joined a main road at the top of a hill. I had just screwed up a relatively tricky hillstart. I then compounded it by flooding the engine trying to restart it in a panic.
So I'm stuck partially blocking a main road. If anyone had been going along that road and they hadn't been paying attention, they'd have hit me at a fair speed and caused a pile-up.
A car comes along the main road but instead of hitting me or going around, it pulls up to me. It stops, four guys get out. They yell at me to "put it in neutral" and then they start to push the car. (They then ask me to "take off the handbrake". In my panic I hadn't disengaged the handbrake, which made it more difficult for them to push the car...)
They pushed the vehicle to safety, made sure I was ok, and then drove off.
I've not forgotten that, and hopefully, I never will. I hope I'm remembered in a similar fashion by some other random strangers.
It has always amazed me how many people are one kind act away from personal salvation[1]. Just a glimpse of something going their way.
Simple things make so much difference and are often enough reason for folks to give it another go. A little bit of a trend happened when people were buying their meal in the drive-thru and also paying for the next person's. I wonder how many folks that simple act made a difference?
"to this day, I won't hear a bad word said about British Rail." - yep
1) secular, religious, and all the places in between
The most memorable was when I was a newly licensed driver, well over a decade ago.
I stalled my vehicle in the middle of a T-junction where the joined a main road at the top of a hill. I had just screwed up a relatively tricky hillstart. I then compounded it by flooding the engine trying to restart it in a panic.
So I'm stuck partially blocking a main road. If anyone had been going along that road and they hadn't been paying attention, they'd have hit me at a fair speed and caused a pile-up.
A car comes along the main road but instead of hitting me or going around, it pulls up to me. It stops, four guys get out. They yell at me to "put it in neutral" and then they start to push the car. (They then ask me to "take off the handbrake". In my panic I hadn't disengaged the handbrake, which made it more difficult for them to push the car...)
They pushed the vehicle to safety, made sure I was ok, and then drove off.
I've not forgotten that, and hopefully, I never will. I hope I'm remembered in a similar fashion by some other random strangers.