Advertisement

Girl's cries for help ignored

Girls cries for help ignored
Ignored: Lily-Bliss Behan and Warwick SHS principal Lesley Wintle. Picture: Ian Munro/The West Australian

As Lily-Bliss Behan lay in agony on the side of a busy northern suburbs road, one leg so badly broken it was twisted at right angles to her body, she mustered all her energy and screamed for help.

But up to 10 people ignored her plight as they kept on walking or driving past.

The Year 12 student knew she had broken her leg when she fell off her skateboard on Erindale Road on the way to Warwick Senior High School four weeks ago.

She heard a loud snap as she landed heavily with her right leg twisted under her body.

"I looked down and thought, 'I can't see my foot', because it was not where it normally is," she said.

Then she realised the lower half of her leg was sticking out at right angles to her body, with the sole of her foot facing upwards.

While the adrenaline was still coursing through her body, she reached down and yanked her foot back into position.

That was when the pain kicked in and she started screaming out for help.

The 17-year-old said at least three people walked past, though two were on the other side of the road. They glanced at her and turned away.

"I'm yelling to them, 'help, I need help', waving my arms and trying to keep my leg in the right spot otherwise it just hurts," she said.

"About six or seven cars go past and they all look at me and I'm lying there and screaming."

X-rays revealed the Hamersley teen had broken her leg in two places and shattered her ankle.

She spent two weeks in hospital and is still in a wheelchair after a plate, screws and pins were inserted in her leg during two operations.

Lily-Bliss said she had chosen to use her skateboard so she could get to school before it rained. She did not carry a mobile phone that day because she did not need it at school.

She believed she could have been lying alone on the footpath for at least 10 minutes before a couple from a nearby house eventually heard her cries for help.

Rob, 67, who did not want his surname used, and his wife, Helen, called an ambulance and phoned Lily-Bliss' mother Kaili, then sat with her until medical help arrived.

Rob said the speed limit was 60km/h where Lily-Bliss broke her leg and the injured girl would have been clearly visible to passing drivers.

"When I went out, there were cars just going past and I couldn't understand why the cars weren't stopping," he said.

Warwick High principal Lesley Wintle said it was a "sad indictment on society" that so many people ignored the injured student.

"It's unbelievable in modern-day Perth that people have become so wary, they would not assist a young girl in obvious distress," she said.

"If it was 10 o'clock at night in Northbridge, you might worry. But when it's broad daylight and a child in a school uniform is obviously incapacitated - I have great concerns for society."

Lily-Bliss said she was upset it took so long to get help.

"What if it was someone having a heart attack and no one came to help in those crucial minutes," she said.

Her mother said it seemed too many people were busy getting on with their own lives to pay attention to others in trouble.