KEY POINTS:
An 80-year-old woman who tripped and fell outside Palmerston North's library - smashing two ribs and her glasses - lay in the gutter without passers-by offering her any help.
Elaine Harris tried to call for help on her mobile phone, but she couldn't see well enough without her glasses, said one of her daughters, Nancy Day.
Eventually, Mrs Harris, a widow, hauled herself up out of the gutter by using the front of a car for support - watched by people in other parked cars nearby, who offered no aid, said Mrs Day, who said she could not believe no one helped her mother.
"To see an elderly lady bleeding, after she obviously took a hell of a whack, I just don't know how you can turn a blind eye to it.
"But there were people watching from inside their parked cars, while she was sprawled out on the pavement for some time.
"She got on to her knees and pulled herself up - on the front of a car - enough to stagger to a seat on the footpath."
Mrs Day said family and friends of her mother were upset that no one had helped the bleeding and dazed elderly woman, who fell outside the library about 11am on Saturday.
Mrs Harris, a widow from Longburn, said she had returned her books and was about to cross the street when she tripped: "I hit my head on the footpath. I wasn't knocked out, but I was dizzy," she said. "I couldn't get up. I can't when I fall down when there isn't someone there to help me.
"There were plenty of people ... people just don't care any longer I'm afraid."
Another daughter, Kathie Harris, said people sitting in their cars saw her fall.
"I am disgusted with the people ... who left my mother in the street bleeding and distressed," she said.
"I just wonder what's happened to human kindness at the moment."
Mrs Harris still has the broken ribs, sore shoulder, black eye and bruises on her hands and knees, but she has had her glasses fixed.
"I haven't been able to do much," she said.
"I haven't been able to sleep."
- NZPA
