When good people do something

The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. ~ Albert Einstein

Stories like these make it all worth it...

DRIVER'S RAMPAGE

Amid chaos, many rushed to aid victims

Bizarre episode's bright side is those who put selves at risk

- C.W. Nevius
Thursday, August 31, 2006

It would be easy to see the tale of a crazed SUV driver who mowed down more than a dozen pedestrians Tuesday in San Francisco and Fremont as another outburst of seemingly random violence in a scary world. But there's another side to the story.

It is about the people on the streets of San Francisco of every race, ethnicity and background who rushed out of offices, apartments and cars to help the pedestrians struck down. They were mechanics from Hayes Auto Repair, nurses from UCSF, a drywall installer from the Western Addition and many others we will never know.

They could have stood on the sidewalk, rubbernecking. These days that could be the expected response. But instead, they ran into the street, tended to the injured and even pulled victims to safety.

It isn't enough to say they didn't have to help. Many of them knew they were actually putting themselves in harm's way by leaving the sidewalk. We heard the story over and over on Wednesday.

Leticia Rentillo, whose apartment is on the corner of Steiner and Sutter, says she and another man were debating about whether to move 78-year-old Richard Hilkert, who was lying in the street after being run down, when onlookers began to shout.

"Get out of the street!'' they yelled. "He's coming back.''

And the driver did. Hilkert was pulled to safety behind a light pole as the driver roared down the street again, swerving over toward the bus stop where a small crowd was huddled and accelerating down the street when he realized that a light post and concrete trashcan would protect the group.

"He was trolling for people," says UCSF nurse practitioner Natalie Olsen, who ran out of a Thai restaurant to tend to the injured.

Earlier in that intersection, he'd hit Leon Stevens with such force that Stevens was blown out of one of his shoes and was knocked about 30 feet down the street. And then, as he lay in the street, the car ran over him.

Emanuel Gowan, a drywall installer and 29-year resident, was standing by his truck when the black SUV slammed into Stevens in the crosswalk.

"I was totally in shock," says Gowan. "I could not believe what was going on in our neighborhood."

The gentrified, tree-lined area with upscale restaurants and blooming flowers in pots is certainly not the place where neighbors would expect such senseless violence. Usually, the biggest problem there is a stolen iPod from a car break-in.

But the residents came through like champs, as they did in other neighborhoods. Olsen and her good friend Tammy Rodvelt, both nurses at UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center at Mt. Zion, ran out of the Neecha Thai restaurant, where they were eating lunch, to help when they saw that Hilkert was down.

Rodvelt went to Hilkert, while Olsen discovered Stevens crawling on the sidewalk, dazed and in a state of panic.

"I have to get away,'' Stevens told Olsen. "He's coming back. He's going to kill me.''

Olsen was able to calm him down and check for bleeding and head trauma. (He had neither, but his hip and legs were badly hurt.) Someone arrived with a blanket, and others, like Rentillo, offered the use of their building for shelter.

"When I looked down and saw (Stevens) in the street,'' Rentillo said, "my initial thought was that there were already people there and he'd be fine. But then I thought, they might have been walking by. I live here. There really is a strong sense of community here.''

Gowan, the drywaller, asked Hilkert if he was all right.

"I've had better days,'' Hilkert replied.

As all that was happening, the black SUV continued to roar up and down the streets. The driver blasted through the intersection of Steiner and Sutter at least three times, apparently looking for more victims.

"It is,'' Olsen says, "the kind of story that when you relay it to someone, they say, 'How can you live in that hellhole?' ''

Because, they say, if these are the only stories you hear from the streets of the city, you are missing the point.

"You really do get the sense that people are looking out for each other,'' says Rentillo. "Which is nice.''

Gowan had never met Hilkert in his life, but he was on the scene the minute the former book-shop owner was hit, helping to get him out of the street.

"I was worried about getting hit,'' he says, "but he was a gentleman who needed help.''

"You know how you always want to be the kind of person that does that right thing?'' says Olsen. "Well (Tuesday), we were.''

It kind of makes you proud to live here.