Tonight's trip to Woolies. Or: who sits in a 4WD looking at a woman motionless in the middle of the road and beeps at them?
Tonight, like many nights, I got on my scooter to go to Woolies to get food for dinner. I scoot down one of Katherine's roads with a steady flow of traffic, the Victoria Highway. Halfway there, near Dominos, the usually mundane trip looked different. I saw 2 big 4WDs stopped on the road in front of me. A split second later I saw why they were stationary... Someone was sprawled flat in the middle of the road in front them. They were dark-skinned. Aboriginal, likely. I was still approaching. I heard one of the 4WDs beep. My brain kicked into instinctual assessment mode. What was this scene I was scooting towards? My greatest fears: this person may be dead. It may have been a hit and run. Less bad: she was flat on the road as a victim of violence. Less bad again: she was out of it and relatively okay but a major hazard. Regardless of which scenario it was this woman needed assistance. Fast. I was in instinct mode. I zoomed past the two 4WDs, parked my scooter near her and with zer