A dead man travelling by tram unnoticed for more than 6 hours in Budapest

Borsonline.hu reports the shocking news of a Hungarian man (73) dying on tram 17 in Budapest due to sudden cardiac failure. The incident happened last Wednesday when no one noticed the death of János Szabó who was on the way to his workplace. His widow unfolds the shocking story.

What happened?

On the day when the tragedy happened, everything started as usual, states the wife of János Szabó. János, clean-shaven and well-dressed, set out to his workplace since besides being a pensioner, he worked for Szerencsejáték Zrt., the most significant Hungarian lottery operator and gambling services provider in the country. As the couple lives in Érd, János travelled by train to the capital every day.

Just like always, the train of János arrived at Déli Railway Station around 7:45 a.m. from where the workplace of the man was only two stops away. János usually travelled by tram 17 to Széna Square after which he walked to his workplace. As the widow of János reports, 2 minutes after her husband had sat down on the tram, he died. He was dead by around 7 a.m. since he did not get off the tram after the two stops.

It was only around 2 p.m. that someone speaked to the conductor of the tram at Frankel Leó Street, telling him that someone might be sick or in fact is not alive since he is quite pale. The conductor immediately stopped the vehicle and called for the ambulance, recalls the terrible memories Jánosné Szabó.

“I was called by the police with the news that my husband had died several hours ago. My first reaction was that it could not be him given that the name János Szabó is quite frequent. When the officers read out the personal identity information of my husband, I did not think about the worst. I refused to accept that it happened to him. I said that someone might have stolen his bag and his documents and during the day, this person might have died. It was only when they described how he looked like that I realised, it is him.”

The wife still does not understand how this could happen. As she tells, her husband never had any problems with his heart, and he was on sick leave only two times due to minor accidents.

The most astonishing in the incident is that, according to the woman, the conductor could have realised what had happened since at the terminus, he has to sit into another compartment. During more than 6 hours, he could have recognised the dead man several times.

The woman states that her husband could not have been mistaken for a homeless person. If someone had called the ambulance on time, his life could have been saved. The autopsy report showed that heart failure and acute respiratory problems caused the death of János. A passenger should have recognised these.

BKV was informed

The Budapest Transport Corporation (BKV) was also informed about the incident and Borsonline got to know that someone indicated the probable death of a passenger to the conductor at Margaret Bridge around 1:35 p.m. The conductor stopped the vehicle and took the necessary measures. Since nobody indicated anything strange before, the exact time of the death is unknown. BKV also added that when trams arrive at the terminus, passengers can rightly get on them. Furthermore, the conductor has no obligation to check the compartments and wake up the passengers.

Indifference is quite a common problem

It is a prevalent type of human behaviour that when we experience something strange, embarrassing or unusual, we do not react to it at all. A defensive mechanism is activated, which is to keep distance. This is the instinct of humanity activated with which we distance ourselves from what happened given that it is not our affair and we do not want to be involved. The other possible reaction is to move away because we are afraid of stating that someone is dead as we are so scared of the dead and death in general, reports Pál Bilkei, psychologist.

Featured image: wikicommons by LaSza 

Source: borsonline.hu