Saw something heartbreaking

[Brutus 2,206]

On the way home from work, I was sitting at a red light of a high traffic 4 way intersection. It wasn't quite the highway part, but close enough that people usually drive at near highway speeds. As I was sitting there waiting, I saw a little girl, maybe 7 or 8 years old, bundled up in her coat, carrying her school backpack, all alone as she was crossing the 2 lanes of this busy road. When she got to the other side, she was struggling to find footing in the grass, because there was no sidewalk. It's dangerous even for adults to walk along this stretch of road since there is so much traffic and nowhere to really walk safely. She just kept hustling along like it was her daily routine, like she was used to having to do this. The saddest part is when I realized how far she had to walk. There are no houses for nearly a mile in any direction she was headed. Either she turned right and walked a mile up a real highway with a speed limit of 55 mph, or turned left and crossed a quarter mile bridge into town, and then walked who knows how far through town to get home. It was a dangerous and long journey no matter where she was going. When the light turned green, I drove past and looked over at her, seeing that she was holding her hood in place because it was cold and windy, looking back at traffic as she walked, waiting for the right moment to step onto the side of the road from where the grass ended. It genuinely breaks my heart to see children enduring adult circumstances, and this was one of those moments. Where were her parents, why was she walking by herself on the highway, in the cold? It happened so fast, and after getting home, I don't know what I should've done. Pulling over to help would be dangerous because of the fast traffic behind me, plus an unfamiliar man most likely would've scared her, which is the best reaction she can have with a stranger anyway. Maybe I should've called the police and let them deal with it. 

Regardless, it was one of those things that catches you so off guard that only after the fact, can you think through it. The kind of thing that can make you cry. Ignorance is bliss, and children all over the world certainly suffer worse, which is easily ignored by people that don't deal with it,  but seeing something like this in front of you shakes you right out of your "out of sight, out of mind" state of being. I hate that I didn't know how to help her. She'll be a tough woman one day, but I still don't like what I saw.

[2prnot2p 1,066]

Well Brutus, all I can say is that you have a warm heart.  That would bother me too.  But, I don't think there was much you could've done.  Perhaps a call to the police might have been in order.  I don't know if I'd have called them either.  It's a sad thing to see, for sure.