The Best Response From Some First Responders

A sixteen-year-old boy is riding his bike.  A car turns onto the street.  

"I was assuming he would stop for me," said Alex Zhao.  "I guess he didn't see me."

Alex doesn't remember much about the impact because "it happened so fast."  All he knows is that it threw him clear of his bike, which ended up underneath the car.  

Paramedics who responded to the crash offered to take it to the fire station so he could pick it up later.  But the bike, which held "a lot of memories" for him and was his only mode of transportation, was a wreck.

Steven Nuckolls

Seeing his sadness, the firefighters went to a nearby bike shop to see whether the bike could be fixed.  Shop employees said it was impossible.  So, the firefighters decided to buy him a new one.  "We kinda looked at it, looked at each other and said we think it's the right thing to do," explained Steven Nuckolls of the Arcadia, California Fire Department.

That shop, Helen's in Arcadia, donated the bike--in fire engine red--and a helmet, which Alex wasn't wearing when the car hit him.

Then the firefighters called Alex to the Arcadia Fire Department.  He believed he was going to pick up the remains of his bike.  What he found instead moved him to tears.  

Oh, and the firefighters helped him deliver a painting he'd created for an art contest, and was carrying with him when the car struck him.  He made the deadline to enter.

I hope he wins again.