These are the disturbing images that have caused leaders to wonder if America has lost its moral compass.

 

A pensioner - the victim of a hit-and-run driver - is left lying in the road and no one stops to help him.

 

The CCTV footage was released by police in Hartford, Connecticut, and shows 78-year-old Angel Arce Torres attempting to cross a road.

 

Horror: Mr Torres, 78, can be seen in the lower right corner of the frame just as a car hits him

 

 

Flipped: Mr Torres is tossed up like a rag doll by the mystery hit-and-run driver

 

 

One car just misses him but another close behind it smashes into him with enough force to lift him off the ground.

 

After the accident, passers-by ignored the injured man. Police on their way to an unrelated call eventually assisted Mr Torres.

 

He is believed to be in a critical condition at Hartford Hospital and paralysed from the neck down.

 

‘My father is fighting for his life,’ said the victim’s son, Angel Arce.

 

‘I would like the public right now to help us in identifying the car and the person who did this.’

 

Daryl Roberts, Hartford Chief of Police, said that in the past onlookers would have stopped to help Mr Torres. ‘We no longer have a moral compass,’ he added.

 

Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell described the footage as ‘beyond chilling’.

 

 

Battered: The victim careens off the car's windscreen

 

 

The surveillance video is gripping: the 78-year-old man is tossed like a rag doll by a hit-and-run driver, and cars zoom by as he lies motionless on the busy city street.

 

Pedestrians gawk, but do nothing after the accident in the U.S.

 

One driver stops briefly, but then pulls back into traffic. A man on a scooter slowly circles the victim before zipping away.

 

The chilling video has outraged Hartford's police chief and has sparked some to question the humanity of Connecticut's capital city.

 

"At the end of the day, we've got to look at ourselves and understand that our moral values have now changed," police chief Daryl Roberts said after releasing the video in the hope of making an arrest.

 

 

"We have no regard for each other."

 

The video shocked the city.

 

 

The city's newspaper, Hartford Courant, blared "SO INHUMANE" in a front-page headline, and debate about the bystanders' callousness dominated radio talk shows.

 

 

Shame: Pedestrians approach Mr Torres but they refused to help him

 

The video shows the victim, Angel Arce Torres, being struck by a dark Honda that was chasing a tan Toyota.

 

Several cars pass, as a few people stare from the pavement. Some approach Torres, but most stay put until a police cruiser responding to an unrelated call arrives on the scene.

 

 

In the video, Torres walks in the two-way street at 5:45pm after buying milk at a local grocery store.

 

 

He is struck by a dark Honda that was chasing a tan Toyota. Both cars dart down a side street as Torres crumples to the pavement.

 

 

Torres is paralysed and remains in critical condition in Hartford Hospital.

 

His son, Angel Arce, begged the public for help. 'My father is fighting for his life,' Arce said. 'I would like the public right now to help us in identifying the car and the person that did this.'

 

Robert Luna, who works at a nearby store, blamed witnesses for failing to help Torres. "It took too long to call police," he said Thursday. "Nobody did nothing."

 

Witness Bryant Hayre said he didn't feel comfortable helping Torres, who he said was bleeding and conscious.

 

'Whoever did this should be sent away for a long time,' Hayre told The Hartford Courant. 'It was as if he was a dog left in the street to die.'

 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1024671/Dramatic-pictures-The-moment-pedestrian-struck-left-dead-hit-run-driver.html

and the ironic thing is it's probably the driver of the car who's the one who has health insurance.