Perhaps they thought if they tried to help him and he died, they would be sued.
Several years ago, a pedestrian was hit in Tampa, and a very similar thing happened,
but a "Good Samaritan" did stop to lend assistance, only to have the older person die.
The next thing we heard on the news, the children of this older person were filling a
law suit on the "Good Guy"...
I'm not defending any of the non-good Samaritans here, just pointing out how we as a society
has changed from what most of us here at FR were raised to believe and do...sad to say
Many states have “good Samaritan” laws that prevent that sort of suit.
That's what I figured when I first heard the story.
Perhaps they thought that if they stopped and got out of their car then they would be beset upon by the residents of this "working-class neighborhood close to downtown".