IT'S something I’m sure we would all do.

We catch sight of a distraught elderly lady as we’re driving past and pull up to help.

It’s the classic tale of the Good Samaritan and a big thumbs-up to the gentleman who helped 73-year-old Vanetta Westell in her hour of need.

But it does make you think, in these days of roadside robbery, hijacking and drink-related violence, what any of us would do if faced by a similar situation... only involving a young man or woman in a similar state of distress.

Do you immediately stop and administer aid whatever the consequences, believing that the individual’s need for help overcame any doubt about the end result?

Or do you drive on, excusing your behaviour via the understandable fear that to step out of your car could invite dire consequences?

I was once driving slowly through an urban area of south Manchester.

It was late at night and a young man, his face spattered with blood, rushed to the side of my car pleading for a lift.

After the few seconds I had to decide what to do, I drove on, believing it was a decision that avoided a good deal of trouble.

That was 30 years ago, a time when today’s alcohol-fuelled idiots were but a twinkle in society’s jaundiced eye.

And that says a good deal about just how good a Samaritan you would need to be these days.