A Whangarei women is angry no one stopped to help a man who had been lying on the side of a busy road for 20 minutes.

Penny Kempton was driving along Station Rd, Kamo, about 2pm on Wednesday, past the intersection with Charles St.

"Out of the corner of my eye, I see this long strip of chequered blue lying on the side of the road."

She thought it looked like a body, so turned around and headed back. She was right; an elderly man was lying on the grass next to the footpath.

"I checked him out, I thought initially he'd had a stroke. He could hardly talk, he was drifting in and out of consciousness. It was obvious to me there was some sort of medical event happening," Kempton said.

She flagged down a car with a couple in it and between them they tried to move him.

Kempton rang for an ambulance, and put a towel over him while they waited.

"While we were standing there this car came up Charles St."

The driver put the window down and said: "Oh, he's been on the ground for 20 minutes."

She asked how they knew that and the driver responded: "I saw him fall over 20 minutes ago when I was on my way to visit my friend."

"That just made me so angry. Then they put the window up and drove off."

Kempton said there was ''constant'' traffic driving along Station Rd.

"A lot of people had driven past him and I find that deeply distressing and really sad. We need to pick our game up."

Kempton said she thought people didn't stop because they were busy or didn't want to get involved.

She said when the ambulance arrived, they ascertained the man was a diabetic.

He survived the ordeal.

Kempton said anyone who felt intimidated by the situation and didn't want to stop and get out of the car should at least call someone, such as the emergency services on 111 who would check.

"As New Zealanders we consider ourselves to be nice, kind and caring, because we're a small population we consider we have a connection to people, but that didn't happen.

"We need to be better than that. It could have been anybody and everybody is precious to somebody.

"Our fathers and grandfathers walked out onto the battlefield to recover and bring back their own. If we can't stop and check on somebody, what have we come to?"

She said it came down to social connection and the fabric of society.

"What I saw a was a disconnect between how we want to be seen and what actually happened."