When I was a resident, there was a hospital that I used to drive to that was a short distance from my house. The fastest and shortest way to get there was to drive past a school. However, I used to be nervous about taking that route, because I noticed there were always a lot of kids hanging around and I was scared of hitting one of them with my car.
So instead I took an alternate route that was about five minutes longer. It was on a four-lane road (two lanes in either direction) where there were a couple of stoplights and cars went about 40 MPH. There were some crosswalks for pedestrians, but I had never actually seen a pedestrian attempting to cross. It seemed safer to me.
One day, I was driving in the rain. I was in the left lane and I noticed the guy next to my right was slowing to a stop. I had very poor visibility of the crosswalk, but long story short, I managed to hit my brakes just seconds before mowing down a guy marching through the crosswalk.
I was shaking. I couldn't believe I almost hit someone on a road I specifically was taking to avoid hitting anyone.
After the guy walked past me, I continued on my way and the guy continued through the crosswalk. Out of the periphery of my vision, I saw another car slam into him and he flew about ten feet in the air.
Lessons learned:
1) From then on, I started driving past the school, because at least then I was expecting people to leap in front of my car.
2) Even though in a court of law, this was likely the fault of the car that hit the pedestrian, when you march into a crosswalk, it's probably better to make sure the car have stopped before you leap in. I used to cross at a crosswalk on my way to work and there was little chance this could have happened to me, because I didn't budge unless there were no cars in sight or the cars were stopped. Yes, it might not technically be your fault. But that wouldn't make you any less paralyzed from the neck down. (Spoken as a true rehab doc.)
Yikes that is scary! Did he not press the crosswalk button to make the yellow X's light up? Or why could no one see him?
ReplyDeleteWhat are these yellow X's you speak of?
DeleteHmmm maybe you don't have them in the states. Crosswalks here (Ontario) that aren't at stoplights have big yellow X things that hang out over the road (like a stoplight). When a button is pressed on the side of the road they light up and cars are supposed to stop (which is a lot easier to see in the rain than a person walking).
DeleteYes. I try to be mindful of that when I'm a pedestrian too. Winning a lawsuit against some driver won't make me any less paralyzed.
ReplyDeletewow... did you stop and help that guy or call 911?
ReplyDeleteI pulled over with the intention of helping, but by the time I got out of the car, there were already like a dozen people surrounding the guy, and it looked like he had gotten up. So I figured there wasn't much I was going to be able to do for him.
DeleteYeah, this is something I always think about. As a pedestrian, you may have the right of way, and you "win" in that sense. However, I don't think you'll ever "win" against a car... It's not worth becoming a paraplegic or worse - dying!
ReplyDeleteIf I'm going to use a crossing I stand at the edge and have one foot out as if I'm about to walk out. No matter how slowly the cars are going, unless they look like they're going to stop moving, I'm not taking the risk.
ReplyDeleteIt always annoys / bothers / irritates / baffles me when pedestrians just start crossing. It doesn't matter if it is, or is not, their right of way. A car cannot, by all laws of physics, stop in less than a certain distance. A car cannot, by those same laws of physics, maneuver as easily as a pedestrian.
ReplyDeleteI learned my lesson when I started marching on a green light and a car was turning left. I noticed my car has a blind spot right in that left area of the windshield where a pedestrian could easily hide. I almost got run over by that car, probably because of the exact same blind spot.
I've narrowly avoided hitting a pedestrian, and didn't only because I was suspicious that the guy was planning on crossing. He stepped out on the road completely unannounced, didn't stop, didn't look, didn't indicate his intent, just stepped out. I braked because I was watching him, saving his life. And really, that would be MY fault that pedestrians are entirely brainless?? I think not.
I think in a court of law, it probably *is* the fault of the driver if it happens in a pedestrian crosswalk, even if the driver literally did not have time to stop.
DeleteI actually don't even like when a car "lets me go" as a pedestrian and comes to a full stop. Because in a sense I'm trusting my life to that person's foot on the brake. I'll just wait and motion the car to keep going...especially if I'm crossing with my kids (they're 6 and 3). I know they're just trying to be nice but it'd be so much faster if they just drove past.
ReplyDeleteSlightly different than pedestrians, but my family and I cycle a lot. One of the things we impress on our kids is to follow the rules of the road, to be predictable themselves (yet to expect cars to be unpredictable, especially at turns), and that doing something just because it was your "right" based on the rules can get you killed. I also cringe when I see most people on bikes on the road - no helmets, headphones on so you can't hear traffic behind you, going the wrong way, weaving in and out of traffic...stupidity embodied!
ReplyDeleteMy dad always said "You don't need to be right all the time - dead right isn't a good way to prove your point."
And I agree with Marcus above - I don't like cars ceding me the right of way (or driving ridiculously slow just beside me because they're afraid to pass despite adequate room), as it complicates my own movements.
A.W.
Hot button topic for me.
ReplyDelete100% agree. My kids (9 and 12) are getting tired of the "better to be safe than right" lecture from me.
In the past I've seen a car actually being to slow down (presumably for unrelated reasons) and then sail right through the crosswalk as I was about to step into it. On the flip side I've been behind the wheel and had pedestrians suddenly change direction/facing on the sidewalk and suddenly step into the crosswalk in front of me without a glance up, as though the little white lines were force fields or something.
So I actually instruct my kids to make eye contact with the driver before stepping off the curb. If the driver is looking you in the eye, you know they have seen you.
The above advice didn't help me yesterday, because they driver came at me from an unexpected direction - leaving a parkling lot while making a left turn. He was so busy checking for cars coming both ways and hoping to scoot into the break in traffic, he failed to register me 1/2 way across the lane he wanted to enter. So you still need to be alert and have a loud voice in lieu of horn.
I see Marcus' point above, but on a perpetually busy street lacking a stop light you often have little choice but walk in front of stopped vehicles. I still don't like crossing in front of vans and large trucks at 4+ lane crossings, as I have had too many close calls both walking and driving in that sceneario - as a driver I still slow down a lot when the car on my right seems to be parking at a curb close to a corner all because of one completely obscured pedestrian almost died on my hood over 20 years ago.
On the good side, around my office we are getting more of those yellow overhead warning lights that silverwhale09 mentions, fortunately. Out in suburbia where I live, though, I'm considering buying my own stop signs and white paint for a blind corner near my house...