Posted on 08/21/2023 5:26:32 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
Ever heard of situational awareness?
Ding ding ding
More blaming the victim
7 people in a crosswalk group all lacking “ situational awareness”
She’ll be identified as soon as readers have forgotten about the incident.
“I never, ever, ever walk into a crosswalk until I have made eye contact with a driver and the driver is slowing or stopped.”
You should see the idiots here in Colorado. They will not even look left or right, they’ll just walk off the curb into traffic. The arrogance is astounding.
So have I. Got a ticket within five minutes of coming out of the Lincon Tunnel for turning right (after stopping) against a red light.
Absolutely with you; I practice likewise. Am astonished at the number people, often younger types wearing earbuds, who will just walk out into the street without even a glance at what might be coming at them. And looking both ways after light turns green has helped me avoid more than a couple possibly serious accidents. I drive at or under speed limit in town, go like a demon on open interstates, and used to race a little. The responsibility to practice safety was drilled into me at a young age by my father, grandfathers, and older men in general.
Intersections are very dangerous for pedestrians. When you’re trying to cross be especially aware of cars/trucks making left hand turns.
I got cited for running a stop sign once. Took a map of the area into the judge, got the patrolman to admit were he saw me and, as it turned out, he couldn't see me stop BEHIND the sign like most people do. Plus I had Drivewise that PROVED a hard stop at exactly the time of the "violation".
Judge dismissed the case and I told the highway man acting as a highway patrol man that I would be sure and stop in FRONT of the stop sign next time. The look on his face was priceless.
Don’t trust that green light!
LOL, I live in the Bluest of Blue states, and they do that all the time here. I am going to venture a guess here, and say there is a distinct correlation between the Leftism in a community and the number of pedestrian accidents in crosswalks.
Crossing at a crosswalk should be done with the same caution and care that one must observe when riding a bicycle or motorcycle...that is, you MUST assume the motorist does NOT see you, and that if you do not ensure you are seen, they WILL hit you.
Crosswalks make me absolutely nervous and irritable. There are so many things that can result in a mishap, that I nearly get angry when I see people just walk out into a crosswalk with the air that they have the right of way.
I get cranky when people stand in the mouth of the crosswalk as if they are going to cross, but they are chatting with each other or looking at their smartphone. When I cross, if I am not absolutely ready to go, I back out of the mouth of the crosswalk, and even turn my back on the road so drivers know I am not going to jump out and cross.
I hate it when people just saunter out, and take their damned sweet time going across, as if walking across that crosswalk is the height of their day, and they want to go as slowly and deliberately as possible. This one only applies to healthy, ambulatory people not of the elderly category. Those folks can take all day, I have no problem with that. But it bugs me when you get some 22 year old hipster who just walks across as if everyone has all day to wait for them. When I get the go-ahead to cross, I get on and off the road as quickly as I can safely do.
If I sound like I have an issue with crosswalking, it is because I live near a Leftist town in a blue state, and have to drive through it every day, and there are at least six crosswalks in one short stretch, and every Leftist denizen of this blue town acts exactly in the same stupid and inconsiderate manner when it comes to crossing in those crosswalks.
I will add one more thing, and ladyjane, you referenced it: to be aware of cars/trucks making left hand turns. I always wait for the pedestrian light to cross, and I never step out when the cross light turns to WALK. I always look, because people blow through lights and stop signs around here like it is nobody’s business.
Again, I just assume they are going to hit me, and I act accordingly.
I see that a lot in parking lots at grocery stores, home centers, etc.
People just aren’t thinking, they just assume that they’re not going to get run over.
I have made is a point to NOT walk in crosswalks when cars are approaching - or to walk in front of cars that are in a crosswalk.
This is after my husband was almost hit and killed by someone who ran a stop sign in front of our house - we watch cars zoom through the stop sign all day long, some don’t even slow down and it’s very well marked - there is an elementary school 1/2 block away.
The city was supposed to put in a light, but in 30 years, it’s never happened.
Sounds like she might have been a bit hammered…
BTTT
Ilegal alien?
A couple of years ago I was hit by a car making a left turn at an intersection. Yes, I looked abd had waited for the walk sign and still waited a bit. Fortunately I wasn’t seriously hurt although the bill for the emergency room was 25k. I had a friend who wasn’t so lucky trying to cross. Very sad, he had three little kids.
Slightly off topic - have people noticed the increase in the number of hit and run accidents? Just about every day I hear about at least one.
I know it is unfortunate, but as a pedestrian, you have to assume every darn car is going to hit you.
I sympathize with drivers on this as well. I have to drive through a town with all these crosswalks, and it is busy-there are cars going in every direction, people walking and going in every direction, there are cars parked on the side, bicycles going up and down the street, and when the light is just so, it is nerve wracking for me to drive through it every day. I hate it.
Near there, I hit a cyclist some years ago, and suffered some PTSD from that for 6 months to a year where my heart would pound there. (The cyclist was "splitting lanes", that is, driving on the centerline painted on the road that divides the two lanes of opposing traffic) I was pulling between the line of stopped cars to take a left hand turn during rush hour, and when I pulled through to pull out, the guy ran into my vehicle.
It was awful. Apparently, in some places, that "lane splitting is legal, but it isn't in my state, which is probably why I wasn't charged.
I thought it was an insanely risky and irresponsible thing to do, in one of the worst intersections in my county if not my state, at rush hour. I had no idea what "lane splitting" even was.
For months, every time I wasn't thinking of something else, or if I closed my eyes, I could see, unbidden and unwanted, that second and a half of continuous, high resolution, full color clip in my brain in super slow motion of the guy and his bike cartwheeling together through the air, his bare calves, the biking shoes, his helmeted head. Oddly, the only feature on the pale face visible was the mouth, a black hole, open. No eyes, nose, eybrows, nothing. Just the open black mouth.
It went away after about six months, and I don't see it anymore. But since then, I have an entirely different perspective on PTSD. It is one thing to know about it and hear it, and quite another to experience it. My heart breaks for people like soldiers, police, or firefighters who may have been severely injured (or in the case of a soldier or policeman, had to inflict violence on another human which left an indelible mark on their brain, sometimes for the rest of their lives) My heart breaks for those people, it must be absolutely awful.
I had to drive that road every morning, I began leaving home an hour early every morning to avoid traffic, but even coming up on it empty of cars was disturbing. But if I went later, and the traffic was heavy, my heart would pound, and I felt completly out of control, and didn't trust my eyes or reflexes to pull out into the heavy traffic. So I just made sure (and still do) to not be at that intersection when it was busy.
Some time after, perhaps a year later after the guy on the bike hit my car, I was watching a television series "Better Call Saul" late one night, totally relaxed, and in the movie, the main character driving a car hit a man on a skateboard.
When the collision occurred in the movie I went from completely relaxed to a hammering heart, fumbling with the television remote to turn the television off, shouting "F*** F*** F*** F***!!!" until I could remove even the afterimage from the television. It was awful. I thought I was completely over it, but...apparently not. The view through the windshield, the suddenness of the collision...it was exactly like the collision I had, view, sound, etc.
Even now, when I looked up this clip to see if it was online anywhere, I felt a growing sense of dread, and when it did happen...I shouted out a curse and it made me jump.
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