So yet again yesterday, I watch a car blow through a crosswalk, forcing the pedestrian in his way to jump back.
And as usual, the police in the car immediately behind him do absolutely nothing about it.
At least the pedestrian didn’t get killed this time.
But I guess it’s easier to hose down the blood afterward, than to protect people beforehand?
This article appears in Nov 13-19, 2008.
Time after time I watch pedestrians walk out into traffic, run between cars, oblivious to the world around as they shut out horns and screeching tires with cellphones, ipods etc. or just straight out assuming that a car will stop for them as they have ‘right of way” As usual the police nearby did nothing about it.- jaywalking ? whats that? Its much easier to blame someone else than to take responsibility for your own well being . Isn’t it.I hate to hear of anyone getting into an accident but Its not always the drivers fault.
Amen to that Elvis. If the OP is referring to the unfortunate accident that occurred downtown yesterday, from witness accounts, the woman blindly ran into the crosswalk as the flashing warning hand sign came on. Equal blame must go to the driver of the truck who was obviously not at full attention, but this should not justify any pedestrian to simply walk or run across a street before being certain that traffic is fully stopped.
No, I was not referring to that incident directly – if you read my post you’ll see that I am writing about one where the pedestrian was luckily not killed.Sometimes it *IS* the driver’s fault, you know, and it’s clear that there are some drivers out there who are willing to run someone down. The example I saw yesterday was one of those – clear eye contact and acceleration on the part of the driver.I certainly have no problem with tickets being handed out to pedestrians who do stupid things – but do you think that police should follow your logic, because some pedestrians do stupid things that they should all be fair game, even if they’re in a crosswalk with the lights flashing overhead?
Sometimes ye sit IS the drivers fault, but not always. Odds are that the person who had to jump out of the way didn’t make sure the coast was clear before heading out into the street. If they had, they would have seen the car coming and not stopping. That’s THEIR fault. Should the police have given the driver of the car a ticket for such an obvious infraction? Definitely.Should the driver have been paying attention? absolutely. WOuld the driver have been blamed in an accident. probably. Point is BOTH the driver and the pedestrian could have been smarter and avoided any kind of incident at all.
I just reread the last post. Was it you OP? either way, if there was eye contact and the pedestrian walked on out into the street.. one of the two people is probably a bit off balance. The driver for running at someone or the pedestrian for walking out when they could see the damn car coming
The cops would have stopped if the pedestrian had a box of donuts that dropped!