Thursday, March 12, 2009

lOOk Both Ways!

Let me put it to you plain and simple; you're taught to look both ways before you cross the street for a reason.

In the past week I have seen 3, yes, 3 people hit by cars. Maybe its Provo...I don't know. Each time I laughed and felt fortunate that I was able to witness such an event. No one died...I'm not that inconsiderate.

The first incident, a couple in there mid-twenties was crossing the street at night. The girl dropped her keys in the middle of the crosswalk and went back to get them. The couple then scurried towards the sidewalk. Of the 2 southbound lanes on University Avenue, the car in the middle lane had stopped. So the Peds decided to keep moving towards the curb. They failed to notice the car in the other lane somehow and literally ran right in front of the car. This car's view was blocked by the stopped car which would signal to me to slow down but not this guy. BAM! Car hit boy, boy flew into girl, guy does a flip and smashes in the ground. I, heading north, roll down my window and scream, "OH SNAP!" It wasn't a scared yell but a, 'that was your own fault,' kind of shout. I stopped and the guy that got hit used my coat as a pillow while the nedics came. Both were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

The 2nd incident happened today. Same road, about a mile north. Cars were backed up about 20 deep at a stop light. (2 northbound, 2 southbound, and a middle turn lane.) Some Coug Pedestrian student decides to walk between the stopped cars about 100 yards north of the crosswalk. As he weaves his way through the 2 lanes of stopped traffic, Homeboy gets to the turning lane and as if he owns the road, steps right in front of a Jeep Cherokee making its way in the turn lane to the intersection. DUMB. He deserved to get hit in my book. What kind of moron walks into a BUSY street like that and doesn't peek to see if there MIGHT be someone else coming. I didn't stick around to see the damage but I heard the sirens. I didn't see him lying on the ground as I drove past the scene so I figure that was a good sign.

I got hit by a car once. It was totally my fault. I was more than negligent. Summer vacation was coming to a close before my 7th grade year, and I, with my friend, decided to go fishing. I grabbed my little sister's pink bike and rode down the hill to invite another friend. There is a stop sign at the bottom of our street which I blew through. I had done it before, only this time, a car was coming. SMACK! I got hit. All I see is blue. Blue car, blue sky...then the pavement. I got hit hard. I was literally pulling chunks of hair out of my head (which was sore for days after because of that.) The adrenaline was pooring through and as shock set in all I could think of was how mad Krista was going to be that her bike was ruined. Forget the fact that I had just been nailed by a Mazda, her bike, not my ankle, head or hip. The poor guy that hit me, I feel bad for the trauma I caused him. I ended up in the hospital with a bruise from where the bumper hit me that started on one side of my ankle and showed up on the other. I also I had a disgustingly colored bruise on my butt/thigh that had all the colors of a drunken rainbow...like someone painting with watercolor just mixed all the colors together on the canvass as they painted.

Since then I have paid a little more attention to crossing the street to say the least. I look several times in each direction as I cross. My advise is to do the same. The last thing you need is some jerk laughing at you because you walked right in front of a moving vehicle.

Thank you, Good Day.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

oh SNAP! that's craziness! you are hilar.

Anonymous said...

That is sooo funny and I would also laugh. Its just plain funny. Wyndam saw a guy on his bike get hit. And the bike guy flew over the car. He was fine and got up and rode on. But funny nevertheless.

Punj said...

Haha! Oh yea, that makes me want to go back so I can be the one to hit a Coug. agghhh, I hate them!

Little Dame said...

I laughed so hard I cried...I LOVE that you yelled Oh Snap out the window...
So.... CRAZY that you put this on here b/c I was working a few weeks back and we had this discussion about hitting peds in the office....come to find out that 3 of the 5 people in the discussion HAD HIT PEOPLE!! What the...epidemic?? I've been too sheltered. 2 of them had nailed students down in Tempe who had it coming (I hate driving around ASU...it's a ped orgy everywhere) and one had hit a drunk guy on the west side who stumbled into the road...So...the strangest part was that VERY evening I was at the mall in Scottsdale and was rolling thru the parking lot and almost nailed someone who walked in front of me and it JUST happened to be one of the gals from my office who had hit someone before. How bizarre?!