Open Letter to the woman I almost hit

[wrenb]

Dear pedestrian,

I am the woman in the hatchback who almost hit you this morning at Dayton and Charter. You stepped into the intersection without checking that both lanes were clear. In an intersection where there are stop signs on only one street there were 4 cars stopped for you, one in each direction. I understand that you were in a marked crosswalk and had every right to be there. In ordinary conditions (read: not this winter) I too would have stopped for you. I hit a long patch of ice and, despite the fact that I had only been going 20 mph and had already slowed when I saw you dithering in the intersection, my antilock brakes were working as hard as they could. But I could not effectively stop for you -- I slid 15 feet trying to stop.

I am frequently a pedestrian myself. I walked to work all last winter, crossing Park Street twice a day. I understand the rights of pedestrians. I also understand their responsibilities which you, madam, apparently do not. There was no one behind me. It would have been wise to wait for me and the pick-up truck in the other lane to pass and then cross the road. It is not -5F this morning; you were not in danger of frostbite. You were, however, in danger of being run over by a driver who was doing everything right (except, I guess, for not anticipating that a pedestrian near the University would do something unwise).

Sincerely,
Me

Comments

[nemene.livejournal.com]

Oh, those situations are so nerve racking, my sympathy.

[stacyinthecity.livejournal.com]

yikes! When I'm walking, I always anticipate road conditions and factor those into when I step into the street!

That must have been awfully scary for you. I'm glad it was ok though.

[robbbbbb.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, people are really stupid.

[eiramanit.livejournal.com]

I had someone almost do that to me in our last snow storm in January. Actually, she didn't make it into the intersection (she was about to) because I honked at her. I was close enough to the cross walk when she decided to attempt to enter it that I knew there would be no way I could stop in time (and I really didn't feel like getting rear-ended by the person behind me), so I blared my horn at her. She gave me a dirty look, but I really don't care. She was being stooopid. I always normally stop for pedestrians, but I just couldn't in this instant without causing damage to a lot of people and things.