Almost Hit A Pedestrian

[laundryhater]

Dear Pedestrian on Hubbell Avenue,

Never assume drivers can see you as you cross the street in front of oncoming traffic to catch the bus.

At 4:30 p.m. the sun is low in the sky and limits driver visibility.

You stepped right out in front of me while I was going 35 mph on a busy street.

I had my sunglasses on but the sun was still pretty blinding and I didn't see you until it was almost too late. I had to slam on my brakes and came within inches of hitting you.

NEVER, NEVER DO THAT TO ANYONE EVER AGAIN!! YOU SCARED ME SO BAD I NEARLY HAD A STROKE! I HAD TO PULL OVER TO CATCH MY BREATH AND CALM DOWN BECAUSE I ALMOST KILLED SOMEONE.

Sincerely,
Driver of the White Kia Spectra

[PepperElf]

that's why God invented crosswalks and those little "walk" lights .... O_o

the pedestrians who can't use those are the ones God gives to Darwin.

[Pagan]

That's right up there with the numbnuts I almost hit coming home the other night. Coming down the drive in our parking lot, one part of it is pretty dark. All of a sudden, this genius, who's wearing dark clothes on top of it, decided that she needed to walk out in front of my car. Stopped short. On top of it, she didn't have the good grace to move over to the side, she kept on walking in the middle of the road. Now my car runs fairly quiet, but it's not silent, nor does it have stealth capabilities! Ya wee feckin' eedjit.

[ditchdj]

Oh yes there's a University down the street from my house and idiots happily cross the street right in front of oncoming traffic with their heads held up high, figuring you'll just stop on a dime and let them cross. The cops are really ticket-happy around here and it would really be nice to see them start ticketing these idiots for jaywalking before the gene pool gets another cleaning if you know what I'm talking about.

[Gawdzillers]

On Halloween I nearly smashed some kids who were wearing all black, walking in the middle of the road (not on the side, but practically jumping back and forth over the double yellow)

[Crow The Robot]

I'd say I almost hit about 20-30 people a day, between people just darting out in front of me at the supermarket, the dumb middle school students by my house and the drunk and high idjits I encounter in the middle of my ruined town.

[protege]

Last year...I nearly mowed down some idiot who jumped in front of me. We'd just gotten some snow, so the roads were a bit slick that morning. Considering that the city of Pittsburgh doesn't plow many roads, and most people were driving pretty slow, myself included.

Anyway, as I'm slowing for a stop sign...some idiot decides that's the *perfect* time to jump out in front of me. Meaning, I put the car sideways trying to not only avoid his ass, but also sliding sideways into the path of an oncoming bus

Then there are the idiots who attend Carnegie Mellon and Pitt. I'd like to know one thing...what the hell are they on? They run out in front of cars, usually wear dark clothing at night, and then get pissy when they get hit. Sorry, but if you choose to do things like that, you *deserve* to get hit.

[KellyHabersham]

Something similiar happened to my mom the other night - we'd gone to my daughter's school to watch her perform in a band/orchestra concert, and as we were leaving the parking lot, some guy walked out in front of her car. My mom nearly had a heart attack (that's how she put it, anyhow) because it had looked like the guy was walking with a group of people, and suddenly changed direction.

[wagegoth]

My husband normally drops the kids at school, but when I have the day off I often do it. I seriously believe that many parents secretly, even unknowingly, hate their children, because they let them out in the middle of the street and/or have them run across where there is no crosswalk or guard and/or have them get out of a still moving car and/or take off with the car door still open, etc.

I hate them all.

[Kogarashi]

I nearly hit one today too.

Driving down a four-lane road (two lanes each way), coming up on an intersection where a lot of cars like to turn left onto a side street. There's no protected left there, so most of the cars that want to go straight get into the right-hand lane so as not to be held up by those turning left, who have to wait for two lanes of oncoming traffic to clear.

So as I approach this intersection, I see cars waiting to turn left and thus pull into the right-hand lane. A pickup truck pulls into the lane as well, out of the line waiting to turn left, and is ahead of me. The light is green, so cars start moving, though no one is actually turning left yet because, surprise, there's oncoming traffic.

Just as the pickup truck gets barely past the stop line, it stops, cold, in the intersection. There's no shoulder to pass them on, and cars to our left who've finally gotten a chance to turn. So I'm already irritated at this pickup truck blocking the intersection for no apparent reason. A mini bus in the left lane pulls straight through the intersection, and there's a gap behind it since more cars are turning, so I start to pull around the still-stopped pickup truck.

And nearly hit a pedestrian who had decided to cross the intersection right behind the mini bus. I couldn't see her until I was nearly on top of her, and thankfully braked in time. She gives a sheepish look to the pickup driver, and as I manage to pull around her, half-running a red light as I was in the middle of the intersection myself when the light changed, I see her climb into the stopped pickup truck.

People, there are no spaces to pull over there! Couldn't you have arranged this pickup, I dunno, half a block down the road where there's street parking?

Near as I can figure, Pickup Driver was in the left lane getting ready to turn to pickup Please Hit Me! down the side road, saw her coming, and decided right then to pull over where there's no room to pull over and pick her up, instead of completing the turn and then parking briefly at the metered street parking.

[MadMike]

That's right up there with the numbnuts I almost hit coming home the other night. Coming down the drive in our parking lot, one part of it is pretty dark. All of a sudden, this genius, who's wearing dark clothes on top of it, decided that she needed to walk out in front of my car.

I had someone do the same thing to me, and on top of that, he was very dark-skinned. All I saw was a red-orange glow that seemed to be hovering in mid-air. It turned out to be his cigarette. Once I realized something was there, I was just barely able to make out the outline of the person.

Ironically, smoking may have actually saved his life that night.

[Kogarashi]

We've got a bunch of people around here who like to jaywalk in dark clothes at night as well. Especially irritating when it's dark-skinned people, because as MadMike pointed out, even their faces blend in at that point. I've nearly hit a few who were dang lucky I was driving slowly and barely spotted their sneakers, or that they just happened to pass under a streetlight at the right moment. Plus I've got pretty decent night driving vision, especially compared to Hubby. I blame growing up in the middle of nowhere and being trained to look for deer at night.

Ironically, smoking may have actually saved his life that night.

::laugh::

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I almost hit some lemming earlier this week out in front of Hobby Lobby. What kills me about these shopping center parking lots down here is that most of them funnel traffic through the greatest concentrations of pedestrians.

I just don't get it.

This magnificent dumbass, whoever she was (and I didn't get a real good look because she stepped out in front of my freaking car from behind a WALL.), literally appeared less than three feet from my front bumper on the passenger side. Seriously, she was so close to me when she leaped out from behind the wall I do not know how the hell I missed her. I chalk it up to a combo of my fencer's reflexes, the fact that I am very mindful that a lot of idiots and old ladies shop at Hobby Lobby, and divine intervention.

Scared the st out of me. Thank God and Jesus I wasn't going any faster than I was or this broad would have been a hood ornament.

[Blade_Raver]

Back in 2002-2003 I was on my lunch break going to Wal Mart in Chesterfield MO (Chesterfield Valley).

I was going up one of the aisles.. and out of nowhere some corporate suit mental midget was talking on his cellphone in his SUV cutting across parking lanes... and cuts out in front of me.. didn't even see me.. just talking on his cell.. I slam my brakes to avoid T-Boning him (My 2000 Nissan Sentra didn't want any piece of that bimbo box!)

I honk the horn, and he actually gave me the finger! WTF?! He's the one violating driving laws by cutting across the semi empty parking lot and not looking where he's going.. but actually gave ME the finger when he almost caused an accident.

That reeked of ignorance, stupidity, arrogance and self-entitlement whorism... Ugh.. He's lucky that I was a young 22-23 year old guy with good reflexes.