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We all know the rules of the road while driving in town/city. Maintain a constance "legal" speed, a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you and observe all pedestrian crosswalks, and what ever you do, don't honk your horn at the little old lady taking her time to cross, she'll slam the hood of your car/truck with her hand bag, causing your airbag to deploy. Explain that one to the boss when you show up late for work. We were all raised, to obey and practice the safe procedures for using the crosswalk, and if we didn't, we were in for a tongue lashing. Today, dear readers, things have changed drastically and not for the good. Today, pedestrians are not waiting for the little guy to light up, telling you to cross, now they just stroll on out and expect you to stop for them, that is to say that they even USE the crosswalk. We, as motorists are expected to stop on a dime, ( try this in the dead of winter on a sheet of ice we call pavement in the summer) cause, they're a pedestrian, they have the right of way, even to a point where some our "younger" generation will stop in front of your vehicle and smirk at you with that "you can't move now, cause I'm gonna stand right here till I'm ready to move " look. In real life, if we were to "accidently" hit a motorist as they are crossing on a cross walk, the driver is subject to a fine, not to mention the stress and dismay of knowing you have injured someone, be they adult or child. Or, how about getting rear ended by the guy behind you, and all the fun wrapped up in that experience, the drivers with their damages and insurance claims to be dealt with, while the cause of it all, just keeps right on walkin away, no harm , no foul, to go home and tell their friends of the accident they saw 2 idiots get into. Well, I say they should pass a law, and the law should be, if your hit by a vehicle and you were not using the cross walk, you the pedestrian, may be subject to a fine. Add that to the fact you may get injured or killed by said vehicle, perhaps that might sway the thinkings of the "Bertha or Bill Betterthanyou" pedestrians to walk out in front of 3,000 lbs. of unforgiving metal. From a personal experience, if you have ever tried to maintian control and balance of a 600 lb. motorcycle,after you had to stop on a dime because "Wendy Wanderer" decided to walk out in front of you, then you'd know exactly the frustrations I 'm referring to. Am I saying let's forget about stopping and just mow them over? No, I've hit a dog and that felt bad enough thank you. I'm just saying it's about time the pedestrians started being held accountable. Nuff said. Opinions? |
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I happen to agree with you on this one Top. Here in Kansas the laws do allow for pedistrians to be held accountable in the event of an accident. The critia is pretty straight forward, If a reasonable person would have reasonably known their actions could or would cause harm or cause them to be harmed then the other person is NOT LIABLE at all. In other words, cut across a busy street at some point other than a cross walk when the motorist has the green light and you get hit, well so sorry hope you have health insurance and recover from your stupidity as quick as your bones heal. That is the way it should be in my opinioin. I realize that a pedestrian does have certain rights but just as with any other set of rights we all have comes huge responsibilities! You have to use a bit of common sense! Here even if it is a child, while tragic and upsetting, IF the child should have reasonably known that the car coming at them might hit them if they cross right then, well then they are responsible for their own actions. And that is how it is here. Lady |
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top...i agree totally......people should be held resposiblre.....don't know how mwany times i've locked up my vehicle because of pedestrians.......i know when ui was in scotland years ago pedestrians didn't have the right of way ....never had to worry about them stepping out in front of you.... |
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I totally agree with the incredulous question of "What are they thinking"??? I was driving home with my daughter last night when I came within about 5 feet of hitting a woman pushing a baby stroller down the street in the dark. She was walking the same way I was driving and she never looked back, just walked about 5 feet into the street. Why oh why do people assume that they can compete with a vehicle. Well, needless to say I blurted out a rather unkind comment right in front of my 16 year old. I then had to apologize and explain that I was angry. I almost hit this woman and her baby, and it made me stark raving mad. My heart was pounding, I got teary eyed because it would have been something I would have had to live with for the rest of my life, not to mention the trauma it would have cause my daughter and the relatives of this woman. What a horrible nightmare it would have been all because of the stupidity of this person. Well as you can clearly see I am still pretty fired up about it. So I'll stop there. But I think your'e right Top, if they made the jaywalkers liable then perhaps they wouldn't be so eager to just dart out in front of traffic. I'll stop now and crawl off the soapbox. coco |
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couldn agree more man... common sense just isn't common anymore. |
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No doubt this is a topic that can bring tears to the eyes of those who have had the traumatic experience of almost hitting a pedestrian as Coco describes... There is nothing more jarring to the spirit... (Hugs to Coco for her horror!) The law has changed a lot in recent years with respect to pedestrians and many people don't seem to know it. I have seen it time and again in my practice as a personal injury paralegal... If a pedestrian steps off the curb after the lil white guy on the traffic lights has turned yellow or red, and the pedestrian gets hit, they will lose a great deal of the damages a court or jury will award on the basis of "contributory negligence"... I have had cases where the jury has taken 25, 50 or 75% off of the damages they award to a pedestrian that has been hurt because they didn't obey the law and contributed to their own injuries... It IS against the law to jaywalk as well... A really horrifying phenomena that is ALSO taking place these days is the person who deliberately places themselves in the way of vehicles and believe me, it IS happening... One of the lawyers I worked with had a client who was head-injured in a motor vehicle accident... Because a head injury can leave a person unable to conduct their business affairs (not always but in a lot of cases), a lawyer handling such a matter, has an obligation to report the head-injured client's problems to the Public Guardian and Trustee so that someone can oversee the proper care and maintenance of the injured person in the rest of their lives. Courts make large awards for head injuries... In the case I am thinking of, the lawyer didn't report when his client won a substantial award for his injuries... The client went off with his money and spent it like there was no tomorrow... 5 years later, he walked back into the firm to find out if there was any more money because he was now homeless... When he was told there wasn't, he actually went out, walked around and when he thought the time was right, deliberately stepped off the curb to be hit! Of course, there was no compensation for his further injuries and the person driving the vehicle that hit him felt awful! Litigation is one of the last bastions of untaxed money and you would not believe what people will do to plead injury from an accident... even going so far as to plan the damn accident!!!! The first responsibility will always be the driver's... the guy who rear-ends you when you have to jam on your brakes for a pedestrian is at fault because he wasn't supposed to be driving so close to your behind that he couldn't stop. And if someone either walking or driving causes YOU to have an accident, you can sue them for your own losses and damages... Litigation isn't pleasant but it's the only tool we have to cause it to stop... Now... if we could only create litigation that allows us to force someone into "pedestrian school" if they have caused our hearts to leap into our throats and our knees to turn to jelly... Not nice... not nice at all! Silken |
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| | From:  搂薪褍邪谢谢 | Sent: 9/20/2006 10:47 AM |
My biggest pet peave out here is bicyclists. Every so often, a group of mountain bikers will decide that it's time to torment the local drivers, and will spread themselves out on our country roads. There have been a few occasions where I have gone to pick Riley up (and once with the horse trailer), and on the way home, there's a string of cyclists (think like, 60 of em), spread over a mile, 3 feet in from the edge of the pavement, and going slower then molasses in January up one of the huge hills here. The large trucks that do local hauling here, who rely on keeping schedule and maintaining speed, haveta gear right down, which in turn causes every one else to haveta gear down, which in turn just about causes accidents, and when you try to pass the buggers, you risk either having an oncoming semi truck or vehicle come over the rise and nail ya head on or you face the problem of them spacing themsleves out so much that you think you can get back into the lane, but you can't cuz one of em picked up speed or stopped dead in their tracks. I have sat behind them and waited patiently for a good half hour whilest they climbed the hill. There are OODLES of mountain trails, why bugger up and cluster f*** our roads??? Pre-Relationship, Rat had sent in a thing to the local newspaper about people on carts in downtown Kelowna. He ended up on the local radio (said he buggered that up), but the message got out, and apparently he got some hate mail, lol. I concurr tho, that motorized carts and scooters should not be on the public roads. Nor should they be on sidewalks tho, so there inlies the canundrum. Pedestrians are by far the worst tho. Even out here. You get the old guy who decides that he's going to take a walk on the side of the country road. You are doing the speed limit of 70 km. You pass him without decellerating or accellerating and you even move into the oncoming lane of traffic just to prevent a big gust of wind that may blow the frail lil guy into the ditch. In your rear view, you can note the nasty look of contempt and dismay, and if your lucky, get a one fingered salute. I have been in the situation also where I have backed up from slanted street parking, just about nailing some dumbassed teenager because they decided to walk out on the drivers side of the SUV, noting that i was backing up, and stood right next to my back left fender. I was backing up into the lane, so my attention was focused at the oncoming traffic behind me. Probably my fault for not watching my front fender, but, where was the eye contact or lack thereof? When I step off the curb, my first instinct is that if there is a vehicle in motion, I make damn eye contact!!! If not, I keep my ass on the curb! People suck. People suck more when your driving. Lotsa stupid signs that need to be hung round people's necks. The kicker is... they expect you NOT to get road rage!!! ARGH! |
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