Sudden Contact

photoshopped plants

:grr: Ok I am a little angry right now. I keep thinking I am mad at someone else, but I really should be mad at me.

Let’s set the scenario. I am driving down Catherine St towards Esquimalt Road. There is a red light for my direction. As I approach the intersection, there is a car in the left lane but that is it.

I pull up to the line, waited, and watched left for an opening. Some approaching cars signal they are going to turn, so the lane closest to me is open. I decide to go.

As I am letting out the clutch, and adding gas, a lady appears in front of my truck. I quickly slam on the brakes and come to a sudden stop. I am now straddling the crosswalk, with the front of my truck sticking out onto Esquimalt. I quickly scan to see if I am blocking the road, and notice that the pedestrians do not have a walk signal. The lady glares at, says something, then walks around my truck. Another lady then steps out in front of me holding out her hand like she is trying to tell me to stop.

So, I am mad at myself because I consider myself to be a good driver. After watching left for so long, I should have checked right to see if there were any pedestrians. I am mad at the lady since she walked through a blind spot in my vehicle (the windshield support), then proceeded to cross against the light, and didn’t make eye contact with me (the driver). As I drove away I was pretty pissed at the two ladies, but I also took part of the blame for that one.

I see way too many pedestrians just walking out into intersections without looking. This is a very dangerous thing to do, for all parties involved. I know that when walking I see lots of drivers roll through an intersection without looking for pedestrians. I also see many intersections and building entrances that are not designed very well, and can sometimes hide pedestrians.

In any event, I am still angry at what happened, but I am mostly angry at myself. I consider myself too good of a driver to make a mistake like that.