i almost hit a pedestrian today

[schwza]

i was driving through a smallish town today on a fairly wide road in a residential area. in between towns the speed limit on this road was relatively high (maybe 40?), and lower in towns.

i notice that two people have stepped off the side of the road, obviously waiting to cross. they're right behind a parked car, so i can only see them from about the shoulders up. it's obvious they're not going to cross, but as i drive closer a little kid, probably two or three years old, dashes out in front of my car.

this kid was very close to my car when he ran out. i slammed on the brakes and on the horn and the kid made it past me to the other side of the side of the road. my car didn't come to a stop until my front bumper was ~10 feet in front of the kid's path, so if he crossed the road a little slower i would have hit him.

i would have been going slowly so he probably would have been ok, but there could've been a chance he got caught beneath the wheels or something. (in retrospect, hitting the horn probably didn't help anything, but it was a pretty automatic reflex). if i hadn't seen him immediately - which i probably wouldn't have if i hadn't noticed his parents standing by the side of the road - i'm pretty sure i would have hit him and killed him.

if i had hit him, my life would have been pretty [censored]. i generally drive more slowly than most people in residential areas, but i honestly don't know how fast i was driving or what the speed limit was. it's possible i could've faced criminal prosecution, and it might have come down to the word of me and gf against the word of the parents about how fast i was going and what exactly happened. there were other people on the street but who knows what their recollection would have been. i wouldn't be surprised if there would have been a big lawsuit. and i would have felt incredibly guilty about it, absoluately crushed.

anyway, i'm just thankful it turned out fine. i do kind of want to smack that kid's parents though.

[dlk9s]

I've thought about situations like that in the past, as there are a few streets around where I live where it is really, really easy to speed without feeling like you are going too fast.

I'm glad for all involved that it just turned out to be a scare.

[Brainwalter]

Did you stop or just keep driving?

[ledders07]

give the finger to the kid ftw

[Lazy Meatball]

[ QUOTE ]
my car didn't come to a stop until my front bumper was ~10 feet in front of the kid's path, so if he crossed the road a little slower i would have hit him.

[/ QUOTE ]

? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] ?

if you stopped in front of his path, how would you have hit him?

[ApeAttack]

So the parents weren't holding their child's hand?


Were the pedestrians at a crosswalk? Does anyone know a driver's liability if someone is hit while jaywalking?

[yoshi86]

[ QUOTE ]
So the parents weren't holding their child's hand?


Were the pedestrians at a crosswalk? Does anyone know a driver's liability if someone is hit while jaywalking?

[/ QUOTE ]

In driving school, I remember the teacher/instructor telling us that if someone is jaywalking and you hit them you are not liable. If you are drunk or speeding like crazy, the situation might change.

[happyhappyhappy]

Sounds like Darwin took lunch.

Glad you weren't the real victim of such a near tragedy.

[MediaPA]

Well, there is one problem. alot of smaller towns really don't have crosswalks on these type roads (or they are multiple blocks away)

I'm not saying that is the definite case here, but where I grew up, there was one light on the 'major' road. There weren't crosswalks at intersections (besides the traffic light) to cross the main road.

Also, bad parenting. I'm sure if I have children, there will be similar results.

[ohead]

Children are [censored] stupid and parents need to get a good hold of them in potentially dangerous situations like this and a lot more of them would survive stuff like this.