Do people just assume that drivers can see around every corner???

Hi! Wow what a whirlwind trip to NYC I had. Funny how much easier it is to stay on top of posting while being away for multiple days…but to try and post while being away for thirty-six hours? Impossible. So now I’m back, and I since I’ve been away from you, I have made an observation.

There is a growing trend of pedestrians who do not look when they are walking. For example, just today alone I had six incidents where a pedestrian exited a building/walkway or a crossing without double checking to ensure that every single vehicle around them knew they were there. It was shocking to me. Heads down, hoods up, eyes on cellular devices, confidently heading out into traffic ways. Really? I mean what are people thinking? Have you ever seen a car in the emergency room folks? No, no you haven’t. So what gives? Why are people playing Russian roulette with their lives out there??? It really makes me go “hmmm.”

I don’t know how you are out in the world, but I for one always attempt to make eye contact with people operating cars, trucks, buses, anything larger than me that can cause me bodily harm, before I walk out of a building into a driveway. Or before exiting a Starbucks out into live traffic; ut so many people don’t do this anymore. There is an assumption, or at least there seems to be the assumption that all drivers are paying attention; or that we have eyes in the back of our heads. We do not. We’re normal people just like you, and if you exit a side door of a building that leads right onto a sidewalk that intersects a driveway, you might want to stop, get your eyes out of your cellular device for five seconds and make sure that the driver sees you. I mean this is really more for your own good than mine.

There seems to be something else that is on the rise too; I took my brother out for his birthday lunch today, and he told me that just last night he got hit by a car. He was walking home, it was 7:30pm and he was at a four way stop. It was my brother’s right of way to cross, yet this driver, trying to beat the other drivers ran his stop sign striking my brother on the hip and knocking him over. Now, my brother isn’t sure if he didn’t see him stepping off the curb, although he was sure he had, and he was also sure the guy was going to stop. The last thing my brother expected to have happen was that he would get hit by a car. He has no idea how/why the guy hit him because he also he didn’t stop, he just drove away. Lucky for my brother he was not hurt, and probably wouldn’t have fallen except the ground was unstable beneath him, so he fell backward into a snowbank, which more than likely softened the blow of his fall. The not so lucky bit for my brother is that the guy didn’t stop! WTAF??? That is an action that I truly cannot believe, and worse than even having the guy who hit him drive off, is that not a single other driver at the four way stop did anything to help my brother out. Nobody went after the guy who hit him, nobody stopped to assist my brother or to make sure he was okay. Not a single person did anything at all. Which leads me to my point; that you pedestrians need to be a lot more proactive about how you walk around in the world out there…in the famous words of Jennifer Lawrence; “You can’t live your life in your phone bro.”

So, while walking out in the world where there is construction, cars, and other people that so many of you cellphone zombies walk into, I’m pleading with you to put your GD phones down. Lift your eyes up and pay attention to the world around you, because there seems to be another trend happening out in the world…drivers might just hit you and not even bother to stop. It is on every single one of us to take responsibility for our own safety as much as we can while we’re out in the world, so do your part. Phones down, eyes up and be safe out there.

With Love,

SB