I got hit by a car this afternoon.

She was driving a VW sedan, teal in color, and pretty shiny new. I remember vividly because its nose was sticking out of a bank’s driveway, waiting to turn right onto busy NE Belmont. There was a ton of traffic, so I felt it safe to continue on my way westbound and pass in front of her without causing her to miss a chance to take a lane. Just as I got into her path, a brown VW bus abruptly slowed down and made like he was going to turn into the bank’s parking lot, opening up an opportunity for VW sedan to make her move. The only problem was the fact that I wasn’t clear of her front bumper and she, talking on a cell phone, hadn’t looked both directions before taking her foot off of the brake pedal.

Thankfully I was carelessly dangling my Camelbak Better Bottle beside my left knee. Teal VW sedan with lady talking on cell phone rolled into me, bumping the bottle against the side of my leg and causing me to stumble to my right. I whipped my head around to make eye contact with her, and she dropped everything as she put her hands over her mouth and looked at me in horror. Still on my feet and wanting simply to get out of the way of all the cars, I extended my hand toward her with palm up and shot her a wide-eyed grin. If she’d tried to engage me to apologize, I would have said what was on my mind: “I’m just glad you didn’t hit the gas pedal.” Not only that, but the water bottle saved me from hobbling away with a sprained knee.

Please, everyone, when you are about to make a move in traffic, just put the mobile phone down and take a moment to look around you. The incident today wasn’t my first brush with a motorist who wasn’t paying attention: A few months ago a man in a Honda about ran me over as I stepped off the curb on NW Everett. The “walk” sign was on, I was almost clear of his front bumper, and he decided to go ahead with his right turn. I lept, literally, out of his way. Sure, he hit the brake as soon as he saw me jump, but if I hadn’t reacted I would have been on the ground. In his case I was lucky that he was driving a manual and I heard him press the accelerator before engaging first gear.

It’s not just distractions that seem to be causing these close calls. When people are making right turns, they are so busy looking for traffic that they forget about the pedestrians. Then they see a hole and oftentimes accellerate recklessly to squeeze into it. Sure, pedestrians should be mindful of drivers and probably hesitate if they haven’t made eye contact, but it’s ultimately the driver who is responsible for operating their vehicle safely. After all, pedestrians have the right of way, especially if they are crossing legally.

I am always very careful when out walking in PDX, but somehow I feel that today’s incident isn’t the last I’ll experience. Apologies if this post seems a little dry, but I’m dead serious on this. Please, drive and walk safely!

Tags: accident, mobile phone, pedestrian, traffic safety

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 9:00 pm and is filed under PDX. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.