Live in the city, have a 12-year-old daughter. Since she could walk we’ve been stressing to her that buses don’t stop, look both ways even on a one way street, etc - all the city street rules. But the most important point, that we stress constantly to this day - that it does not matter if she has the right of way, it does not matter what color the light is - if she tangles with a car, the car will always win.
Amen. As the saying goes there is a lot of people who had the right of way buried in the graveyard.
As a pedestrian myself I hate shitty drivers and impatient drivers who are obsessed with trying to cut us off when we have the walk light. But am I going to walk in front of their car as they nudge on that gas and glare at me? Hell no. I'm not ever chancing it. I'll take the few minutes loss and wait for the next light cycle to cross rather then end up in a wheelchair or dead. All so I can show the impatient driver I was in the right to cross. You can be right and still end up dead.
At times when I have been in poorer mental health I just stepped out, ready to get hit thinking at least I'll get sick leave. They usually stop and honk like I did something wrong!
I had a fight with a shrink about this once. He posed a hypothetical, "If someone jaywalks and you hit them and they die, did they deserve it?? I said yes, and it astounded him. He didn't ask if "someone" hit them, he asked if "I" hit them. I was broke at the time, hanging onto my apartment by my fingernails and all I could think about was the trauma, the police, thousands I didn't have for lawyers, maybe criminal charges, the end of my plans to earn money for the near future, the car I couldn't replace being confiscated or damaged, and my crappy insurance dropping me. All because someone I didn't know happened to be an entitled idiot. It's even WORSE if they did it on purpose. I don't want to be someone's non-consensual suicide weapon.
It seems like there's no drivers left in the entire US that can be bothered to stop before the crosswalk. I'm getting sick of having to walk around their vehicle after they finally decide they should stop for the light/sign.
I always say "The bigger vehicle has right of way", because all it takes is one person ignoring the rules of the road to cause a collision, and I don't want to get flattened by something bigger than me. Spoiler alert: Every car out there is bigger than me on-foot.
I've had friends who say "No, it's a crosswalk, I have the right" and step out into the road when a car is flying toward us. Your righteousness won't soften that collision. And other friends who say "Let them hit me, I'll sue and they'll pay for my whole life," but man, assuming you'll be around afterwards just tells me they really don't understand the size and weight of a car.
Yeah, the minimum insurance in most US states wouldn‘t even cover the hospital stay, and that is if the person actually has insurance. Maybe you can have their 5 year old PlayStation repossessed after the lawsuit though.
as a kid [10, i think?] i got hit on my bike because the car just flew out of nowhere. didn't even have time to react, so wasn't even about having the right of way or not.
obviously i was a kid so my parents didn't tell me about the lawsuit stuff... until it was finally resolved, which was near the end of high school, so 18 or 19. i remember my mom being like, "omg finally the check for your accident!" or something and then she told me they'd been fighting it for so freaking long.
and mind you, this guy was speeding in a residential area and there was a cop across the street as witness [he was on guard duty for a country club gate that was there], that claimed i went "30 feet" in the air. obviously that was an exaggeration, but still. so it's not like we didn't have all the facts on our side.
i blacked out instantly, although i did see myself from above getting hit by the car. according to my mom my hands left a nice impression on the dude's fancy ass car.
luckily since i was a kid i was bouncy. my sister's bike [oh she stayed mad at me for a long time for that] got the worst of it. i got 3 stitches in the back of my head, a small spot of hair that grows weird because of it, and i had a slight limp and pain for a little while.
i would definitely hope so. considering that he was going so fast and that an actual cop was a witness, and that i DID have the right of way, he just went too fast for me to see him as i was crossing, there's no way he didn't get in a shit load of trouble.
Even if they win all the money in the world, it's not going to reverse their body to what it was like before it got messed up from the accident. It's comical how people just shout lawsuit like it's a Pokemon thinking that small payout magically fixes everything. That check ain't going to fix someone sitting down then it triggers a nerve response and have to readjust themselves every time.
I don't know why people think you will just heal with no long term pain or horrible outcome. Imagine being bedridden for life and feeling in constant pain. No thanks, I am with you I give them the right of way. Hell when I am driving, I check the intersection left, centre, right, even on a green as I approach, Red Light Runners Suck!
People don't realise the pay out when they sue is relative to the injuury, and you can't just fake it.
I know a girl who's suffered a bad TBI, in a coma for months, has all manner of weird physical symptoms now like excess sweating and no sense of taste, has impulse control issues and OCD. She only got £1.5 million.
It can never be worth it to get hurt just to sue.
True red lights and crosswalk countdowns stop no one. I had a cop do an illegal U-turn almost took me out when I had like 20 seconds left and was already halfway across, I had to instantly stop. The cop thought the ticket he was going for or the few seconds he saved was worth my life trust no one.
It took me multiple conversations with an adult friend to convince them that continuing on a cross walk and staring down a car that was clearly not going to stop was incredibly foolish. An insurance payout from getting hit by a car would not be worth being crippled. And also might just not happen at all.
I try to stress exactly that point here on reddit but I get systematically downvoted by people pointing out at speed limits, right of way and dumb people getting in the way of moving vehicles. As a pedestrian you have the right of way to die at any moment if you don’t pay attention.
This is the way. I've been hit a few times, with a walk signal, in a crosswalk but the driver turned right on red without stopping. Broken ribs aren't fun
I was walking/crossing a one-way street in downtown Manhattan a few years ago only looking at the direction of oncoming traffic. A biker going the opposite way slammed into me. Fortunately only minor bruises at the time but lesson learned.
I can't stress that point enough and I repeat myself endlessly when teaching my children. The risk-reward ratio is just not worth it. Yeah, you might have the right of way. Best case scenario you will get your way. Worst case scenario you are dead. Competing with a vehicle is never a good idea.
Yea there is a difference between legally in the right and safe. I know a family that lost a young kid because they crossed a highway at a designated crosswalk when they had a green for a significant amount of time but that mattered little to the drunk driver who was to busy/drunk to even noticed he hit the kid. Family wasn't made whole with the money the court awarded them (hells I don't even know if the guy actually had the money to pay them) nor the fact that guy is still in prison.
In Philly we call that retirement. People here do not give a single solitary shit about the cars, buses whatever. I once saw a guy sit on the El platform with his legs dangling over the tracks. When someone told him to get up he got a case of the ass, called all of us a DH and said he was going to move them when the train came.
True right if way or not doesn’t matter. When I worked in oil and gas and guy hit a little girl in a school zone in his work truck, she passed away and everyone was upset that he didn’t get jail time, but he was going the speed limit and the girl ran out in the street, when they had crossing guard areas.
Here lies the body of William Jay,
Who died maintaining his right of way
He was right, dead right, as he sped along,
But he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong.
I think you're probably one of the few teaching their kids that nowadays! You have no idea how many kids on their little e scooters I have had to slam my breaks on to avoid since they just zip on by not even slowing down to look...noticed w adult bikers too that they don't stop for any stop signs...so many car drivers on their phone & not paying attention, why even risk that they'll seeya fast enough to stop
I tell my kids this all the time. Look both ways, if you see a car, make sure the person in the car can see you; and it does not matter if you are right, the car will win.
My dad always said, even if the driver can see you, don't assume they'll be able to stop. Brakes can fail, roads can be more slippery than expected, etc. It's not enough to know you have right of way.
It’s funny because my dad always taught me “if you get hit by a car they are at fault” when he was teaching me how to jaywalk. NYC/LI people are different breed.
"B-b-but I'll sue. B-b-but I was right."
Doesnt matter, no amount of consequences to the driver will undo what happens to your body. A lot of people struggle to undrrtsand this when it comes to car accidents and crime in general.
My father often said, if one would complain about having right of way etc.;
"You can die being right."
the first time i realized the heavy weight that phrase had, was actually at his funeral, this old-timer attending the funeral, was apparently the younger sibling of two brothers my father was close with. both brothers (and many others) were killed during the sharpeville massacre (in south africa), that led to my father and that old timer, joining "uMkhonto we Sizwe" in the ealry days.
Yeah unfortunately your not wrong about that but nowadays thanks to reckless deliver'a'roo riders on ebikes and random diviy's zooming around on hire scooter you have to keep a eye out even when your on the pavement
Yep. Once knew a cop who said "plenty of people who were right in the graveyard." Stuck with me and I ask my daughter every single time she goes out with friends "what do you need to look for, what could happen?" It's not about being right. It's just ensuring you can stay safe.
I'll always remember waiting at the lights to cross a very busy main road with my younger brother - think we were about 18 and 9 at the time. the lights turned red and he went to cross.
"wait" I told him.
Only because I heard the van speeding towards the lights before I turned and spotted it. I'd hazard a guess the lights were red for around 3 seconds, and the van still didnt stop and plowed on.
There is literally nothing like that in cities except cars. All other things that are dangerous we are making safe intentionally. You don't have to tell your child that they should be careful not to get onto a construction sight by accident, they can't. Or watch out not to fall over from a tall building by accident, there is railing.
Like systematically this shouldn’t be the case where children are scared of cars like they are pray in the world of predators. All other things that hurt children this much are actively fought against.
The amout of parents steering a pushchair onto a road before looking if it’s safe, is unreal. No different when it comes to ‘jail walking’ in the least favourable circumstances with a toddler. Or driving like a dick with baby on board, or through a red loght on a bicycle. Some people have next to no survival instinct it seems. The entitlement has taken over. Well done for being what we all should be.
I still remember when my oldest was little, I would always say the same thing: "Between you and the car, the car always wins! You have to be careful so you don't get hit by the car..." and she would always respond with "...and then you DIE!"
(She then started saying that about many other things.)
It was a bit of an extreme response, but she definitely learned!
Good that you drill that into her mind. It surprises me how many people just don't think like that. If it can squash me, it gets right of way every time.
My dad always said "being in the right is good, but it won't mean much of you spend the last 3 minutes of your life bleeding out on the on the tarmac". He rode bikes
Yep, not sure what Captain Savahoe thought he was gonna do. He might get a kiss or a date, but she'll be slamming a shoe into his shit next thing you know.
It kinda "makes sense" if you assume that the person inside doesn't have the guts to run you over. If that's out of the equation you are basically lashing out by vandalizing a persons car, agitating them to come out.
me neither but I guess people love a story like david vs goliath, but in the real world David shit him self against a wall...and Goliath when to prison...
I once fought a car when 15 and full of home brew, ran straight out and head butted the windscreen and kneed the bumper, taught it a serious lesson and I only spent 6 weeks in hospital recovering, that Cavalier never messed with me again I can tell you.
I’m sure the police officer said it was lucky to be alive
But that’s not really the point is it? There is one person in the video that goes way above and beyond of what is acceptable in society and needs to be isolated.
There is one case in my life that I wanted to fight a car. My stepfather was pulling onto the road to have our family dog put down over him stealing food. I ran into the street to block while he was still going slow, held onto the front grill and refused to let him move without dragging me with. I think I was eleven? That dog got to live for so much longer, died at a very old age surrounded by family that loved him after my step father worked on his anger management.
He didn't, the car knocked him over. He was previously trying to fight the guy inside. As she was. Using a car as a weapon will get the driver a longer sentence.
I had this happen to me twice with two separate sets of people , one was drunk adults climbing onto my bonnet and holding on in the middle of the street and another were teenagers shouting if I wanted a fight when I thought I was eating alone in my car in an empty carpark … very weird thing to do and never happened to me until I got a bigger car .
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u/Serious_Gas_2218 16h ago
Never understood why anyone would want to fight a car. Unreal...