Special Snowflake Stories

[Amava]

A friend of mine was telling one of her cw's how dangerous it is to just walk out in front of cars as they usually weigh a lot  and cannot always stops on a dime.  She has seen her several times just dart of in front of cars in their work parking lot and nearly get creamed.

CW: Well, pedestrians have the right of way.  Cars HAVE to stop.

Friend: CW, cars can't always stop that quickly.  You've complained about almost being hit twice this week.  The safest thing is for you to stop and wait for them to pass.

CW:  I HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY.

Friend: You can be right or you can be dead, your choice.

I read a similar story about a mother and daughter.  The mother told her "I'll put that on your headstone.  She Was Right."

Same story here but opposite family relations. It's my mother who used to always say that.
"You ALWAYS have to be able to stop!", she used to tell me in a "I know it all!" voice. 
It's the law!
Never mind laws of physics.

Of course she had never driven a car, and she just couldn't understand that a car can't just stop instantly like in a cartoon; that there is always a stopping distance involved.

That being said, I /crawl/ my car through parking lots. Sometimes to the annoyance of other drivers but I'd rather get on their nerves than accidentally hurt someone.

[EmmaJ.]

one of my coworkers was an SS after work the other day -


I'm driving away and she's walking towards the parking lot.  Her route goes right in front of me - she makes eye contact with me and walks out in front of me - I had to slam on the breaks to keep from hitting her   

Who does that?

Not me.  My grocery store has crosswalks plus stop signs for cars so pedestrians can safely cross.  Even so, I don't start to cross until the car actually stops.

The worst thing I ever saw was the aftermath of a car hitting a loaded grocery cart with a baby in the seat.

[GreenEyedHawk]

The laws of physics always trump the laws of man.

[wonderfullyanonymous]

If I remember correctly, a driver will only be at fault if they hit a pedestrian in a cross walk, and I'm not even sure if that covers the clown who chooses to simply run in front of a car because it is a cross walk.  A person hit crossing outside a crosswalk can be ticketed for jaywalking, if they are lucky enough to still be walking.

[Hazmat]

one of my coworkers was an SS after work the other day -

I'm driving away and she's walking towards the parking lot.  Her route goes right in front of me - she makes eye contact with me and walks out in front of me - I had to slam on the breaks to keep from hitting her   

Who does that?

Maybe the eye contact was to make sure you saw her before she crossed in front of your car.  Are you in a "pedestrians in crosswalk have right of way" area?  She may have thought she was doing the right thing *shrug*

I have a hard time seeing a plan that relies on "Surely they'll slam on the brakes before killing me" as the right thing. And yet I encounter people who think it's a great idea all the time.

A friend of mine was telling one of her cw's how dangerous it is to just walk out in front of cars as they usually weigh a lot  and cannot always stops on a dime.  She has seen her several times just dart of in front of cars in their work parking lot and nearly get creamed.

CW: Well, pedestrians have the right of way.  Cars HAVE to stop.

Friend: CW, cars can't always stop that quickly.  You've complained about almost being hit twice this week.  The safest thing is for you to stop and wait for them to pass.

CW:  I HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY.

Friend: You can be right or you can be dead, your choice.

I may have read here on EH, but I tell my kids that the laws of physics will always win over traffic laws.

There are two kinds of pedestrians, the quick and the dead.

[Gwywnnydd]

If I remember correctly, a driver will only be at fault if they hit a pedestrian in a cross walk, and I'm not even sure if that covers the clown who chooses to simply run in front of a car because it is a cross walk.  A person hit crossing outside a crosswalk can be ticketed for jaywalking, if they are lucky enough to still be walking.

In my state, the pedestrian always has right of way, even if they're jaywalking.

[CuriousParty]

The laws of physics always trump the laws of man.

Or, as one of our fellow E-Hellions has said (can't remember who, sorry!) "Physics always wins."

[oceanus]

In my state, the pedestrian always has right of way, even if they're jaywalking.

Small consolation if the pedestrian ends up in a wheelchair, or dead (as is often the case).

[Gwywnnydd]

In my state, the pedestrian always has right of way, even if they're jaywalking.

Small consolation if the pedestrian ends up in a wheelchair, or dead (as is often the case).

Oh, absolutely.
It has happened that a jaywalking pedestrian is hit, and the drier is at fault for their injuries, *and* the pedestrian is ticketed for Jaywalking. Insult to injury .

[gramma dishes]

Oh, absolutely.
It has happened that a jaywalking pedestrian is hit, and the drier is at fault for their injuries, *and* the pedestrian is ticketed for Jaywalking. Insult to injury .

Dingity dangety driers!  They have no business driving anyway!!  They should stay home in their laundry rooms where they belong.

[Softly Spoken]

The laws of physics always trump the laws of man.

Or, as one of our fellow E-Hellions has said (can't remember who, sorry!) "Physics always wins."

My friend forgot this law when she was driving us all home from a party and decided to try and race. a. bus. We could only watch as the side of the bus kept getting bigger and bigger on our field of vision to the left of us... I'm here to type about it, but it was a close call. We all looked at her like "what the ehell?!?!" she looked back like "what?"  She was driving the B-day girl's car. B-day girl was NOT happy.

It's like rock-paper-scissors: car trumps pedestrian, bus trumps car...semi trumps everyone! So get out of the way!

[siamesecat2965]

From my friend: she lives in a townhouse complex with limited parking. each group of homes is on a circle, and each unit has ONE assigned space, and the rest are open to anyone, residents, visitors, etc.  She came home from work, saw one open spot, and took it. Neighbor was sitting in the lot, in his truck, but no blinker on or anything. She parks, he gets out and screams at her, she yells back. Apparently she was supposed to divine from him simply sitting there he was planning on parking there.

He's now parked behind her car, blocking her in. I told her a. call the police non-emergency line or b. if he's blocking her in, he may be blocking other cars, and someone may accidentally hit him (oops). or c. he presumably has to work tomorrow, and will have to move it then. problem solved.

[ladyknight1]

If I remember correctly, a driver will only be at fault if they hit a pedestrian in a cross walk, and I'm not even sure if that covers the clown who chooses to simply run in front of a car because it is a cross walk.  A person hit crossing outside a crosswalk can be ticketed for jaywalking, if they are lucky enough to still be walking.

In my state, the pedestrian always has right of way, even if they're jaywalking.

Same here. We have to keep adding speed humps because of the incredible speeds people will travel in our lot.

[Elfmama]

Something I've remembered from driver's ed umptymumble years ago: for every 10mph that you are traveling, your car will travel 10-11 feet between the time that you realize you need to brake and your foot actually hitting the brake pedal.   So 20mph= 20 feet, 50mph = 50 feet, and so on. So even if you are going parking lot speed of 10mph, your car will travel 10 feet between the time the pedestrian darts in front of you and you actually stop. If that pedestrian steps out 4 feet in front of you...

[TootsNYC]

SS from school yesterday. I need the handicapped stall - as I can not get off the other toilets with out help due to a cast on my leg from the thigh to my ankle .  SO on my way in I stopped in the bathroom to find the stall occupied...not by someone actually using it, not even for changing, but by someone having a phone conversation. Noticing that I was waiting for it, she calls  out " I am going to be a while and if you wait - I'll just be longer!"  This is a small building and this is the only handicapped stall in it.  So I left and came back a half hour later, only to hear her say "Yeah, I am in the bathroom, in the handicapped stall, it's so funny, there's this chick who keeps coming back and I am holding her up!" and then laughed.
  I ended up needing to change my clothes because of her, and she thought this was hysterical.  I don't get it. Luckily most people are not like this.

 

That is disgusting on her part.  If I could have held my temper, I think I would have gotten building management involved after the first comment.  I'm sorry that happened to you.  (If I couldn't have held my temper, I probably would have done some very un-ehell approved things, involving loud noises to ensure she couldn't hold her conversation.  Singing songs from Les Mis at the top of my lungs comes to mind.)

I think I'd have gotten someone to come in with me, and then I'd have said, "I have an ankle to hip cast on, so I really do need the handicapped stall. I'm about to pee my pants--would you come out, please?" (asking nicely is MUCH more likely to get her to come out of the stall)

And then had the other person chime in to say, "Yes, please--you really do need to vacate that stall."

If she didn't come out, I'd have gotten a quarter out of my pocket and unlocked the stall from the outside (a great many of the will let you do it), and then simply gone into the stall while she was in there.

There's no way in hell I'd have peed my pants because of her.

In fact, did you *ever* say anything to her? Not that she wasn't incredibly rude, but you really should be advocating for yourself. Speak up, woman!