What are traffic signals but cenotaphs?
A grade school [USA 1952]classmate said that she would see visit me on Saturday. I waited and waited in my front yard. She never showed up. At school, I learned that she died, hit by a car, in her attempt to cross a busy street between my house and hers. I was six years old, so of course I knew better than to reveal a connection.

By the next academic year, the city installed a traffic control device to give pedestrians a chance to cross.

I concluded that death was necessary for the installation of a traffic signal. The business area had probably seen a bloodbath in its time.

Of course, I know better now, but, having made the macabre connection, I still think about her death at stop lights and when asked about childhood misconceptions. I'm not worth dying for.
( tromboner cherophobia is my kind of fun, Wed 25 Jan 2012, 17:13, 11 replies)

It often takes the death of a child
to persuade those in charge of the local highways that some sort of crossing is required, so childhood you wasn't really wrong.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 25 Jan 2012, 20:00, closed)

It's going to happen outside my house one day
I'm surrounded by 20mph zones, but the road I live on is still at 30mph and goes right past two schools. I regularly see cars doing at least 40 going by, even at school chucking out time, with kids (being kids) walking right on the edge of the kerb.
In fact, only last week, I had to do an emergency stop because a youngster from the junior school stepped out into the road only a few yards in front of me. Luckily I'm one of those "annoying" drivers who actually pays attention to the "20 is plenty" signs.
( P-MONKE We're all fucked, Wed 25 Jan 2012, 20:12, closed)

I had a stand up row with some Corsa-driving dickhead,
who thought it a good idea to do 60mph through a built up area, after I forced his to come to a screaming halt, fishtailing slightly, when I decided to cross at the zebra crossing.
I laughed in his face.

I daren't do this when I have the kids in tow. Shame, really.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 25 Jan 2012, 20:44, closed)

You turd,
you made my tyres lose their balance.
(the other guy not the one that gave you coochie warts, Thu 26 Jan 2012, 0:02, closed)

We should settle this like men.

( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 26 Jan 2012, 9:00, closed)

Timely post.
I am as we speak filling in a witness form for an accident I was behind in London (on Friday 13th . . . gulp), where a motorbike had screamed away from a set of lights and wiped out a pedestrian who was dawdling while crossing the road.

It asks for my opinion as to blame, and being honest I have to say both of them.

What I do know though is that I, and 99% of other motorcyclists would not have hit that woman. The guy was going nuts.
(username failed moderation, Thu 26 Jan 2012, 9:07, closed)

If the pedestrian was already in the road
then it was unambiguously the motorcyclists fault.
Pedestrians always have right of way except, of course, when they just step out into oncoming traffic that has no chance of stopping - that's when Darwinian selection takes over.
( P-MONKE We're all fucked, Thu 26 Jan 2012, 10:07, closed)

How in any way is that both of them?
If the pedestrian is already on the road then it doesn't matter that the lights have changed, it's the motor cyclists fault morally and legally.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 26 Jan 2012, 11:19, closed)

Probably right,
but the pedestrian was running across after the lights had changed. Being objective;

- She shouldn't have been in the road.
- It was dark
- He had gone through a green light
- Although he was giving it the beans, he probably didn't have enough time/space to get over the speed limit (30mph), by the time he hit her.

I'd tend to say the biker was responsible, if I had to choose just one of them. He was being an idiot, the accident simply shouldn't have happened.

But, she has to take some of the blame.

Legally I think you're both correct. He may well get prosecuted. Fine by me.
(username failed moderation, Thu 26 Jan 2012, 11:48, closed)

If they crossed after the lights had changed then that's different, I agree.
I didn't get that from the original post though, I thought they were just being slow.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 26 Jan 2012, 11:51, closed)

I'm not sure
whether she did or not - it's a 3 lane road, but she'd have to have been crossing very slowly to have started out with a green man and not got across before the lights changed.

On balance I'm not disagreeing with you, just saying that she was in the road when she shouldn't have been. Legally speaking I know that isn't carte blanche to splat her, but then the biker didn't do it on purpose.

Interestingly, as a witness, I am invited to give an opinion on what action should be taken. I said the biker should be sent on a driving imporovement course.
(username failed moderation, Thu 26 Jan 2012, 11:59, closed)

Indeed this.
Pedestrians have right of way everywhere except motorways, whatever the status of the lights.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Thu 26 Jan 2012, 13:20, closed)

oh yeh? well some guy down there thought that dogs were actually baby giraffes, imagine that!
it's a kErRaaaaaZY world
(Quintno EXPERIMENT RUINED CANCELLED, LEFT 4EVER, Thu 26 Jan 2012, 0:02, closed)

That was me and I was taking the piss out of people claiming they thought cats were female dogs and the like, you dong.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Thu 26 Jan 2012, 13:22, closed)