Hey, y’know what time of the year it is?
OCTOBER.
This means it gets dark out..
This means when your children* are dressed in dark colors I can’t see them, especially when there’s lots of traffic coming the other way with their headlights on, and your children are standing by the side of the road where there’s no streetlight.
Now, obviously your children are not maimed or dead – EVEN THOUGH THEY DARTED INTO THE ROAD – because my headlights picked up their movement at the last possible second.
I like staying out of prison, and as a parent, I’m pretty sure my child would prefer that, too.
SO. How about this. Here’s a handy link to a random store I picked after googling ‘children’s reflective’. There are, of course, heaps of other retailers out there, you know who they are.
Anyhow, safety for cheap!** Everyone’s health will be better off – I won’t need to live with the guilt of killing someone, you won’t have to live with the guilt of not being a responsible parent, your children won’t be dead. Surely that’s a win-win for everyone, yeah?
Yours, Aubergine, who can’t even
* from their height, my guess is that they were in the 9-12 yo range. Old enough to know better, young enough to still be stupid about crossing the road.
** hey dogwalkers, people going to the corner store, people walking home wearing dark colors at night…I’d prefer not to kill you, too.
Pedestrian Safety
When I was a kid in the 1950s the television repairman would come to your house to diagnose and fix problems with your set. Over the years, our family got to know Oscar, our TV repairman. After while he became almost like an uncle. Conversation between my parents and our repairman were about more than the “snow” on the TV screen and how much it would cost to fix it.
I remember when we found out that Oscar’s car had hit and killed a child. It happened on a densely populated street, where cars were parked along the curb with little space between them. Everyone agreed that Oscar was not at fault. When, suddenly, this child darted from between two closely parked cars into the narrow roadway, it was pure chance that Oscar happened to be driving the car that struck the child.
It did not matter that Oscar knew that he was blameless: He suffered from nightmares, and developed ulcers.
* * *
Here in Brattleboro I live on a busy street where I have seen dangerously fast driving and motorists who will not respect crosswalks. For years, the police seemed to do nothing, but in the past 5 years or so, often a police car waits in a spot where they can observe an intersection with stop signs and crosswalks. Every time the blue flashing light show through my front windows, I am grateful that someone has been stopped and is probably getting a good reminder to take care when operating a potentially lethal machine.
* * *
As a driver, I dread the risk that I could hit someone. I drive slowly, stay alert, and am ever mindful that even the most conscientious person can have a lapse. I very much appreciate the pedestrians who will not cross in front of my car, even at a cross walk or a red light, without first making eye contact. But I find it distressing that pedestrians who exhibit such intelligent behavior seem to be a minority.
I see so many pedestrians who assume that the driver will not make a mistake. Some of them are even attending to their electronic devices as they cross in front of a motor vehicle. Others are gazing off in the distance — maybe in a walking dream — or focused on the ground.
Frankly, I am amazed that there are not more traffic fatalities in Brattleboro, and I am also amazed at the daily stupidity that I witness, both oblivious driving and oblivious walking.
Thank you, Aubergine, for bringing up pedestrian safety in a passionate, personal, and compelling way.
pedestrians in Brattleboro
A timely post.
If my memory serves me correctly, there have been a number of pedestrians killed in Brattleboro over the last few years.
While it seems the posts here lean towards blaming the pedestrians, it should be noted that the pedestrians killed were by hit and run drivers. Please correct me if I am wrong, thank you
Drive safely
This is a dangerous time of year – the sun is getting lower and more likely to be in your eyes, leaves are coming down, opening up more spaces of direct sun in the eyes, and there are lots of distractions from good looking trees showing off.
Dusk also comes closer to rush-hour, and traffic seems heavier than ever.
to the motorcycle rider my puppy almost killed
My neighbor’s cat finds my place most interesting, and my puppy, last month at about 7 months, found the neighbor’s cat so exciting she chased it. The cat darted across the road right in front of an on-coming motorcycle rider, but my puppy was so fast chasing right behind the cat that the motorcycle rider had to swerve to miss my puppy.
My puppy, now about 8 months old (she’s from Craigslist, birthdate unknown, Veterinarian estimated age), is outside whining her hound-mix head off because she is destined NOW to be on a leash when I am not personally walking and supervising her.
The Veterinarian was soooooooo right, she was sold off of Craigslist as a
Labrador mix, and the Veterinarian around here laughed and put her down as a Hound-mix. She is just like that song, a Hound dog crying all the time.
It pains me so to keep her on a leash when I can’t be right with her,
but motorcycles do frequent this street: Church Street in Chester, Vermont 05143, because they take Church St. as a short cut from Rte 103 to Rte 11; or they take Church St. as a short cut from Rte 11 to Rte 103. Church St. is a short cut, makes a triangle, and the motorcycles had better start watching out for the neighbor’s cat!