Hitting a Pedestrian Changes Your Life

All I could think of today to describe how I felt was the billboard I always see on the freeway (have you seen it?)"hitting a pedestrian changes yoru life" I wish I had a picture of the billboard for this post.

Please be safe out there!

Today Brody and I were taking a run/walk with Jack. I'm a super paranoid person when it comes to safety so I always stop before I cross a cross walk even if I have the right of way man flashing at me. People around here don't pay attention especially when turning across traffic or coming up on a red light/ right turn. As I approached the intersection I looked around no cars coming anywhere behind me, none were to my side waiting to turn and very few were coming at me. None were in the turn lane to turn across traffic. Check green light let's cross. As I neared the end of the first lane I happened to see a car coming across traffic turning straight at us. I immediately stopped realizing she wasn't looking but had not time to react. As she headed for us she finally looked forward to swerve and barely miss Jack who was walking about a 1.5 feet a head. He jumped back and she missed him by about 6 inches. I couldn't believe it. There was only one lane in her direction and we were almost through it which means she was already in the wrong lane before she swerved even farther. Had there been a car she would have nailed it for sure. I was screaming with my arms up at her as she kept driving. She pulled over for a second once I'd gotten across the street but at that point I had walked a few feet a sat down. She drove off. I figured yelling more explitives after he wasn't going to do any good. I called 911. I know that's a little extreme and I'm sure it was an accident but just because it was an accident doesn't mean the next person will be so lucky. I got half of her Colorado license plate and a great description of her car. Don't worry it didn't take long for the nice policeman to find her. He called me back and said there were two options. He could give her a wreckless driving ticket or a stern warning. I had cooled down a bit by the time he called (lucky for her) I told him to just give her a stern warning. I figured a ticket would do her no good she would probably be more stuck on the fact that she got the ticket than that she almost killed 2 people and a dog. He said ok and that if she gave him any attitude he'd give her the ticket.

Moral of the story... Be super careful when crossing the street and even more carful when you are driving. I know when you get to an intersection to turn across traffic we all just look for that quick openning to cut across traffic and forget to check the crosswalk. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE remember to check for pedestrians and remember "hitting a pedestrian changes your life"