Friday, March 23, 2007

Blissful Inattention

Can get you killed. Walking home tonight past Granville and Broadway I heard a fire truck coming up Broadway. There was a fire at Winthrop south of Glenlake and this guy was circling around to get to it. He's firing on all cylinders, horn blaring, lights flashing and this (I gotta say it this way) idiot with iPod earplugs, bouncing to his music, just strolls out into the crosswalk. I am going WTF!?!?!?!?!?!?!

He kept right on going as the truck kept right on coming and I was sure we were going to acquire a grease spot on the truck and and the asphalt. At what had to be almost the last minute he notices that there is this honking huge piece of rolling metal racing at him, and he stops.

Truck passes and he keeps right on strolling through the crosswalk as though the world was his oyster and the truck a brief interruption in his reverie.

There are no words..........

4 comments:

Jocelyn said...

Where's Darwin when you need him anyway?

Ths reminds me of how feel when I see peopleblow red lights because they see no cross traffic coming. And I see it way too often. I feel people like this deserve to have their cars wrecked. I ope their insurance company reams them too.

Kheris said...

This came right on the heels of the accident between a bus and a CFD truck. I didn't know at the time that a firefighter got killed. I wonder if we would have had more than a single grease spot if His Highness had not stopped when he did.

The North Coast said...

Kheris,what a wonderful metaphor for the Age of the Peak this story is.The pedestrian you describe reminds me of the American leadership and the population of this country both, as we pass the peak of oil production...

..we are sleepwalking right into a trainwreck with our ears plugged and our eyes closed.

The complacense and obliviousness of this country from its top leadership clear down to the random kid with his earplugs, is incredible.

Fargo said...

I saw a near-wreck this a.m. Some guy blew the stop sign in his BMW - didn't slow down at all from his breezy 30 mph pace. A guy in a big SUV (who did not have a stop sign) nearly flattened him. If not for the SUV guy's quick reflexes in hitting the brakes, there would have been a nasty mess.

I've seen the same kind of thing too many times at Rogers & Paulina, where traffic on Rogers flies through the stop sign and nearly nails pedestrians, or drivers from Paulina who had stopped at their stop sign and had the right of way.

The negligent drivers are often on their cell phones, but too often they're just in a hurry to get to the park and ride garage.