I have a bit of a rant against people behind the wheel of a vehicle with their cell phone easily accessible. I really hate how frequent cell phones turn people into complete idiots and morons.
Yesterday I saw my doctor and he gave me the standard lecture about my needing to exercise more. Because I have muscular dystrophy exercise and I aren't on the best of terms. He felt that walking would be an activity that I could pursue. It's cheap, it would help get me out of the house, might make it possible for me to drop some weight, and would be safe.
So I decided that I'd humor him and give it a try. Instead of catching the bus to get some items from the store and decreasing my amount of walking, my daughter and I decided to walk from his office to the store and then back to catch the bus home.
We made it safely to the store and through it. Unfortunately we missed the bus by just a few seconds cause I couldn't make it up the hill fast enough as my walker got caught in a critter hole as there is a choice to leave the parking lot by either going across a grassy area or walking in the traffic lane coming into the parking lot because the landscape designers put river rock along the edge instead of sidewalk. Obviously they thought that only people using cars would access these stores. lol
So that left us with the options of either walking home or going to the next bus stop and catching the bus there. We decided to try to make it to the next stop. We would have too if it hadn't been for the driver who decide her cell phone was more important to pay attention to than people crossing the street.
We were at an intersection and the light had just changed to red with the sign for us to cross the street. There was a car with a female driver who acknowledge us getting ready to cross the street or so we thought. She was stopped so it should have been safe to cross in front of her? We noticed a car that was getting ready to make a left hand turn. The driver was so short that it appeared they barely could see over the steering wheel let alone out the driver side window. We were concerned he wouldn't see us.
The car we were crossing in front of had their windows down. The driver made eye contact gave a little smile. We heard the cell phone go off and saw the driver reach for it. We crossed because we thought it would be safe. the next thing I know instead of facing North, I'm facing east. My foot and leg look all funny. My dd is screaming.
The good thing is that the car was going slow so only dislocated my knee, ankle, foot and scratched/dented the walker were damaged. Just by luck my dd wasn't walking on the side of me like she normally does or she'd of been hit instead. The other cars continued to stay stopped at the red light.
The bad thing is the driver didn't stop and kept on going. There are either no traffic cams or they weren't working at this intersection. None of the other cars stopped or hung around after the light changed to green.
The good thing is the ambulance crew was really wonderful with my dd. The cop was OK. Because of the lack of information like a license plate # (there was none just a date tag in the back window) there wasn't much that could be done to catch the offender.
So I would like to request that if your stopped at a red light please make sure your foot is firmly on the brake or you put your car in park before you do anything with your cell phone. If people are going to cross the street in front of you, make sure they are clear before you mess with your phone. If she'd had a bigger vehicle or been going a little faster I might not have been as lucky as I was. Please, Please Please pay attention and be aware of your surroundings. If you do you might just prevent hitting someone and injuring or killing them. Is your phone really worth that?
I will say that I am terrified now to go for a walk where I have to cross a street and use a cross walk. I no longer trust my doctor's advice to walk more because it's safe.
