Our day started off very well after a good night's sleep, some helpful communication with a BC friend and some time preparing for a distancing visit here with a friend.
Unfortunately our joy was marred just before the arrival of my friend by a vehicle/pedestrian accident right outside our front door. Thankfully we didn't see the accident and only became aware of it when I opened the living room blinds and saw people with cell phones crowded around someone lying in the street, taking his pulse and covering him with a jacket, as well as a car with a smashed in hood and front end pulled over along the curb.
A couple of minutes later 4 police vehicles arrived, a fire truck and ambulance following close behind....it took an age to get the vicitm into the ambulance and all of the people who had taken care of him to that point were crying and giving statements to the police. As the minutes ticked past it seemed perhaps the accident was even more serious than it first appeared.
As the statements were being given, the police blocked the entire street with yellow police tape, then the forensics unit showed up with the big cameras, orange cones, and yellow chalk to mark where the pedestrian had been intert on the pavement. The people giving statements were sent on their way and the driver of the car hustled into a police vehicle and driven away. Her smashed up car was covered in a shroud. The police are still outside taking measurments four hours later.
We feel that with the arrival of a bevy of news reporters, one of which even rang our doorbell looking for our take on the situation, the interviews with staff here at our complex and the ongoing work of the forensic unit onsite, that it has likely been a fatality accident.
My husband and I feel very ill about it all. There is a curve in the road right where this particular uncontrolled intersection is located and it isn't always easy to see pedestrians stepping off the curb. Cars also tend to be speeding along this stretch of roadway and sometimes don't stop for pedestrians even when the traffic in the lane beside them is all ready stopped. It is one of the most dangerous intersections I have ever had to cross for these reasons, plus the fact that so many drivers here do not give pedestrians their legal right of way. In the winter, when the street is icy and I can't walk very quickly to cross the street home from the bus stop, I have many times ridden all the way around the loop through the university just to be able to get off at the stop right in front of my own front door....an extra half hour of riding...so that I can avoid having to cross that uncontrolled intersection. I can hardly believe this is only the second vehicle/pedestrian accident there in the more than 5 years we have lived in this complex.
I feel terrible for the vicitm and whoever his family members may be. I feel terrible for the woman who hit him. Even if she is held not at fault for some reason, she will have the memory of the accident and know it has taken a life and effected the lives of so many others, regardless of whose fault it actually was. The man may have run out in front of her and she was unable to stop. I didn't see it, I didn't hear it happen...when the reporter came to my door and asked me what kind of aftermath I saw, I refused to answer because I am not interested in using speculation or inaccurate visuals to help create a sensational news story.
After being a victim myself of a couple of accidents, even though I lived and had a positive recovery outcome, what happened to the victim this morning will continue to cloud my day with sorrow.
O Lord, I pray for the soul of the victim, I pray for his family, I pray for the driver and for her family...what a sad day for them all.
No comments:
Post a Comment