Have You Ever Been Hit By A Car As A Pedestrian?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have been wondering how often the general public gets hit by a car.

I was hit by a car, a Jeep, really, in 1996. It was in the U of A area, and I was crossing a small street with the Jeep stopped there, waiting to turn right. I was right in front of the driver when he started to go- he hadn’t even looked right or right in front of him, only left. Duh. I thought I had made eye contact with him, but he was wearing sunglasses and obviously I was wrong. Duh. He hit me and then the Jeep kind of rolled back and forward again, so he hit me twice. Ran over my foot and into my thigh, knocking me down and knocking the sunglasses off my face. A passing bus driver called an ambulance and they came and I cried on the way to the hospital, as I explained to the attendant not so much out of pain but because I’d never been hit by a car before and I was traumatized, maybe a little shocky. Nothing was broken, but I did get to accidentally overhear the radiology tech say that I had the longest foot he’d ever seen. I had to be ace bandaged for a few days, and I had a nasty bruise and then a weird dent to my thigh for a long time, and I got a nice little check from his daddy’s insurance which even compensated me for my broken sunglasses and my jeans that had to be cut off.

Did you ever get hit by a car?

2

I was hit by a taxi on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok late one night eight or nine years ago. Tossed up into the air and my elbow broke the windshield as it hit it. Must have looked impressive judging by the crowd that gathered around me. It was right by a police box too, and as I got up I saw a cop starting to come over from it. That’s when I left quickly in the opposite direction. I didn’t seem badly injured, and no matter the circumstances, the farang (Westerner) very often gets the blame for this sort of thing. At the very least, even if I wasn’t going to be hit up for a bribe, I didn’t feel like messing with the paperwork, going to see a doctor etc. I figured the damage to the cab was punishment enough for the driver – the windshield looked shattered and there was a good-sized dent on the hood. After walking up the street a ways, I hailed a taxi while managing to conceal my bleeding elbow. Picked windshield glass out of it for a good part of the rest of the night when I got home. None the worse for wear though.

3

When I was seven years old and witlessly ran into the street without looking. Don’t remember much about it except I was flipped up onto the hood and over to the side. Road rash and concussion.

4

One time I was in downtown Atlanta, crossing in front of a parking garage with a group of people, when some dumb bitch drove out the garage exit and into me. She just bumped me with her car and I wasn’t hurt at all, but dang! Way to watch where you’re going!

My ex has been hit; once when he was a security guard at the IRS directing traffic some lady plowed into him in the parking lot. He was knocked a good ways but the security captain just told the lady “Go on ahead, ma’am, he’s fine.”

Another time, the ex drove one of those sweeper trucks on the highway in the middle of the night. His sweeper broke down so he called the special towing service for big trucks. He was helping the guy get the sweeper hooked up when some drunk guy, despite the huge bright lights and arrowboard, ran into both of them and then drove off. The tow truck driver was killed, but my ex just had a huge bruise on his buttcheek from the guy’s side mirror. Don’t think they ever caught him.

5

When I was a teenager, in my group of friends it was usual to pretend to be hit by a car if someone enforced right of way as you crossed the road.

Usually you slapped the side of the vehicle and feigned injury.

The daring guys would hit the asphalt.

No-one ever stopped.

6

Same thing crossing the street and a car rolled into me and bumped me. It was surprising because it was a crowded intersection. He had a mortified look on his face when I stared at him.

7

My brother was drug (sort of) by a car when we were young. I witnessed it and it is still pretty vivid in my mind some 40 or so years later.

We had been given permission to walk to the store alone for the first time. On our way back, I waited for clear traffic and crossed the road assuming my younger brother was right behind me. As I reached the other side, I turned around and saw him somehow running behind this big car that seemed to have been going about 20 miles an hour. His little legs were spinning like nothing I’d ever seen outside of a cartoon. It couldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds, but of course it felt longer as these things do. The driver very quickly stopped in response to the horns honking. He then got out of his car and unattached my brothers shirt sleeve that had somehow stuck to the license plate or something and carried my brother all the way home. He cradled him so gently, but my brother did not have so much as a scratch on him. I don’t recall the shirt even being torn.

8

No, but my mom ran over my sister’s foot once.

9

Same here and about the same age. I was lucky, as my friend ran out into the street before me; the driver saw him and hit the brakes, but he still had enough forward momentum knock me flying. Scraped up my hands and knees and bruised my hip.

10

Once. I was crossing the street (from the school to the dorms). I got to the road at the same time a car got to the stop sign at the cross walk. He waved at me to walk and as soon as I was in front of his car he hit the gas. Pushed me a good 10 or 20 feet. Scared the piss out of me but that was about it. No damage. I called the cops (our campus cops were county sheriffs) and filed a report. I remember when they asked if there were any marks on his car and I said “What, other then my face prints on his hood?”. Nothing ever became of it (didn’t get the plate number, only the type of plates and make of car), but to this day (13 years later) I still get a little nervous crossing the road in front of a car when they wave at me to go first. I always have the fear in the back of my mind that they’re just letting me go so that they can plow into me in purpose.

11

Nope, just some very close calls. Always cars who weren’t paying attention or decided that they really didn’t need to stop for a pedestrian that was already in the crosswalk (they were in the far lane; I didn’t step out off the curb in front of them).

I have been hit by a car twice while on a bicycle, though.

12

I jumped in a deep ditch when a car went off the road. It landed directly above me.

While stopped at a red light with my bicycle, a car ran over my bike and bumped me when it turned right. (That year I was also doored by a car while riding my bike.)

One night last winter I was knocked down by a car being driven by a geezer in a Walmart parking lot. The geezer didn’t slow down, let alone stop.

13

Joey, that is chilling!

14

No, but I once ran full speed into a parked car (I was chasing someone’s mom across the parking lot, because she’d given me a ride to a band event and then drove off before I could get my bassoon out of her car). I had a bruise on my thigh that was probably seven inches across.

15

I’ve never been hit but I’ve been known to slap the side of a car that gets too close. People in drive-thru lines seem to be completely oblivious to pedestrians.

16

Drive-thru lines and parking lots in general. Although I’ve seen a lot of pedestrians make boneheaded maneuvers too. Pro tip: It’s probably not the best idea to walk right behind a car with its reverse lights on, under the assumption “I’m sure they’ll see me.”

17

yes and recently, I was hit by not only one but by TWO cars. I was crossing the steet and the guy in the car was turning right. He slammed into me and I fell back. I don’t know,if when I fell back, I was hit by another car or I was thrown on top of another car. But I recall that car backed up and I fell off of it. Then it went around me.

Neither car stopped.

It was 7pm

The thing that got me mad was no one, not one person bothered to help me. I was ten feet from a bus stop with at least twenty people, and I yelled out, “can someone please call 911.”

No one did.

When I got hit, I was in the steet and the first thing I did was shake my head, and it was like in those cartoons you see. It feels just like that. I crawled to the side, and since I didn’t have my cell phone said, "can someone call the police.

Then I realized all my groceries I were carrying were splattered all over the street. There was twenty bucks down the drain.

I decided I wasn’t hurt too bad, so I walked over to the Walgreens on the same corner and said, “I was hit by a car, can someone call the police.” And no one understood me. The clerk said, “Well what are you looking for some aspirin? Pain killers.”

I said,“No just call 911.”

They did, I figured if I was walking I couldn’t be hurt that bad. It took the cops 20 minutes to show up. I was waiting and they showed up at 7:25pm. Then they said, “Do you want an ambulance?” I said, no and told them what happened. They said, “Well there’s nothing we can do about it, if you didn’t get any license numbers.” I said, “Well can you fill out a report.”
They said, “That’s gonna take about a half hour.” I siad, “fine.” They didn’t seemed pleased.

Looking back at it, I can understand why the cops were miffed, but I was mad, that you can get hit in daylight by two cars and no one would even help or care.

I guess that’s Chicago for you. Perhaps if I had laid there and not moved, somoene would’ve helped. But I can also see why now if you’re hit people drive off. your chances of being caught if there’s no camera on the light is probably next to zero.

I walked home and didn’t feel any pain, but I was bruised up something bad. I had a huge bruse on my left tigth, cuts on my hands and forehead and another huge bruise on my right arm. Both the bruises were huge. But it was pretty superficial stuff. After a week the bruises healed

18

I should probably mention that it was a Chevy Blazer that hit me, so getting my face to hit his hood didn’t take that much force (since my face was already pretty close to his hood). As opposed to say a normal sized car where it would have involved me totally bending over to do that. He probably never broke 5 MPH the entire time and I don’t think I ever lost my footing. It was just sort of an “OMG I can’t do anything to stop this from happening” feeling that had me freaked out. That and having no idea if he knew I was there and was just having fun, if he didn’t know I was there, if he was going to stop in a few feet, if he was going to speed up, if he was going to jump on the brakes etc. Luckily it was all over in a few seconds.

I remember when I was probably about 6 or 7 my family was leaving the park with several hundred other people and tons of cars after the 4th of July fireworks. Lots of cars were trying to cross the street to get out to the main road. Many pedestrians were crossing said road as well. One person decided he could just sort of nudge his car through the pedestrians. He tapped my dad’s leg with his bumper. I still remember my dad yelling “Watch it buddy, there’s cars here” and slammed the Igloo Cooler on his hood. I assume it put a nice dent in it.

When I started unloading trucks with the forklift one thing I was taught was NEVER get behind the semi until the driver gets out of the truck. Psh, whatever, I thought, it can’t be that hard to see them backing up. Pro-tip: Semis don’t have reverse lights and they sure as hell can’t see a forklift 8 feet behind them.

19

Yes as a kid, I stopped at the crosswalk and started walking my bike across. The turning driver turned into me, slowly, knocking me off my bike. I had realized she was coming and tried to back up. I bit a hole in my bottom lip and got bruised up.
The driver of the car behind her came up to yell about “Darn Kids!” She offered me a ride home, I said no and dragged the mangled bike to the closest pay phone. Home phone was busy.
Next store, still busy. Closer to home I finally got through. My teenage sister had been chatting. We got call-waiting the next day.

I was also nearly hit when I was 19. The friend that was with me was hit and killed, I was about half a step in front of her and felt the body of the car brush my shorts.

20

Bicycle car collision as a kid. flipped over the bike and landed on the ground. Who drives along the inside border of a parking lot directly across the entry point? Dumbass. I was looking at the cars in the street I was crossing to get to the parking lot and missed the car approaching at such as weird point.