Was this a whoosh?
Damn right. Children, drunks, and reckless idiots have a right to be on the streets. Sure, try to impress them with the rules, maybe fine them if you catch them messing up, but you know those people will be out there.
Unless the pedestrian is blind and thinks they are safely crossing at a crosswalk, and can recognize a stopped vehicle to their left.
Pretty sure the pedestrian in the OP wasn’t blind, at least not prior to the accident.
And the driver knew that how?
One should always be cautious for a blind pedestrian running out into the street.
Well, defensive driving, as it was taught to me, emphasized that one should assume people may do stupid shit. “I have the right of way and have someplace to be” is not paramount.
But there is a reasonable upper limit to the assumption of how much stupid shit people will do. We can certainly debate where that limit is.
But upthread we had some extremist(s) suggesting that exceeding 10mph was per se reckless behavior on any / all surface streets since a pedestrian could leap out from behind anything at any time for any reason or no reason and all car drivers were legally obligated to never strike a ped no matter what.
That’s IMO too far.
Definitely too far.
Yeah, it gets complicated. Several years ago I was pulling up to this intersection with a steady green late at night. A tiny, elderly lady was jaywalking across all four lanes at the near corner across from Club Mallard there. NOT the crosswalk farther down on the side where there was a light. Partially because there is no streetlight on that near side, it is poorly illuminated at night and this woman was small (maybe 5’), dressed like a ninja and moving slow. I was in the left lane and almost certainly had better night vision then than I do now. I just barely glimpsed something that looked like a moving shadow up ahead and started lightly feathering my brakes, not sure what it was. When I actually got to the corner I just barely managed to stop before hitting her, only because I had already started slowing a little. Not withstanding that I missed her by maybe 5 ft, she kept blithely strolling along at the same pace and the young lady in the SUV in the right lane, coming from maybe a car length behind me, didn’t miss her. She did see her at the last second, slammed on her brakes and managed to just tap her. But little old lady, tap from an SUV - old lady hit the ground.
The cops took my statement and my opinion was frankly I don’t see how the other driver could have reasonably avoided her. It is highly likely she didn’t notice me slightly slowing down and didn’t have enough time to react when I screeched to a halt as the old lady emerged from in front of my car. She was very, very upset (I imagine the old lady was as well), but under the circumstance I just couldn’t cast much if any blame on her. it was just one of those shitty situations.
My gf and I share driving when we go out. I’m a very defensive driver and will slow down when situations happen that I feel require caution. She often asks me what I’m doing, and I’ll explain. She will admit she never really noticed what I saw.
Deep down she considers me the better driver.
How very droll.
According to the California DMV, if an intersection is uncontrolled - -
“If your view is blocked, move slowly forward until you can see. The speed limit for a blind intersection is 15 mph.”
I doubt there’s a regulation specifically covering the situation in the OP. But I think slowing until you can see is a good idea.
Can you point out the post where someone has said this?
I’m happy to take that position, even if I formulated it differently.
Drivers have dangerous “hunting” or “racing” instincts. We all (including myself) feel we are “winning” something if we overtake someone. This instinct must be checked by good infrastructure and good rules.
When you allow the carbrains (the mindset everybody, including me, has when driving) you get hideous traffic casualty numbers.
We must, collectively, as a society understand those instincts and educate and plan to reduce their harm.
10mph in urban zones sounds perfectly reasonable as part of that planning. The time lost will be easily offset by lives saved.
no, it most certainly does not mean the truck was obviously stopped for a pedestrian. The only place I’ve ever seen midblock crosswalks is in the downtown of a city, places that frequently have lots of retail on the first floor. IOW, lots of places for a truck to stop, maybe double parked to make a delivery.
Hey, we’re in the middle of the Olympics; everyone knows you don’t want to settle for silver or bronze; you want to “Go for the Gold!”
There’s even a Disney short:
I mean that might be the explanation (though would almost certainly mean it was illegally parked as every pedestrian crossing I’ve seen has a no waiting zone either side). Hell maybe the explanation is the rapture has happened and the truck driver has been called up to heaven. But either of these explanations is far less likely than the obvious one, that they are stopped at a pedestrian crossing because there is a pedestrian in front of them.
OMG, a truck parked illegally! It cannot be!
As a driver in the NY area, the probability of an illegally parked truck is about a million times higher than the probability that a pedestrian is going to burst from their hiding place against the light.