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Just gotta love the pedestrians who think rules of road doesn't apply to them.

J

Jerboy

Banned
Ever had to slam on your brake to avoid a pedestrian coming out of a most unexpectedly place, then you sigh in relief that you didn't strike them? It happened to a friend of mine today. A city bus was stopped on the oncoming side. A guy comes running from a sidestreet. Runs in front of his car to make it onto the bus. My friend barely missed the guy by a few feet. He was lucky, but not everyone is so fortunate and some drivers gets into an unpreventable accidents due to pedestrian's fault. The result is either striking some other objects to avoid the pedestrian or hitting the pedestrian.

What happens when something like this happens? The driver of red car collides into a blue car. He made his best judgement to avoid hitting a transient who unexpectedly comes out of a bush, by swerving. Since the guy just ran out unexpectedly, the only two options were hit the guy or swerve and hit the other car.

Is the driver of the red car still going to be held responsible for hitting the blue car just like they do when they cause an accident while avoiding an animal or are they going to tell him he should have just ran over the guy???

Pedestrians usually escapes fine since drivers do their best to avoid them, yet they usually flee the scene. Even if they caught the pedestrian responsible for the accident, whose going to pay for who considering transient can't pay a dime?
 
I have actually been that pedestrian that almost gets hit before. I go to college and no one here respects any rules of the road, we all just run out whenever we feel like it. I am not saying it is the right thing to do, but I catch myself doing it from time to time. I usually remember that cars weigh like a million pounds more than me, but people around me don't get that very often. Sorry about that happening

-spike
 
I almost got run over while trying to cross the road on a pedestrian crossing. The traffic lights were on red and the traffic in one direction stopped and traffic in the other direction was quite a distance away. I got halfway across the road only to realise that a car coming wasnt going to stop. The old woman (*rolls eyes*) saw the red light too late slammed on her brakes, skidded a bit and then accelerated through the lights anyway.
 
I once asked an aquaintance of mine, who constantly walked across traffic, violated pedestrian rules, etc - why he didn't act more carefully...

His reply?

"'Cause if the car hits me it'll be thier fault in court!"

Yeah, like thats good comfort when you are crippled or dead.


The worst around here are the High Schoolers - they will literally walk straight into traffic, causing brakes to screech and cars to swerve to a halt, and then these packs of HS kids walk through giving the drivers the finger.

Sheesh.
 
over here cops give out jaywalking tickets...i have friends who've paid up to $60 just for crossing against the light. but jerboy, you do have a point.
 
Maybe someone from Dallas can back me up here. Once when I was in Dallas for business, I was walking to the hotel. The light was red, it was a 4 or 5 lane one-way street and it was so flat I could see for hundreds of yards that no cars were coming. So I crossed (at the corner) but against the light.

When I got to the other side a beat policeman walked right up to me and asked if I was from out of town. "Didn't you see the light was red? Didn't you see those other people waiting for the light to cross? Didn't you see the 'Don't Walk' sign?" Well, yes, yes and yes.

He warned me that in Dallas, the peds follow the rules and didn't give me a jaywalking ticket after I showed him my hotel key and out-of-state driver's license.

In Pittsburgh the pedestrians run rampant!
 


<< over here cops give out jaywalking tickets...i have friends who've paid up to $60 just for crossing against the light. but jerboy, you do have a point. >>


wow only 60!? down in Tempe, AZ the fine is $110.
 
Bikers (not motorcycles) drive me nuts. Especailly if there is a perfectly good sidewalk going with the street.

If I'm in a really rotten mood I'll even yell at them "Get on the damn sidewalk!"
 


<< Bikers (not motorcycles) drive me nuts. Especailly if there is a perfectly good sidewalk going with the street.
If I'm in a really rotten mood I'll even yell at them "Get on the damn sidewalk!" >>



i dunno about texas, but i'm pretty sure bicyclists in washington are supposed to use the street over the sidewalk.
 


<<

<< Bikers (not motorcycles) drive me nuts. Especailly if there is a perfectly good sidewalk going with the street.
If I'm in a really rotten mood I'll even yell at them "Get on the damn sidewalk!" >>



i dunno about texas, but i'm pretty sure bicyclists in washington are supposed to use the street over the sidewalk. >>



Boy I hope there isn't a law like that down here. Haven't heard of one.
 


<< The result is either striking some other objects to avoid the pedestrian or hitting the pedestrian. >>

That's why you have breaks, numbnuts. Have you ever taken a real driving test? If you're caught in a dangerous situation like that and you do anything but use the breaks (i.e. swerve, speed up, etc), you fail. Well... with your older thread about your driving off of your driveway in to the ditch, I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't. Interesting to see that you and your friends all drive the same (pun intended).

nik
 
<<In Pittsburgh the pedestrians run rampant!>>

Yes they do, and they are a terriffic PITA. I think I'm one of three people on the Pitt campus who waits for the lights when crossing. IMO there is absolutly no worse place to drive than in a city. I'd rather be on an state road in the middle of nowhere during a blizzard with 60 mph winds, and 8 foot ditches than in a city on the nicest day of the year.

ZV

EDIT: Regarding bicycles, in Ohio it is illegal (ticketable) for a bicycle to ride on the sidewalk unless the rider is under 16. As far as motorcycles go, a few idiots give the majority of us riders a bad name.
 


<< Bikers (not motorcycles) drive me nuts. >>



Where I live, bikes are very common, in fact, there must be as many bikes as there are cars, and theres still loads of traffic. Cyclists certainly think the rules dont apply to them and that they own the road. The police have started cracking down and fining those who dont use lights as night. I once had a cyclists ride into the back of my car, nothing serious, I stopped at a red light, he didnt see and went over the handle bars onto my car, its not funny but I couldnt help but chuckle when I looked in my mirror to see him sliding down the rear window.

And this morning, a cyclist gets in the wrong lane and just cuts in front of the bus I was one, the driver really slams on the brakes and was lucky to avoid him, and was also lucky not to send some of the people who were standing, through the windscreen.
 
"That's why you have breaks, numbnuts. Have you ever taken a real driving test? "

Yes taking coffee breaks from driving helps you out on longer trips, however having brakes helps also.

 
<< "'Cause if the car hits me it'll be thier fault in court!">>

Has he ever tested that? If you break a law, and the driver has a good lawyer, the jaywaler will not only be busted up, but have to pay as well. This all depends on being able to get witnesses to the fact that the pedestrian was negligent. Criminal court might not be able to do anything to the pedestrian, but civil court will.
 


<< Bikers (not motorcycles) drive me nuts. Especailly if there is a perfectly good sidewalk going with the street.

If I'm in a really rotten mood I'll even yell at them "Get on the damn sidewalk!" >>



Here in California, bicyclists are supposed to ride in the slow lane. Some cities are even nice (evil?) enough to place bike lanes at busy intersections, although I rarely see anyone crazy enough to occupy that lane.
 
That's why you have breaks, numbnuts. Have you ever taken a real driving test? If you're caught in a dangerous situation like that and you do anything but use the breaks (i.e. swerve, speed up, etc), you fail.

When I went through the EVOC courses (not this one, mine was in Marin with the Sheriff's Dept. in crown vics) braking is bad in many cases. You cannot alter braking distance much, it is pretty much a constant, but you can alter your path. You have to decide in a split second where you want to end up, sometimes there is no good answer unfortunately.

I also went through five or six EVOC courses for ambulances.
 


<<

<< Bikers (not motorcycles) drive me nuts. Especailly if there is a perfectly good sidewalk going with the street.
If I'm in a really rotten mood I'll even yell at them "Get on the damn sidewalk!" >>



i dunno about texas, but i'm pretty sure bicyclists in washington are supposed to use the street over the sidewalk. >>



Let's not get into another debate about where bicyclists belong. In a perfect society there would be 5 roads in every direction.."
one for pedestrians
one for bicyclists
one for people who drive who shouldn't because they are retarded, senile, soccer momish, or whatever..
one for everybody else...and one like the autobahn..no limit.

Penalty for being on the autobahn and driving slow will be death where the police officer is judge jury and executioner..
 
Pedestrians in Auburn, AL have the right of way. Took a while to get used to when I first went to college. Major intersections have crosswalks and pedestrian signals, but it is common to see students crossing the street wherever they like.

 
I was always taught to do anything to avoid a head on collision with another car. The force generate by a head on is extremely high and will mostlikely hurt people in both cars. If you hit a ped. then you would only hurt them.
 


<<

<<

<< Bikers (not motorcycles) drive me nuts. Especailly if there is a perfectly good sidewalk going with the street.
If I'm in a really rotten mood I'll even yell at them "Get on the damn sidewalk!" >>



i dunno about texas, but i'm pretty sure bicyclists in washington are supposed to use the street over the sidewalk. >>



Boy I hope there isn't a law like that down here. Haven't heard of one. >>



Bicyclists are supposed to ride on the street. If there's a bike lane, they're supposed to be in the bike lane, if there isn't they're supposed to ride in the rightmost lane of traffic (unless they're turning left or something). That's how it is inCalifornia. I've never heard of anywhere that bicyclists are supposed to ride on the sidewalk.

Also, they're supposed to obey all traffic laws, i.e. - stopping at stopsigns... which they rarely do.
 
But the rules of the road *don't* apply to them when it comes down to it...Pedestrians in California always have the right of way 🙁
 


<< But the rules of the road *don't* apply to them when it comes down to it...Pedestrians in California always have the right of way 🙁 >>


Same in Jersey.
Of course it's only further complicated by the signs they put up in the middle of the street in high foot-traffic areas:
"YIELD TO PEDESTRIAN IN CROSSWALK"
For some reason many strollers have misinterpreted this as a license to step directly in front of a vehicle going 25 or 35 (if they're going the speed limit, so more realistically 35-45) MPH and that it also overrides the "look both ways..." thing that gets drummed into your brain at a very young age.
 
I think the best collisions are head on rather than offset. It would seem that more of the crush and impact forces would be spread out over a larger area, rather than concentrated on a particular location.

However, it would seem that a side-swipe or offset collision is best when hitting pedestrians. This off-set hit encourages the pedestrian to leave the frontal area of the car...so in the event you are not able to stop in time, you won't run over their body. However, if the impact speed is moderate, a gentle acceleration may help propel the body over the hood and roof of your vehicle.
 
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