Pedestrians

[christa]

Re: Pedestrians

I just seen a PSA (Public Service Announcement) TV ad the other night on slowing down in school zones. They depict a father driving his son to school, not paying attention to the road, and a mom and daughter about to enter a crosswalk. Then the skidding brakes sound. Pretty eye-opening and effective. Actually scary, having you think they were gonna' show the aftermath.

i remember a tv spot in Britain that actually did show the aftermath. it was eeeeeew! i wonder how their pedestrian fatalities were after that. it was quite some time ago, like 1998.

[Hellbent]

Re: Pedestrians

ok so i was always the irritated driver waiting to turn when people were crossing slowly but ever since some older woman HIT ME with her car after stopping for me to cross then getting mad and going anyway. i think she was trying to scare me and thought she was going to just pass closely... but can you believe that? i was SO mad. what's funny is how she was in traffic and couldn't go anywhere after it happened. i don't want to admit to what i did next. um, so i won't

I hope you had a ketchup packet and sprayed it all over your leg and scared the crap out of them =p

[alohatim]

Re: Pedestrians

these careless pedestrians are annoying but it seems like they are creating this anger in drivers

It seems like just getting in the car transforms many folks into angry people. Just try to drive with aloha.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Pedestrians

Only in America do we censor the graphic scenes of an automobile accident. The carnage is intense but it really makes you reconsider the value of life.

I had the gross opportunity to be the first responder to a fatal high-speed head on accident on the mainland.

Two automobiles. One a small compact the other a lifted truck. The truck was on the wrong side of the highway coming up a hill. The impact took out most of the driver's side of the compact from the grill to the rear wheels.

The husband was the driver of the compact and was nowhere to be seen except for fleshy parts mixed with the engine that was pushed into the back seat on the driver's side.

The wife however a young woman from Hawaii of all places was spared any external physical wounds but was killed by the sheer magnitude of the impact. Her body couldn't take the force of the sudden stop and basically every bone and organ in her torso had been crushed somehow. When I saw her her body was slowly compressing into her lap.

The driver of the pickup truck survived and was arrested. He was arguing with his wife who was driving her car and he was attempting to force her off the road.

The sad part was that after I walked away from the carnage, other drivers who had stopped had to pull the driver of the truck who was still enraged over his wife from beating her. He was so full of anger he hadn't realized he'd just killed two people. Amazing.

[WindwardOahuRN]

Re: Pedestrians

There was a very old commercial about driving safety that showed an accident scene. The events leading up to the scene were depicted. It seemed that the victim, now dead, had been doing everything right---speed, right-of-way, etc. Yes, the one who hit him was alive and was to blame for the accident. The emphasis was on defensive driving, looking for what the OTHER guy was doing and not being complacent that your great driving was going to keep you safe.

The commercial ended with "Yes, he was right. DEAD RIGHT."

Maybe that should be the direction in which some ads should go here----not declaring that pedestrians have all these rights but instead telling them to watch the hell out and look both ways seventeen times and establish eye contact and don't trust crosswalks or crossing lights to keep you safe. That drivers MAY be distracted and may not see you and hey, they are driving CARS and you are just a fragile human body. And HUSTLE a bit when you go across that street, please.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Pedestrians

Growing up, my mother phrased it thus:
"Don't make us put 'BUT I HAD THE RIGHT-OF-WAY' on your tombstone."

[tutusue]

Re: Pedestrians

[...]Maybe that should be the direction in which some ads should go here----not declaring that pedestrians have all these rights but instead telling them to watch the hell out and look both ways seventeen times and establish eye contact and don't trust crosswalks or crossing lights to keep you safe. That drivers MAY be distracted and may not see you and hey, they are driving CARS and you are just a fragile human body. And HUSTLE a bit when you go across that street, please.

Yesterday I came upon a defensive pedestrian. Thank God as I was the one at fault. I was pulling out of Ala Moana Center via one of those little exits onto Ala Moana Blvd. down from the 2nd level near Sears. I looked to the right...nobody. I looked to the left and watched car after car pass by until one car stopped and waved me in. I did not look right again. MY BAD. Eventually I saw a pedestrian was standing there and he was akamai enough to keep standing there to see if I'd look right. It still gets my adrenaline going. Thank you Mr. Pedestrian for not being an idiot like the driver was.

[adrian]

Re: Pedestrians

You could always carry one of those canned air horns they have at football games. I bet that'd get their attention if they started to cut across your crosswalk

ooh, not a bad idea!

Maybe I should install that in my car also. No one will expect a small car like mine to have a big arse horn like that.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Pedestrians

Girl crossing street hit in head by vehicle's back mirror

A 13-year-old girl was transported to The Queen's Medical Center in serious condition this morning after she was struck in the back of the head by a vehicle's rear view mirror while crossing the street at the intersection of North School Street and Likelike Highway.

(from the Advertiser's breaking news section, so I dunno if the URL will be permanently good)

How the hell did this happen? You're not supposed to even enter the intersection if there are people crossing! I hope the police are all over this driver.

[Adri]

Re: Pedestrians

How the hell did this happen? You're not supposed to even enter the intersection if there are people crossing! I hope the police are all over this driver.

Didn't they recently change the law so that cars could not enter a cross walk if a pedestrian was in that half of the cross walk (as opposed to what I think it used to be ~ that cars should not enter a cross walk if a pedestrian was anywhere in the cross walk). I wonder if that contributed to the accident? In any event, the driver just wasn't paying attention I think (unless the girl ran up and hit the car mirror with the back of her head).

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Pedestrians

(unless the girl ran up and hit the car mirror with the back of her head).

Whoa! Is that a popular past-time amongst 13-year-olds in Hawai`i these days? I am SO out of the loop with kids' games now...

[IBadget]

Re: Pedestrians

The 13-year-old girl who got hit in the head with the car's rearview mirror while crossing the street reminds me of the time my dad yelled at me while I was crossing Farrington Highway near Waipahu High School for not looking both ways before crossing. He was driving on Farrington Highway when he stopped and yelled at me to stop and look both ways before crossing.

I think that the pedestrian law makes people think that looking both ways is old-fashioned and obsolete. Always look both ways because it's better to be safe than sorry.

[lavagal]

Re: Pedestrians

How the hell did this happen? You're not supposed to even enter the intersection if there are people crossing! I hope the police are all over this driver.

It's possible she was actually just going straight with the traffic and got hit in the back of the head that way. I used to ride my bike from downtown to UH and delivery and mini tour vans were notorious for playing chicken with me that way.

I think that the pedestrian law makes people think that looking both ways is old-fashioned and obsolete. Always look both ways because it's better to be safe than sorry.

Actually, what we're doing now is telling people to look Left-Right-Left, to wait until you make eye contact with a driver contemplating making a right on red or turning out of a driveway or onto another street, and to follow the pedestrian signals and not the green-amber-red lights because those are vehicular directions. (Unless there is no pedestrian device at the corner).

I might sound like I know what I'm talking about. I volunteered today for the AARP at lunchtime today at King and Kekaulike. Some HPD guys were there, and Barbara Kim Stanton and Jackie Boland of AARP were there, as was an army of volunteers (and at 10 places around town). I found it discouraging that pedestrians didn't want HPD's or our Walk Wise Hawaii brochures. It was as though they don't want help. Pedestrians, especially seniors, walk around looking down, don't pay attention to traffic signals, and tend to shy away from assistance. The flip side is that drivers, secure in their metal pods, have no personal relationship with a pedestrian. There's no love in the driver-pedestrian relationship UNTIL eye contact occurs. Give aloha. Stop, wave the pedestrian by, smile, give aloha. And if you're a driver stopping for a pedestrian, or if you're a pedestrian walking across a multi-lane road like Bethel, Bishop or Beretania, look for and give aloha all the way across. Delaying for a pedestrian might cost you a couple of minutes. Killing one will consume a lot more time.

[tutusue]

Re: Pedestrians

My observations of late, during my forays around town, are that drivers seem to be making a concerted effort to take more care near crosswalks. Pedestrians, otoh, seem to pay very little attention; no eye contact; no looking both ways; head down; step off the curb. Today I was a pedestrian at Ala Moana and Hobron waiting to cross Ala Moana. There was a break in traffic on Ala Moana so a pedestrian crossed on the red light. My friends and I stood there, stunned. By the time he got to the median traffic was approaching the crosswalk. That didn't stop him! That's the kind of guy who would've sued had he been hit.

What's really scary is that other pedestrians saw that idiot cross so they started to follow suit. We shouted "stop"!!! They were tourists and not familiar with the recent fatalities. Still...

[Blubearypye]

Re: Pedestrians

... Today I was a pedestrian at Ala Moana and Hobron waiting to cross Ala Moana. There was a break in traffic on Ala Moana so a pedestrian crossed on the red light. My friends and I stood there, stunned. By the time he got to the median traffic was approaching the crosswalk. That didn't stop him! That's the kind of guy who would've sued had he been hit. What's really scary is that other pedestrians saw that idiot cross so they started to follow suit. We shouted "stop"!!! They were tourists and not familiar with the recent fatalities. Still...

Speaking of Ala Moana...I frequent it daily and as a pedestrian crossing between the parking and KB's Toys I see how careless other pedestrians are. I feel sorry for the drivers because they will let a bunch cross and then someone will run across last minute...so the next wave of people end up crossing in a pack.