I am just as worried as the next person about road accidents in this country. There are just too many.We all know about reckless drivers who break traffic lights, drive on the shoulder, speed and overtake dangerously, ride bumpers, etc. What we see, but do not talk much about, are the equally reckless behaviours of many pedestrians who walk the streets.
Don't both driver and pedestrian have a responsibility to be careful, since we both share the roadways? Just in the last few weeks, I came very close to colliding with two careless pedestrians.I am often a pedestrian too, but I am very careful when crossing roads, looking right and life and right and left again–whether the road is busy or not. I learned that as a child in primary school.
But the thing is that most of the accidents that we read about are not about children getting bounced down, it is adults. So is it that the children know how to cross roads better than the adults?Some places are especially dangerous: my first near-accident was right under the walkover opposite Powder Magazine in Cocorite.
A woman decided to cross the road under the walkover the Government built for her to cross safely! Of course she had to dodge oncoming traffic. I had to swerve to avoid her and nearly ended up in the ditch. Thankfully I was driving under the speed limit, because if I was going at the speed limit, I would have hit her. Now, how smart was she?
The other one was on Ariapita Avenue in Woodbrook. I was driving west around 9.30 pm on Friday night, when this man walked out from one of the bars and just started to cross in front of my car–he never looked to see if a car was coming! Never!I blew my horn when I saw him and braked to a stop, inches from him. Instead of realising that he should have been more careful and grateful that he did not get hit, the man hit up my car bonnet and started to cuss me.
Now, what is wrong with that picture? They drink, walk out on the road and feel that they are in charge. I was rattled and I didn't even touch him. I could only imagine what drivers who are actually involved in accidents go through. We always concentrate on the pedestrian who is hit and never the driver.But having had these two near-serious experiences recently, I now see the other side too. Sometimes it is the pedestrian who causes the accident. Both people need to be careful and responsible. Come on people, think!
More needs to be done to teach drivers to drive more carefully and obey the road regulations, and also to teach pedestrians about their responsibility in using the roadways. The "bounce meh nah" attitude makes no sense.When they cross the road without looking left or right, or step off a pavement and expect that the cars must just stop, or they lime and hang out all in the road, they are creating dangerous situations.
Ariapita Avenue, St James, and Crystal Stream, Diego Martin, are famous for this bad behaviour by bar patrons and pedestrians–and most times they have alcohol in their heads, so their judgement is not the best. I am sorry for those people who get hit, but I am also sorry for the drivers involved, especially when they were just minding their own business and not driving dangerously.
David Phillips
Diego Martin