Nearly Flattened
I was almost struck by a car yesterday. I wasn’t playing in traffic this time either. Conditions outside were overcast, though it hadn’t started raining yet. I was wearing dark colors.
I was walking through a supermarket parking lot, when a car that was backing out nearly clipped my left side as I walked by. I wasn’t hit. The car didn’t even graze me, as I took evasive action and walked a little faster. In the end, crisis averted.
Still, this had me thinking, in the moments after my life flashed before my very eyes and I managed to walk away unscathed.
What I struggled to understand is how something like this could have happened, given how vehicular technology has improved through the last 10 to 15 years. The car that nearly hit me was one of those small SUV’s, one that looked like a late model whatever-you-call-it (to me, all those small SUV’s look alike), which I’m going to assume had to have some kind of backup camera that I would imagine comes standard now in damn near all cars.
Why aren’t we looking at that backup camera? Or maybe, just maybe, why aren’t we even going old-school and looking out through the actual rear windshield with our own two eyes? Apparently, people can’t be bothered to back out of a parking space safely.
Maybe I’m one of those few holdovers who refuses to drive a modern car that has one of those backup cameras?
Maybe I’m one of those drivers who learned years ago how to back up by actually looking through the rear windshield?
Maybe I’m one of those drivers who would prefer not to back into people as they walk by my car?
This whole thing was just so fucking dumb and entirely preventable.
I don’t try to explain it because after it’s all said and done, people are going to do stupid things, whether this is behind the wheel of a car or anywhere else people might congregate and meander.
People are dumb. Apparently, I need the constant reminders.
I think part of the problem is modern cars have so much crap on them and so many things to look at or pay attention to as far as monitoring this and that. People are conditioned to no longer actually look in mirrors and pay attention to what they are doing and instead they rely on all these gizmos. I have a client who has some of that crap on her 2019 car, and when I drive it I turn it all off. It is a nuisance and a distraction for those of us who learned the old school way of driving.
But also, there are just people who plain don’t pay attention. The person who almost hit you may have not bothered to look at anything, camera or mirrors. Some people are just oblivious.
@schrecken13 I agree with you wholeheartedly. As technology supposedly improves, it seems that the so-called brain behind the wheel gets dumber and even more useless. Again, being that I am older and have sense, I can’t fathom driving a car and not paying attention, even with all of the technology that is intended to make the operation of a motor vehicle safer. I don’t need all of that tech and I know that I’d be the type to not want to use any of it. But yes, in the end, when people simply aren’t paying attention, bad things can happen. Indeed, people tend to be oblivious and this isn’t just limited to when people are driving. There’s a blatant lack of intelligence all around us. It’s just not always immediately visible.
Warning Comment