Some said it was the sun in the drivers’ eyes and others thought it was the dreaded cellphone.
Whatever the reason, there was no stopping, until metal hit metal and the carnage lay in the intersection. Lives were changed forever, and you just have to ask, why?
Was it because someone was late for a meeting? Too many errands and not enough time? Excuses come easy, but the results sometimes never go away. In today’s world there seems to be a lot of me-first and turning stop signs into yield signs seem to be the norm.
Stop means stop. If your wheels do not stop turning you are not stopped.
Recently at Corfield and Stanford, while waiting my turn to cross, westbound on Stanford all seemed normal and benign. I started to move west, from a stop, and after proceeding into the intersection about 20 feet I caught a white vehicle out of the corner of my left eye, coming a full speed-limit speed. I stood on the brakes, my wife screamed, and a little white vehicle went blasting on through, from my left to my right. In retrospect I don’t think the driver was even aware of what just happened, as there was no attempt at braking. It could have been very bad for all of us, but this time everything worked out, sometimes you just get lucky.
There is a growing pervasive underlying tenancy to put others at risk for some self-perceived reason. I truly believe that everyone should do with their life as they see fit. However, when you put others in harm’s way by your actions, I have to say enough already. Heck, people do not even think it is their responsibility to stay at an accident scene and give aid and support. Hit and runs are on the rise.
To those that think that rolling through stop signs or just ignoring common sense, I say be aware of what you do because statistical odds show that the more you take chances, the more opportunity there is for you to have a very bad event.
That goes for bike riders as well. It is OK to put your foot down at a stop sign, after all you are out for exercise, right?
Bob Tritschler
Parksville