So a little over a year after I saw a cyclist mown down by a 4WD I saw a girl get run over at a pedestrian crossing. Seriously, Sydney-siders, I know you're all busy people with your large mortgages, fancy houses and designer clothes, but SLOW THE FUCK DOWN AND PAY ATTENTION.
I was walking home along Harbord Road and I see a girl pause at the crossing waiting for the oncoming car to slow down - which it did, it stopped. So she starts walking across, breaking into a run, I guess she's thinking at this point that everyone's going to stop. Oncoming car in the other direction slams into her - I barely heard the screech of brakes - and she bounces off the windscreen onto the road. Given that a car on the other side of the road had already stopped for this girl, how the hell did the driver coming in the other direction not notice that traffic was stopped and a girl wearing a bright red top is crossing?
Its really such a sad thing to see for all involved. The driver was shocked as hell as you would be, and needlessly so. Slow down, pay attention, you're steering over a tonne of metal on the road - it does bad things when you hit squishy bodied people. Fortunately, the girl appeared to be as ok as one can be after being hit by a car - fully conscious and no visible injuries though she was sore. I called an ambulance which arrived after about 5 minutes and they stretchered her off.
One of my biggest bugbears about Sydney life lately is the failure of drivers to stop at pedestrian crossings. As a pedestrian I've stopped at the side of the road and looked oncoming drivers in the eye thinking they would stop, only to have them drive straight through and in some cases speed up! I've been trying to think of a way to penalise these drivers without causing a major accident but so far have not come up with anything workable. The latter point is really critical - sure I could throw shit at their car but if that causes them to swerve to avoid being hit it may well result in a much larger accident, something I have no desire to cause. I wish there was a way to report the license plates of such cars but the flipside is how would you stop people abusing such a system to report drivers they dislike for any reason?
