Red Trike

. . . and that may not be any exaggeration at all.

Today, a self-absorbed idiot came racing up to an intersection at top speed and turned, at high velocity, directly into my path, from a dedicated left turn lane. I was already a third of the way across the street, crossing with a green trafffic light, with the green PEDESTRIAN LIGHT, in the pedestrian crossing.

The car had not been in the turn lane, or even near the intersection, when I began crossing, was speeding, and the driver clearly did not see me. She was on track to obliterate me, and barely swerved at the last minute to avoid hitting me. I was able to brake and stop just short of the collision.

Her slight swerve alone would not have kept me from being hit; only the fact that my hands –and those fingers — were already in place kept me from being splattered all over the pavement, and Raffi from being crushed. I was ready and able to brake; that made all the difference.

This was no kid; she appeared to be about 40, she was driving something that looked like a current model silver Subaru, and she mouthed ¨Sorry” as she careened down the street, still swerving a little, still speeding, still oblivious. She couldn´t have cared less that we both had come dangerously close to disaster.

This is what I was wearing: that would be a fluorescent helmet, florescent, screaming yellow/green shirt, even brighter arm sleeves (for the deities´sake, even my arms were screaming green!), and a screaming green fanny pack. All extremely obvious from the front.

I can´t even imagine how hard you´d have to work to fail to see me coming. And let´s not forget that my trike is bright, bright red:

Here´s the thing: this horrid person who muttered ´´sorry´´ should have apologized not only to me, but to her entire family (and probably her insurer, too). She nearly ruined not only my life, my spouse´s, and my family´s, but her own and her family´s as well.

If she´d killed or maimed me, her life would have been hell for a long, long time to come. If nothing else, my otherwise kind and compassionate spouse would have sued her for everything she had, for years and years, if that´s what it took. And there might have been a jail term involved as well.

Being a selfish jerk isn´t really all it´s cracked up to be. Somehow, though, I doubt she´s figured that out.