Saw runner hit by car this morning

TheBull wrote:

The above is true, but no way are you as safe with an iPod on than without.

Oh - my - God. You haven't even the slightest clue of just how incredibly wrong you are do you? Have even ever WORN an iPod before? How about while outdoors tough guy? Ha! Didn't think so turkey nuts.

iPods suck. I once saw someone get hit by a brick outhouse on wheels. This was back in the 70's mind you.

GoodTimes wrote:

I once saw a midget get plowed down by some chick pushing a jogging stroller. The midget was clearly staring at the woman's well toned and rapidly approaching abdominal muscles, and then Kaclumpasmoooosh!!! That midget got run the hell over. The chick never even paused to see what she hit and kept on hauling ass down the sidewalk, and I just sat there and laughed and laughed and laughed.

But the mental image did make me spit my Goldfish all over the monitor.

Good work.

After over 30 years of running, I finally got hit by a car recently. On a business trip, I was doing an out and back on Wilshire Blvd from the Westin in downtown LA. Somewhere between MacAurthur Park and the 110, I am running against traffic and I see a small beat up car come to a full stop at a light, and I have the walk signal so I keep motoring across the intersection...right as I am in front of his bumper which I was watching in case he might roll forward...the guy punches it right into me on the red light, obviously making a right on red, but he never saw me. I jumped like I was 18 again and he clipped my foot and I landed right on his windsheild as he slammed on the brakes. The 2 hispanic guys inside just froze in horror. I was screaming obscenities as it happened and then sat a moment on the hood to collect myself and then stood in front of the car and pointed to the signal which was still flashing. There is no way these two guys spoke any English, and less likely they had green cards. I felt ok and took a few steps to make sure and decided there was absolutely no point in sticking around to make a big deal about it although people were gathering around to watch at this point. I would say 6-10 people witnessed the whole thing.

I might have reacted differently if it was some bimbo in a Range Rover with Starbucks in her hand, maybe not. I was fortunately fine. I did break one of my rules which is that if I am in doubt about whether the driver sees me, even if I have the right of way, I usually go behind the car creeping forward just in case. Most drivers nose way out in the road before they turn and block the cross walk anyway.

I was doing my long run with my son riding his bike along today and I had to put my hand out to 2 different drivers to yield or stop at intersections. Most drivers are way too distracted these days; sexist as this may be, women are absolutely, hands down, the worst.

That's one of the things when running against traffic and approaching a stopped car at an intersection - they usually look left and never right when they are about to pull a right on red. When it's dark outside it's almost impossible to tell if they see you or not.

and I screamed out, that's a comet, that's a god damned comet, and it was, it really was a comet, chunk of ice and dust from outer space, about to fly straight up our asses, the runner next to me dove to the right and got flattened by an oncoming ice cream truck, I, on the other hand, jumped right up on that comet and rode it into eternity, YEEEEEEEHAAWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

I remember doing a training run with a couple of my friends. We're coming up to a crosswalk and some guy pulls up in his van. He takes a quick peak at us through his sunglasses while talking on his bluetooth (Note: He actually SAW us). As we begin to cross, he decides to begin his turn while he checks his other shoulder and one of my friends ends up getting knocked nearly five feet into the street while the rest of us were lucky enough to miss the hood. Asshole then proceeded to drive away with a silly look on his face.

asdasda wrote:

That's one of the things when running against traffic and approaching a stopped car at an intersection - they usually look left and never right when they are about to pull a right on red. When it's dark outside it's almost impossible to tell if they see you or not.

The is the exactly the way it is here in Okinawa, except, well, completely opposite. Just swap left with right and right with left and you'll get the idea. Absolutely freaking stupid and dangerous. It doesn't seem to enter most people's consciousness that perhaps, just perhaps, there could be somebody using that sidewalk that you can't see down. I've almost gotten clipped a few times. I'm worried that I will for more than the obvious reason seeing that I live in a smallish community, and being the foreigner that runs like Gump, it might be a problem if I let it be known how "good" my Japanese can be when mad.

And Darwin wins again!

How about people, when you run against the flow of traffic, who don't move over? I nearly saw a runner's head get clipped by the passenger side mirror. Freakin' scary!

Random H.S. Coach wrote:

How about people, when you run against the flow of traffic, who don't move over? I nearly saw a runner's head get clipped by the passenger side mirror. Freakin' scary!

Thats nothin.

Saw a girl have her leg run over in a parking lot. She actually wasn't doing anything wrong, she was stretching in a busy parking lot with lots of people at a track meet.

Some black woman who couldn't drive ran over her leg. Technically the driver didn't do anything wrong because she couldn't see her leg, and the girl shouldn't have been where she was, technically.

The girl got to keep her leg but she didn't run for almost 2 years afterward.

Crazy story. I don't live in a city, just a medium sized town but I make it a habit to defer to cars at road-crossings/driveways and just run behind them if they edge up to the street or crosswalk. This way at least I know I'm always in control of what will happen next. I get paranoid about these things now that I'm older and don't have a lot of trust in the drivers on the roadway. And yes, not to be too sexist, but women and older drivers are by far the worst. Next would be people trying to get through a red light.

Yes, like I said, I usually do the same thing. I feel like the driver bares a little more burden when it is a red light with cross walk.

I ran this by my running partner this morning, however, and he feels the runner bares the greater responsibility in this situation, since the driver (while ultimately responsibly to yield to pedestrians) can be presumed to only be congiscent and concerned about on coming cars.

El G was known to train with an iPod, but I can't imagine there was much traffic in the Atlas Mtns

bottom line for me is i never ever have understood why people always gotta have that shite in their ears - part of the joy of running for me is the peace and quiet - and "bullshite" to those who say they are still aware - i have been on soo many runs where i can literally get within 2 inches of a woman or anyone else and they did not even realize it because they had ear poop

in a crazy town like this i cannot believe women would be out in the dark walking with earphones - dumb dumb dumb

I know a man who is in a wheelchair for life because he was running with a walkman (this was the 80s), and he got hit by a drunk driver. Guy hit him from behind and he never heard it coming. He swears to this day that he might have been able to get out of the way if he didnt have his walkman on.

I think the driver of course bears the responsibility since they're operating a one-ton vehicle, but your friend is right in the sense that there's no guarantee you can trust the driver. If you're concerned for your safety don't place it in the hands of someone you don't know (some driver on the road). If you're concerned for your safety you ought to be somewhat aware of your surroundings, walkmen and ipods make this harder to do. I sound like an old man here but this kind of stuff is common sense.

It surprises me in a race when I make a comment to another runner and they can't hear me - then I see the earbuds. It doesn't surprise me at all that some of these same people get knocked over by bikes, or cars, or buses. It's tragic, but not surprising.

What gets me is women in our town running on the trails with earbuds and ipods. I mean, it would be very easy to attack one of these gals and drag her off into the woods. Totally defenseless. My wife's crowd all run with ipods even in their group runs. They have to yell at each other to be heard. Comical yet very stupid.

Agree on the women driver comment, as per above, they are not the brightest humans sometimes.

GoodTimes wrote:

I once saw a midget get plowed down by some chick pushing a jogging stroller. The midget was clearly staring at the woman's well toned and rapidly approaching abdominal muscles, and then Kaclumpasmoooosh!!! That midget got run the hell over. The chick never even paused to see what she hit and kept on hauling ass down the sidewalk, and I just sat there and laughed and laughed and laughed.

Were you injured?