Sunday, October 28, 2007

Near Death Experience

Friday night was wet, really wet. I was meeting the family at a local Sears before going out to dinner. The rain just kept coming down and it was dark early from the weather. I took the bus from the train station to Sears. I got off the Bus and crossed the street. It was wet and dark but not crazily so.

As I walked into the Sears parking lot, I looked for the traffic coming in and out of the parking lot. It was generally clear. I saw a mini van a bit off from where I was, about 200 yards. I moved off to the left to be out of its path. It approached and swerved toward me. I RAN to the left. It kept turning toward me. I was being chased by a mini-van, What the Hell!!!! I was trying to keep clear of both the front end and the front left tire as the thing kept pacing me as Ibacked up and to the left. I slapped the front and side of the mini van with a good deal of force while continuing to back pedal to the left and out of the way of the driver. She finally stopped.

My heart was racing. It was raining and dark but not so hard or heavy as to miss a person under full street lights in the middle of parking lot. The woman said, "You shouldn't have been walking in the middle of parking lot."

????, I guess walking in a parking lot is an offense that carries a sentence of being struck with a 2000 pound vehicle.

It takes a minute for me to process this

I say, "you are the dumbest person on the face of the planet, as well as being the worst driver I have ever seen"

She puzzles over this, before realizing that she should have just apologized. To her credit she didn't pursue it any further, she just drove off. But she never asked if I was ok. Society seems to have lost some of its concern for others. Where this woman should have been trying to find out if someone was hurt as a result of her actions instead she blamed me for walking in a parking lot. I suppose it is surprising to see people walk in parking lots, I mean of all the parking lots I have ever been in only every person who goes there walks into the store.

She actually tried to convince me that I was at fault for her almost hitting me with her car. She was going too fast and quite simply not paying attention. I spotted a cell phone in her hand as she rolled down the window of her mini-van.

I am not dead but it is not for lack of effort on the part of the mini-van driver. I was a little shaken for the remainder of the night. So how was everyone else's night?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Followed a comment to your blog, and hey I'm so glad you're not dead!! People ARE so narcissistic, aren't they? They're the only ones that count. Anyway, I've always wanted to run but am SO not in shape to do so. You're inspiring!!

Robert Barker said...

Thanks for the compliment. But don't count out running. In January I was almost 300 pounds.

RunToTheFinish said...

Man I thought watching for cars while running was bad, this is just ridiculous!

David H. said...

The crazy woman probably was on the phone or worried about something else in the van. Bad drivers confuse me ... there's no reason for something like this at all! But it's America, give anyone a license!