Yesterday a car hit me
I was crossing the street near my apartment, a street I have to cross everyday.
This street is not particularly busy, but opens onto a very busy street
[Clifton]. I was about five feet from the curb and I noticed a car coming
toward me about to turn left. The car was still about five or six car lengths
away from the stop-bar, and I knew it had to stop anyway. As I continued to
look at the car, I noticed it was traveling at a large rate of speed - on the
main street there was a long break in traffic, and I knew she wanted to hurry up
and make the turn. I then thought, "That car might not stop in time." As I
continued looking at the car, it was about two or three car lengths away, I
thought, "That bitch isn't looking ahead, and doesn't see me." And sure enough
as I looked, the woman driving the car was as twisted in the seat looking left
as she could be.
At this point I pivoted back, but was on the balls of my feet, where I could not
move backward without shuffling my feet. As I stepped back, the woman started
to turn the car toward the right, in order to make the hurried right turn.
There was no way to move any further back, without loosing my balance, and
falling under the car. At this time my body made contact with the car's
passenger's front quarter panel and the front wheel brushed my right foot, I
wind milled my right arm around and slammed my fist on the car hood trying to
get the woman in the car's attention. Yelling at this point also did not get
her attention, and it was a bit too late. The car had hit me.
At this point the car's momentum forced me into a modified pick-and-roll, as the
passenger side's side-view mirror made contact with my back. Luckily I was
about 90 degrees turned by now and it just clipped me; the car's momentum and my
pick-and-roll saved me from a side-mirror into-the-gut, which would have caused
more damage. As I finished the rotation I came around to about 180 degrees, I
used the momentum to hit the passenger-side rear quarter panel, luckily missing
the reinforced gas cap, with my right fist. This action caused a deep ding in
the car, while rendering my right fist sore today. As the total momentum caught
up with me, I ended up back at the side of the street at the curb.
At this moment I took the opportunity to yell at the driver, and use many
profane words, in my angry-authoritarian voice that I had perfected during five
years of yelling at teenagers and idiot patrons as a lifeguard. The woman, for
her part, stayed in the car and looked honestly scared, I bet she thought she
killed someone. If I was an ass, I would have dropped right there, but I think
just yelling at her and producing two sizable dings in her car was enough.
After the verbal abuse I inflicted on the woman, I walked away, and went home to
eat dinner. As I was walking away, the car slowly pulled out and the woman
finally made her left turn.
Today I feel fine, and no permanent injury occurred. But it could have, and
that is what is so mind bending. So that was my brush with semi-injury.
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This is the permanent home of Yesterday a car hit me. I wrote this post at 17:59 on November 9, 2002. This post is part of grubbykid.com, a weblog. If you liked this entry, why don't you read some other posts such as Giant Colon's unite or Center For Building Performance and Diagnostics? Or you could go to the site archives or return home. All are good choices.
