One Second

I have debated over the last day whether I was going to share this story openly online. Originally, I was going to and then started to debate myself. In the end, I decided that this could serve as a cautionary warning to others and so; here we go.

(As a heads up to this story, I am currently physically fine. Mentally, I am still a little shook.)

Last Wednesday evening after attending a meeting downtown, I was struck by a motor vehicle as I was legally crossing a crosswalk. This occurred at around 9:25pm in the evening and I was wearing light colored clothing.

I was about halfway through the intersection and had looked down to make sure that the road was even and nothing would be a problem to get back up onto the sidewalk. In a literal blink of an eye; the world, the road, that I had been looking at was filled with a black car. My arm and hand struck his passenger side mirror first, soon followed by the rest of my body, primarily my left side. After the point of impact, the driver had slowed to make sure that I was still alive and then drove off, realizing what they had done.

I did a quick assessment and saw that the crosswalk light was still illuminated, the time, and if anything was broken. Although I was in a lot of immediate pain, I could tell that nothing was broken. I did not feel safe in that immediate moment. I felt vulnerable. I was scared. I chose to continue the next few blocks to my car and sought the help of my friends to calm me down. After an hour, I was mentally stable enough to drive home.

Initially, I didn’t tell anyone because I wanted to make sure that I was truly physically fine before I began to tell people about the incident. Mentally, is another issue. The past week, I have been haunted by the incident. The sights and sounds of my own body coming in contact against the side of a moving car have been recalled unwillingly repeatedly. Memories so vivid that they can turn the viewing of a farce into a tragedy.

If you have seen me in the last week and asked how I was doing, the real answer laid buried behind my eyes. No, I was not fine. But I didn’t have the words to share that.

So why share this story now? For elicited sympathies? No. I am sharing this as a cautionary warning on two fronts. First, there is a major event in my city starting tomorrow evening. There will be a lot of people; both on the street and in cars. People will be distracted by the dancing lights. People will be distracted on the street and distracted in their cars. Be alert. Be careful. You can do everything right and still get hit by a car. Never assume that just because you are following the rules that you won’t get hurt.

Second, I fully believe that the driver was distracted. Were they on their phone? Who knows. This is my plea to put the phones down while you are driving. Distracted driving is incredibly dangerous.

I have thought a great deal over the past week about the events of that evening.  How incredibly different my life could have been if I had been walking, even milliseconds faster. If I had walked less than a second faster and that driver would have hit me dead on (pun intended). With how distracted they were and the speed they were going, they would have likely run me over.

One second is the difference between me writing this now and someone else writing this about me.

I don’t want people to be scared to go to the city. This sort of incident could happen anywhere. I just want people to become more aware. Use my story as a lesson. Stay alert of your surroundings. Look out for each other. Be kind.