Last night, July 19, when it was still light out, my husband, myself and our special needs daughter went out for our evening walk. We were on the tail end of it, waiting at the crosswalk intersection of Watson/Promontory and Vedder to cross over to the Shoppers Drug Mart side and walk two blocks to home. We waited for the walk signal, looked to the left behind us and looked across to the potential oncoming turning traffic. It was safe to cross; we were clearly visible – or so we thought.
My husband was a couple feet ahead of my daughter and I, and we were trailing behind just barely in the middle of the crosswalk, when out of nowhere I hear this loud diesel engine to the left of me. I turn quickly to see this oversized black truck coming at me and my daughter.
My husband saw the black truck at the same time and thought it was going to drive around us and not through us. He quickly turned around and yelled “Hey!” to the driver, who immediately put his brakes on.
It is possible that if it were not for my husband being so quick to react the driver of that big oversized truck would have driven right over us.
We walk every evening and use the crosswalks for safety reasons. This is not the first time that drivers were not paying attention when crossing through pedestrian marked crosswalk areas and simply drove straight through while my daughter and I were just inches away from their vehicle.
Please, I am urging all drivers to take the time to slow down, look both ways and pay attention when driving through crosswalks or when you see people wanting to cross to the other side of the street, and you the driver is not paying proper attention – too impatient and in a hurry to go elsewhere or home. We too want to get home alive.
It won’t kill you to slow down, but it may kill me and my family.
Tamara Peterson