a forlorn day

saw a horrible accident today. a young woman delivering pizza on foot, darted between traffic, didn't look in both directions before she ran across the street - never even gave the driver a chance.

i can remember it vividly - the woman's bare legs (must've been wearing shorts or a skirt) were struck first, she stumbled a bit, then her body was slammed against and carried on top of the windshield. the vehicle came to an abrupt stop, and the woman's body flew off the windshield, over my car, and landed a few feet behind my rear bumper. i could see her laying there on the concrete, on her stomach, with her left cheek on the road. her shirt had flown up, so i could see her ribs. thank god she was breathing.

i fumbled for the brakes and was getting ready to get out of the car, but chin (passenger/coworker) was having a panic attack, covering his eyes and wailing "oh my god!" he didn't want to stop and kept saying, let's go, let's get out of here. so i drove him the short distance back to work, and walked back to the scene to give my statement to the police (officer batty).

it was totally pedestrian negligence. the crosswalk was only a few feet away. yeah, it was a few steps further from where she needed to cross, but this is freakin los angeles! there isn't a moment where you could even begin to THINK there's nobody else on the road. there's ALWAYS traffic even when last you looked, all was clear.

when i gave my statement, a shop owner/employee was standing outside and told the police that the pedestrian was delivering pizza to their shop and she habitually darts through traffic without using the crosswalk.