Someone just very nearly killed me.

[EnchantedAutumn]

I haven't had such an experience before, and feel quite shaken.

We were out walking early this afternoon along the canal side. At a road bridge we stood at the crossing and waited for the traffic to stop to allow us to pass.

Half way over the crossing a vehicle sped up from the other side and missed me by about an inch. We were extremely visible and there were no large vehicles blocking the driver's view. Very few cars about actually.

This was so quick and it was almost speeding, so extremely shocking. Other drivers stopped and asked me was I ok, whilst DH spun around like a drama queen very very angry, whilst I tried to catch the registration - sadly could not get it all.
Dh was so upset, although I felt a little numb. I saw it as a very lucky thing to still be alive, but also angry that someone could change or end my life so brutally and easily in a fraction of a second.
I choose to presume that the driver was distracted, rather than happy to slaughter me, but it still feels so shocking.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? It was so, so close it has really knocked me. I doubt I would have survived had it hit me.
A sudden shock like this is probably common, and yet the idea of my life changing suddenly due to disease or accident feels easier to bear than someone just casually mowing me over.

If something similar has happened to you, how did you process it? I feel much better a few hours later, but still really weird.

It is worth mentioning, remain careful. Both whilst driving and walking.

I remember an man being aggressive and speeding up at 2 women crossing the road to frighten them. Except 1 was pregnant and couldn't run so he ended up hitting them both and killing one of them.

I was stopped in my car at a junction the other week when some stupid cow in a 4x4 (that had never seen any mud or been off road) decided she was going to cut the corner at speed, and nearly went straight into me. I saw her again a couple of days later and she was driving at speed down the middle of the road, taking up both sides, without a care in the world.

My brother was knocked over by someone going through a very red light at a pedestrian crossing and ended up in intensive care, so I loathe people who go through on red lights.

@MisdemeanorOnTheFloor I think there’s something about cars that gives people who have little to no power or authority in day to day life, some kind of power trip. So tiny little arseholes think speeding up to scare or kill someone daring to come into their space is completely normal and acceptable rather than the psychotic behaviour it actually is.

I was waiting to cross the road at a crossroads. There were about eight people waiting to cross. A car which wanted to turn right had pulled forward of the pedestrian crossing, but couldn't complete the turn because the road to the right was backed up.

All the lights went to red and the green man came on. Four of the people were crossing diagonally and started to cross in front of the car. An elderly couple, plus myself, pushing DS in his pushchair, started to cross the crossing, which was behind the car. The driver, seeing people crossing in front, suddenly reversed. I managed to swing the pushchair out of the way and the old man hit the car with his walking stick, and it stopped. I ended up with torn shoulder muscles from swinging the pushchair.

DH said that I shouldn't have used the green man crossing if it meant going behind a car. He said I should have gone round the front of the car. But surely the driver should have checked the mirror before reversing onto a green man crossing?

I was taking my DS to primary school for an evening event and the last road we needed to cross was the pelican crossing outside the school. I pushed the button to stop the traffic and started crossing once the green man showed. Suddenly out of nowhere a car went through the red light inches in front of me, dived around the roundabout a few yards further up and into the school car park.
As soon as I had gained my composure I walked through to the car park where he was unloading his DJ equipment and gave it to him both barrels. He admitted he hadn't seen me. It was only my quick thinking of stepping back that stopped us being run down.

Someone almost ran myself and my dog over a few weeks ago at a crossing just after a roundabout outside of a public park/childrens park. We live in an area where people use our streets as a way to get to a motorway entrance by avoiding main roads. They are usually commuting and rushing. The city council has put in mini roundabouts and a low speed limit to stop people from going fast past the childrens park and to let people cross. The person that day did not appreciate having to let 3 people go first at the roundabout, saw me start to cross and accelerated fast and deliberately. I was livid and still am.

Sorry to hear this, OP. It’s really not nice.

When DD1 was tiny, I was pushing her along a footpath next to a carpark (separated by wire fence). My niece and nephew (5 and 7) and my DM were with me. A car shot across the car park, through the fence and into the wall on the far side of the footpath. Had this happened a few seconds earlier, it would have hit us.

In the moment, we just did all the practical things. Called an ambulance, calmed down the driver and stayed until the police came and took statements. It was later on that the shock hit and 9 years later I still have dreams where I have to make a decision about whether to push DD’s buggy hard (towards a quiet ish road) in order to avoid her being hit. Horrible.

huh? crossings are horizontal ie across the road
not over a bridge

Bridges go over rivers and large streams.

OP, I recommend you get some hypnosis if you have any ill effects mentally afterwards. That helped me.

I was a pedestrian and hit by a mum driving her kids to the same school in the morning. There’s no pavement as it’s a rural road and I was walking legally at the side of the road. The car door mirror hit my backpack (son’s school bag) and I was thrown in the air. Luckily, she missed my 8yr old who was walking in front of me. I suspect she was on her phone as she should have easily seen me otherwise.

I suffered whiplash, damage to clothes and footwear but only minor injuries, thankfully. For a couple of years, I couldn’t walk anywhere on my own, especially a supermarket car park as I was forever hearing cars driving up behind me and I felt panicky.

What annoyed me the most was that SHE made it all about her.
A couple of teachers stopped and came to help and she started crying hysterically and attention seeking even though I was the one lying on the ground in pain and feeling v cold as it was November. The police were called and an ambulance etc.

She was charged and opted to go to court and plead not guilty. It took ages to get to court. In court she did the hysterics again and got a lot of sympathy from the older male judge, god knows how, and he fined her €100 and 6 points which was the minimum penalty for that charge. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thankfully, I got a decent payout via the insurance, otherwise, I’d have struggled to accept how she managed to turn it around all the time so that she was the ‘poor victim’. Grr.

Texting at the wheel is my guess

What a horrible experience. I hope you are feeling ok, OP, although I expect the incident will be very present in your mind for at least a few days. Many years ago a car nearly ran me down when I was in the middle of a road, crossing with the “green man”. It was frightening and very distressing to feel that someone just didn’t give a damn. The feeling comes back to me when I think about even after all those years - I really sympathise with you. It will be difficult for your husband too. Is there any chance that CCTV of a Ting doorbell caught the incident?

Oh God it still plays on my mind sometimes. At a crossing just passed a corner. A smallish car speeding around the corner not expecting a crossing very nearly hit me. He missed me by an inch, I could see the stubble on his chin and his three passengers very clearly. If I had taken one more step into the crossing I'd be dead or very seriously injured at best. Worst thing was he didnt even try to avoid me, he couldn't, he had no time to, no space to.

And in a town centre on a Thursday late afternoon where speeding isnt really an option. OP just talk it out until it loses most of its potency and then itll just crop up in random times in your head, but talking it out will lose most of the drama of it.

Yes, I was crossing a quiet street when a 4 by 4 driven by a small woman, I could see she was, hurtled round the corner at high speed,and nearly killed me. She didn't even notice me. It left me shaken and sick. Nobody else was near. It's years ago, but I still remember, and it was utterly terrifying.

Op I feel you. 28 years ago I was on a camping trip with the girl guides in the New Forest. - the guiders for whatever reason decided to take us on a night hike with no torches or high-viz. we were in the middle of the road crossing it when 2x boy racers were coming straight for our group- someone shouted run and it all turned into carnage- I woke up next to the girl who had been hit by the car (she had a broken pelvis) and I was covered in brushes from my neck down to ankles where she had landed on me.
It took years for me not to panic when crossing roads and I still take my time now.
hope you’re ok and have a large glass of wine to help with your nerves!

Sort of, but not really the same.
I was out marathon training years ago, and a car approach slowly as I was going to cross at a junction, so I slowed too in order to run behind him. He shoved it straight into reverse as I was behind him & then jumped on his breaks. Probably to scare me - I just slapped his boot, gave him an expletive nickname and run off.
Some people are just arseholes, and I’m ok with meeting them at their level.

At a road bridge we stood at the crossing

my only point was that poor road planning to have a pedestrian crossing over a road bridge

I’m sorry that happened to you. That sounds terrifying!

A few months ago, I was pushing my son in a pushchair and was crossing the road at a four-way stop intersection where it is the law for cars to come to a full stop and look before proceeding themselves (not in the UK). We did this walk every day, as it’s the route to access a beautiful river path. We waited for ages before all approaching cars stopped and signalled to us to cross. I checked around us again and set off across the road. A truck decided the law doesn’t apply to him. He was speeding and blew through the very obvious stop sign. Fortunately, I was still looking and stopped in the middle of the road, pulling my son back so the pushchair was clearly out the way. The truck noticed us then and emergency braked in the middle of the intersection. I managed to get his number plate and reported him to the police. It shook me up for ages thinking about what could have happened to my baby, and to this day, I feel anxious any time my DH or my son’s grandparents take him for a walk that way.

Has anyone seen the video that was doing the rounds on social media. It looks like school pick up/drop off and a family start to cross at a zebra crossing with traffic stopped for them. A couple of little kids are on scooters and scooting across and get to just past the traffic stopped on their right, when an impatient twat in a seat Leon pulls out from behind the queue to overtake the traffic stopped at the zebra. Almost hits the little kids who are saved by dads quick reflexes.

Horrible video, I hope police caught up with him.

But also, watch any dashcam compliations on YouTube and you can see the dire state of driving in this country. It's shocking.

You wouldn't think people would do this, that they'd realise how desperately dangerous it is to take their eyes off the road. But I saw it happen too.

Van driver, phone held on steering wheel
Lollipop lady, standing in the road with lollipop planted
Kids starting to cross the road
Outside an infant school
At twenty to nine in the morning

You couldn't make it up. He almost took out the lollipop lady, fortunately no kids out on the road yet but moments later there would have been.

I would support a campaign for lollipop people to wear body cameras

So sorry op 😢 have a glass of wine.
Most drivers these days are useless and quite frankly shouldn't be allowed a car or be on the road.
The new rules on letting pedestrians cross at junctions is rarely followed too.

Frequently, probably a near miss that brings me to tears every other month.

I have stopped making eye contact with people driving cars; there is no information to be gained. I decided this after three events in quick succession:

• a dad in my kid's class driving round a corner at the traffic lights holding his mobile phone to his ear, weeks after the ban came in. With his son in the front passenger seat. Next to a police station.
• a neighbour driving through a red light on the pedestrian crossing nearest our houses. A mum on the other side yanked her daughter back, both narrowly missing certain death.
• another neighbour driving around a parked car (in her lane) onto my side of the road, forcing me on my bike into a brick wall; I avoided the wall but skidded on the black ice that I had been carefully avoiding. Managed to stay upright until just after she'd gone; she came back to help me get up.

I decided I don't want to know if my neighbours are trying to kill me, so stopped making eye contact with people driving cars. You have my utmost sympathy - it is really very horrible. I don't understand how anyone can be so horrible to another human being.

Happened to me once. A police car on blue lights speeding round a blind corner with no sirens in the dead of night.

15 years later I still remember it exactly.

Life can be short.

I was front passenger and nearly went through the windscreen as I'd stupidly but instinctively taken my seat belt off. The car Infront had gone straight into a HGV (driver had a stroke) and we were emergency stopping and I was ready to get out and help the people in the car when we were hit from behind.

It was over a decade ago and I'm still not quite over it.

This happened to my child when he was three. Another inch and he could have been killed by a car. I was very shaken up about it and did report it but the police weren't interested in knowing about it and said they couldn't investigate CCTV because it happens all the time.

Edited to add, in our case the driver jumped the lights and we were on a pedestrian crossing, crossing with the green man. It was awful.