I saw something similar on my way to work. Some pedestrian was trying to jaywalk across a busy, high speed road. A car stopped in the middle of the road to “be polite” and help them cross. What the car and pedestrian couldn’t see was that an additional car in the next lane was going very fast and did not have visibility of the pedestrian. Their view of the pedestrian was blocked by the stopped car. And the pedestrian’s view of the fast moving car was also blocked by their position at the stopped car.
The pedestrian crossed the whole way of the road, but came maybe a foot away from being hit by the fast car. I was afraid I was about to watch someone die.
Don’t stop for people at odd places in the road unless it’s an emergency. Sometimes “being polite” for someone is actually dangerous.
Edit: I will say that there is still partial fault with ALL parties involved. If you are driving the speed limit and see a car suddenly stopped ahead in the road, slow down. You don’t know why they are stopped and there might be something in the road. But both the pedestrian and the stopped car should have done things differently.
I think there’s also an education problem. During my driver’s ed class, I was told that pedestrians always had right of way and we needed to yield to them, which is simply untrue.
I saw something similar on my way to work. Some pedestrian was trying to jaywalk across a busy, high speed road. A car stopped in the middle of the road to “be polite” and help them cross. What the car and pedestrian couldn’t see was that an additional car in the next lane was going very fast and did not have visibility of the pedestrian. Their view of the pedestrian was blocked by the stopped car. And the pedestrian’s view of the fast moving car was also blocked by their position at the stopped car.
The pedestrian crossed the whole way of the road, but came maybe a foot away from being hit by the fast car. I was afraid I was about to watch someone die.
Don’t stop for people at odd places in the road unless it’s an emergency. Sometimes “being polite” for someone is actually dangerous.
Edit: I will say that there is still partial fault with ALL parties involved. If you are driving the speed limit and see a car suddenly stopped ahead in the road, slow down. You don’t know why they are stopped and there might be something in the road. But both the pedestrian and the stopped car should have done things differently.
I think there’s also an education problem. During my driver’s ed class, I was told that pedestrians always had right of way and we needed to yield to them, which is simply untrue.