It’s true. I almost hit a kid with my car today.
I was driving down Castle Drive as school was letting out at Cynthia Mann Elementary School. The flashers were flashing and I had slowed down to 20 MPH. As I approached the cross walk in front of the school I’m watching the activity. Kids standing on the sides of the road waiting to cross, some with parents some without. Another kid with a vest and a stop sign is standing there waiting to jump into action. It seems everyone was waiting on the kid with the sign to get things going. Well, he did. Without judging the distance between myself and the crosswalk, this crossing guard starts walking out in front of traffic holding up the sign as if it could stop anything. I was close enough that when he stepped off the curb I started to wonder if he actually intended on stopping traffic. Again, I was close. So close that my brain was figuring out if it was safer to try and stop or if it was safer to keep going. I decided to step on the brakes. Going 20 MPH doesn’t make your tires skid when you hit the brakes, but it does make any loose objects in your car go forward. Loose objects went forward.
I was surprised that he did this and a little angry as well. I let out an “Oh, come on”. My window was cracked and he heard it. So did some of the parents. One in particular started dragging her daughter through the crosswalk. She was giving me this grin as if she relished in my surprised anger. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw one car stopped behind me. There was a gap between that car and the ones still approaching. The little boy needed to shoot for the gap.
My anger at the crossing guard quickly faded when I put everything in perspective. At that point I became angry at the woman in the crosswalk. She is an adult and was standing just a few feet from the crossing guard when he and his sign stepped out into oncoming traffic. She didn’t seem to mind. She said nothing. She ignored it. She acted as if this is the way it is. I would expect an adult to be a bit more responsible and worry about the safety of the children. I thought about stopping and saying something but felt that the current mood I was in would not help any. I didn’t notice any teachers monitoring the little boy. Are these kids monitored? I don’t know. One little girl down the road a bit doing crossing guard duty had an adult with her, but I don’t recall seeing any teacher/adult monitoring this little boy.
The little boy is not at fault even though my initial reaction was towards him. He needs to be watched and corrected if he makes mistakes. I make them and don’t expect perfection from others, but, when a persons well being is on the line, especially a child’s, there should be some oversight.
