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I'm not going to respond to all the machismo talk in the posts. The plain fact that most posters seemed to ignore is that the driver came mere inches from killing people! Everyone seems to be focusing on what happened after the "almost" accident. I don't know what my response would have been (as a female) but I sure as hell wouldn't have just spit and kept walking. I would have given the driver a angry diatribe or had one of the others I was with stand in front of the car while I wrote down the liscense plate number.
Most of you seem to think that the incident was no big deal because no one was hurt. I see it as, that could have been my husband or sister crossing the street and just like a coin toss, a 50/50 chance, nothing could have come of it (like the thread starters outcome) or they could be dead and gone from my life forever. I don't know the ideal solution but it is definately not a choice between inflaming the reckless driver or ignoring them, somewhere in between.
One of the very few times I've been ashamed in my life was last winter. I ran up to the corner grocery, shopped quickly and got back in the car. I drive like a granny in a parking lot so I backed out very slow. Just before I put the car in drive, I flipped the dash defrost/floor mix on high. Between the time I cranked the knob, put the car in drive, and started to straighten out and pull forward, my windshield had instantaniously fogged up. I almost ran into an elderly man that was crossing in front of me (I obviously couldn't see him).
It was my hubbies car that I wasn't used to (no excuse, I should have educated myself) and I had been in the store so briefly I hadn't even thought of the situation. I stopped just in time, rolled down the window and embarrassingly appologized to the poor guy. He, understandably, was pissed off and was cursing me so much he didn't even hear my words. I was only going about 5 or 6 mph., basically moving on idle. Would I have killed the man? Who knows. I very well could've, the elderly are more fragile than the young. It was not reckless driving on my part, would've been a complete accident if I'd hurt or killed the man, but I still would have been responsible for the injury or death. It was a totally unforseen situation but I still felt like an asshole. I should have waited to see what the car was going to do based on the weather before I backed out.
My point is that we all take on responsibility when we get behind the wheel of a car. Own up to that responsibility and don't abuse it. I realize this thread is about 3 mths. old but I didn't see it when it was created so I'm responding now that it's been resurrected.
Ali
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'Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun, The frumious Bandersnatch!'--Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll
"You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late."--Ralph Waldo Emerson
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