Got hit by a car today - don’t text and drive, folks.

[Sa Calobra]

Sorry to hear this Matt! Glad you're ok, that's what counts..and secondary, that you weren't wearing that Ed White

 

[MRC]

MtV

I guess a combination of texting, listening to music and possibly a general lack of sensory perception related to the driving of a car? I don't know. I remember back when I was 18 my mom borrowed my car once and happened to drive past me in the city, doing about 50kph or so in 1st gear. She just forget to change gears and didn't notice something was wrong, despite the old little engline screaming at 6000rpm. Some people just aren't made for this, it seems.

My mum who learned to drive in her 50s only changed gear when someone told her to. While she was learning and I was the monitoring driver I said that it was like changing gear on a bicycle. She told me she never changed gear on her bicycle which had a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed. She was terrified of how I drove my Mini-Cooper S but could not judge speed visually, only by looking at the speedometer. So I took the speedo out and moved the needle down by 20mph. She was happier then.

 

[stormysky10]

What an awful driver Getting hit by a car is one of my worst fears. Glad to hear you were able to walk away from this in one piece.

 

[gbesq]

I'm relieved that you are ok and enraged that the driver would display such a casual attitude about an incident like this. I agree with others that texting while driving isn't going away and that fines, points and even license suspensions aren't going to be enough to stop it. For that reason, and others, I'm very much in favor of requiring automobile manufacturers to equip all new cars with pedestrian detection systems that stop the car automatically when the system detects an imminent collison between the car and a pedestrian and the driver fails to activate the brakes. These systems have useful applications beyond just avoiding collisions between cars and pedestrians. My car has saved me twice from relatively high speed collisions with deer - a common and serious hazard in my neck of the woods (the woods being filled with deer). One of the two incidents happened at night in fog. The car's radar and cameras detected the deer on the road before I could even see it and brought the car to a quick, but safe stop. Saved my behind, the deer and probably what would have been collision damage that would have either totaled the car or cost thousands of dollars to repair. I'm completely sold on the technology. Truly amazing.

Edited: Nov 13, 2022

 

[TheSuccessPlug]

Glad you made it out alive and safely