Watch out on the Roads
12/23/2003 05:02 p.m.
Speaking of cars, in my previous journal entry, it’s frightening how people use them! Perhaps it’s a season of too much on their minds, I don’t know, but we in our family have just had two very close calls and feel blessed, after the anger and concern, to be fine.

Sunday night was my husband’s fifty-fourth birthday and our son and his fiancé hosted it at their new apartment. We had a lovely evening, informal and cozy, over pizza, cokes and coffee. The drive out through their Glebe area to go home, around 9 pm, was exquisite, the balconies lit up on the large old houses, and we passed some lovely old churches and a boarded skating rink (not so many in town as there used to be, and my son will be delighted, it’s not far from his place). We drove to the west end, after dropping off our daughter for her fun in the Glebe, and dropped my mother-in-law at her home in Nepean (now called Ottawa). Everything was going smoothly on a not-bad-driving night, a little snow from the morning’s addition on the ground, no problem, and had just done the hill down Churchill Avenue near Richmond Road, a familiar stretch for us, barely any traffic. Then a car at a little side street we pass all the time, suddenly was charging toward us, (having done its stop at the stop sign, my husband says, though I didn't think it had) but then proceeding straight into us at a fair speed). I don’t know after that, I shut my eyes, when I saw him coming, to broadside my side of the car, but my husband being the driver, swerved over to the wrong side of the road to escape the collision. There wasn't time to rely on the horn to alert the other driver. I saw when I opened my eyes, surprised we were still here, even, that we had completely crossed the centre line. Fortunately there’d been no on-coming traffic for a head-on.

We looked behind to see the offending car but it was gone, its driver not even stopping to see how we were. We pulled over, to compose ourselves and re-welcome life, for a few minutes. I know when my husband does this, it was a very close call. We hadn’t had a single drink of alcohol, and the roads were a bit slippery, but we think he must have been into something for sure! Or had too much on his mind. As with all near-experiences like this, I felt so content to be fine, and not to have given our kids and family a tragedy on a birthday especially, or at Christmas, but at any time. There’s been one in this family years ago and it never really leaves you.

When I was telling our daughter the next day, she was very moved and relieved, and then told her recent near-accident the day after ours. As a pedestrian, crossing at a light at a downtown street, she'd checked for traffic, when a car right-turning the corner almost ran over her foot. She jumped away just in time. She said he didn’t stop afterward either. She couldn't imagine how he couldn't see her. It left her very upset and angry that he didn’t look for pedestrians. She knows, having lived in Montreal, that pedestrians have to be careful and not take for granted drivers will give you the right of way, so she is. I was so relieved to hear how well it turned out after that call, because at the bank last week our investment advisor we’ve known for years, told us her son, a fine student in the same university as our daughter, had his foot run over by a hit-and -run driver recently. He ended up with physio, on crutches, and with an operation, and had to have his exams deferred and is at the point of trying to get into a tough program for medical courses. That driver was eventually charged.

We all know the fragility of life and health and that out of the blue, forgive the cliche, our routine and regular lives can be disrupted, or destroyed in a moment. While this is always a wake-up call, it makes us put things like rushing and demands on ourselves in perspective again. But there is no need for the slap-happy craziness at the wheel, and the lack of responsibility when you known you’ve done or almost done, a terrible offence. The least one can do is check on the people you put at risk. Or injured, as the law stipulates.
I am currently Dumbfounded
I am listening to CBC radio