I almost died last week, I think. I was at a meeting in Nashville and had gone out for a morning walk. Needing to cross a very busy downtown street, I pushed the button to wait for the walk signal. I kept waiting as the cars whizzed by on the narrow street, their wheels nudging the curb. As I waited for what seemed like an interminably long light, I had time to be amazed at how fast Nashville drivers went on such a crowded street.
Finally, I saw the pedestrian across the street from me begin to cross. And thereby was my near-fatal mistake. I looked at him walking across the street and assumed that the light had changed. My foot swung into the street, into the path of oncoming traffic. At the last nanosecond before my weight shifted and I was committed to following that foot into the street, I realized that the cars were still coming at top speed. I fell backwards as a car barely grazed my shin. The light had not changed, but the man across the street had decided to duck between the cars. He looked at me oddly as I staggered, trying to regain my balance and my breath. And then he kept walking on his way.
How could I be so careless? My problem was that, only for a moment, I looked at the actions of the person across from me, rather than the light itself. Seems like that’s probably not the first time someone has gotten into trouble for that exact same reason. . .
