To the woman
who almost hit my child: It was Monday, 5 p.m. I was walking across 303 at the Veteran's Road traffic light. You sailed through your left-hand turn, missing the stroller I was pushing that contained my 17-month old son, by what seemed like inches.
It was bad enough that by the time I recovered and reached the other side of the street, I was shaking and in tears. Bad enough that an onlooker called out, "That was terrible! Are you OK?" As it was broad daylight and I was pushing a tangerine-colored stroller through an empty crosswalk on a "walk" signal, I'm not sure there's much more I could have done to ensure our safety. I could tell that you hadn't seen us by the look of shock on your face in the split second that we made eye contact. I'm sure that you were too embarrassed to stop and apologize (and I recognize that there was no convenient place to pull over.)
But I hope that, like me, you spent the rest of the day playing that moment over and over in your mind. I hope that, like me, you couldn't stop thinking about what might have happened if I'd stepped off that curb one second earlier, if I'd walked just a little faster, if you'd turned the wheel just a hair more sharply. Above all, I hope that you never, ever make that mistake again. To everyone else: I know you're in a hurry; we all are.
Please take the two seconds required to check the crosswalk before turning. Nothing -- nothing -- is that important.
Heather Roszczyk,
Hudson
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