Assuming cars will stop at crosswalks

[FC]

Flamesuit on, yadda, yadda, yadda.

No victim bashing here, but I am constantly amazed by how frequently pedestrians will go into a crosswalk (or simply jaywalk!) and assume a car(s) will slow down or stop for them.

I must admit that anytime I hear of someone getting struck, I wonder how many accidents could have been avoided by the mentality I use (forged in the fires of urban Lima), of "every car is trying to kill you."

Heck, a couple of years ago I was walking Henry with our two boys on a bright summer day after work. So that is three humans with bright shirts on and a yellow lab. We waited at an intersection until all cars stopped. As we were crossing, the car to our right starting moving towards us. I recall thinking "wow, that driver is impatient. He really has to eat up the 25' of intersection as we cross?" only to realize he wasn't slowing down. He never did. I pulled all three boys back and started yelling at the guy. He came within a foot of me. He looked totally out of it. Like we had sprung out of nowhere. Clearly driving in zombie-mode, he had stopped due to routine, but never actually looked at the intersection. He was driving quite leisurely too. If I wasn't looking for all the cars that could want to kill me, we would have been hit.

I still milk the hell out of that experience (and that of a classmate of theirs who was hit and killed along with his dog while crossing with his dad in a crosswalk) to remind my kids to never trust any car to slow down or stop.

Anyhow, how frequently people trust complete strangers and their ability to focus, pay attention, have skills, and be sober just blows my mind.