i'm sitting here in shock (warning sad post)

[lorien_ca]

-
-
-
-
-
-
-
i am sitting here watching all hell break loose outside my front door. a young woman (teenager??) was crossing the street and was hit and killed in the crosswalk about 10 yards from the front of my house. there are more emergency vehicles out front than i can count. they worked on her for about 15 minutes before covering the body with a sheet. the older couple who were clearly driving the car a shaking uncontrollably under a tree across the street. the investigators are spray paining the street and taking pictures.

i have this completely sad and lost feeling at the momment even though i don't think i know the woman from the neighborhood. i had just gotten home from a walk with sam and had come in the back door when i heard the sirens out front. so there is nothing i can do to help, and i don't want to be some morbid onlooker like the crowds outside right now.

sorry to post, i'm just so lost with my feelings right now - i just have tears streaming down my face. if you're religious please give a little prayer for this woman's family tonight, if you're not, just send them thoughts for strength and peace - i am sure they will need it. and the older couple in the car as well. they are clearly devastated and this was obviously an accident.

lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[Mamma2004]

Oh Lori, I don't know what to say. I am so sorry for everything that has happened - right outside your home - and I wish we could take that sick feeling away from you.

I will keep both of those families in my prayers and I hope that you, too, will find peace.

Hugs to you,

Stephanie

[janeybwild]

Oh my gosh, how terribly terribly sad. Also, you must be so shaken up. Hugs to you.

[cmdunn1972]

Lori, I don't really know what to say. How awful! Scary as well.

My thoughts and prayers are with that woman and with you also. Hug little Sam tonight.

[bcky2]

how sad, what a horrible accident. i will keep all involved in my thoughts.

[lorien_ca]

thank you all. i think part of what has me so shaken is that this is a crosswalk i walk thru probably at least once a week, often with DS in the stroller. i know this is one of those times when i need to tell myself bad things happen all of the time and that i can't live my life by the 'what ifs', but somehow, the reality of it all is just so raw right now. there are so many great things about living right on the edge of the historic downtown area of my city, and in general, this is such a safe place - things like this just don't happen here - but i guess they do sometimes. anyway, sorry to ramble - still lost in my thoughts i guess.

whisper i love you an extra time tonight. i know i will be.
lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[JTsMom]

How very very sad. :( I'm so sorry for all involved, and for you too. I'll keep everyone in my thoughts.

[The Review Mommy]

Lori,

I know how you feel.

Out of the clear blue sky my Mom calls me up and tells me that the little boy I used to baby-sit just got hit by a car and died. He was 15 yrs old. This hit me profoundly because I could only remember his sweet 6yr old face. I had moved away from them a long time ago so I never even saw him grow up. I kept thinking "Gosh, has it really been that long...I can't believe he was 15yrs old! I wonder what he looked like, what he was like-if he was the same kind of person I remember him to be..." I can't tell you what a shock it was. I lost it right there on the phone and felt really strange for a few days.

{HUGS}
Rebekah

[Queensgirl]

How sad and tragic. I'm sorry you had to witness it and feel terrible for those involved. However, (and I hope this doesn't come off as insensitive) I get really worried when I see very elderly people driving. I've seen (and been involved) in many a close call. I know you stated it was an accident and I don't know how elderly the couple that was driving are, but, it still makes me wonder.

[brittone2]

I'm so very sorry for that woman, her family, and the drivers.

Please know my thoughts are with you tonight, and with all of the people involved.

What a reminder of how fragile life can be at times.

[buddyleebaby]

It would scare me too.
In my neighborhood we have huge problems with people blowing through the crosswalks. Seriously 90% of people don't stop.
I always pull the stroller next to me (with me between the stoller and the cars) when crossing the street because I am so paranoid. When my dh was in the hospital, I was crossing the street carrying my dd (in a crosswalk) and a woman came from down the block and turned into the crosswalk w/o signaling and beeped at me, who was in the middle of it. I ignored her and kept walking. She stopped her car and started screaming at me. I had just had it and screamed right back some not very nice things, which I have NEVER done before, but I just couldn't believe the fact hat she was yelling at me after putting my child's life in danger by ignoring traffic laws.

I do hope the woman's family can find some peace. I assume it must have been pretty bad if the ambulance crew didn't even transport.
ETC typo

[mamalou]

so sorry! hugs to you, mama. saying prayers for all involved.

[trumansmom]

I'm so sorry. I've been the second or third person at an accident sight with fatalities twice. I know that lost feeling you're talking about. Both times I left, because I felt like a gawker, and knew I had nothing to offer the victims.

Prayers coming for you and the young woman and her family. (((Hugs)))

Jeanne
Mom to Truman 11/01 and Eleanor 4/04

[mommy_someday]

Lori, I'm so sorry you had to witness any of it. What a terrible, terrible thing. Hugs to you.

I will keep her family and the elderly couple in my thoughts. :(

[lorien_ca]

thanks again for everyone's well wishes to us, but most especially for keeping those involved in your thoughts/prayers this evening. i finally just had to get out of the house this afternoon. the investigation out front was still going on 3 hours later, and i just couldn't bear to pass the front windows of the house one more time and see the body still covered in the street, so i called DH, left sam with my mom and we went for a ride up in the hills and did a few laps so i could sweat off my yuk feelings. i don't know that i will ever look out at that crosswalk and not remember today, but at least i'm not feeling quite so overwhelmed anymore.

to the pp's, she must have died instantly, because they never even got out the gurney to attempt to transport her. all of the front windows of our great room downstairs face out to the street, so i couldn't help but see the paramedics attempting to secure an airway, defibrilate and do CPR, but clearly they never got her to the point where transporting her would have made a difference. i was mostly trying not to watch as i just found the whole thing so horrific as it was basically happening in my front yard. had i not had to feed DS i probably would have been upstairs at the back of the house if i could have been. as my clinical specialty was geriatrics, i too have had concerns about some of my patients getting behind the wheel of a car in the past. this couple appeared to be in their 70's, but did not appear to have any physical impediments my trained eye could pick up from across the street - who knows about visual or cognitive tho. unfortunately, i've had many a doctor clear my patients (against my professional recommendations) to return to driving long before i felt their physical status to be what i would consider 'safe' to be on the roads with me and my family - so i don't think your post was insensative at all.

it was such a tradgedy really. i did not witness the accident, but i can't say i'm surprised in retrospect. i've seen drivers rush to make their right turn while only looking left for cross traffic and not right for pedestrians countless times and have seen many downtown pedestrians step off the curb into the crosswalk without ever looking over their shoulder to see if someone is coming up behind them to make a right. this time the oversight by both parties had a tragic outcome. i hope everyone who reads this will remember to check for a pedestrian in their blind spot to the right when making a right turn thru a crosswalk, and that when you are walking, you check for a car coming up behind and to your left before stepping off of the curb - i know i will think twice in both situations from now on.

anyway, thank you again for the support and for just letting me get it off my chest. what a day :( lori

Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[cmdunn1972]

Alicia, isn't it sad (and surprising) how impatient people can be, even when parents are taking their stroller-bound kids on a crosswalk?

I very rarely take DS to the historic part of time because parking is a pain. However, on one outing DS and I went to the bookstore, lunch, and a toystore (none of them chain places). I remember crossing the street (at a crosswalk with DS in a stroller) at some point when my sandal started to slip off right in the middle of the road. I swear did an oncoming car not only fail to slow down, but I think he sped up! Luckily, I was able to get my shoe righted again and scurry out of his way. (I never thought that a Combi City Savvy could be used as a jogging stroller, and I certainly don't recommend it be done regularly.) My comment to a woman pedestrian who saw the whole thing was, "Man! Those idiots don't slow down for anything do they? What's wrong with people?"

So, yeah, Alicia, I totally understand that fear.

[cmdunn1972]

I also think that it is (of course) important that since you are raising DS near such a dangerous intersection that you teach him how important it is to look in ALL directions before crossing, even at a crosswalk.

It might also be a good idea for your family and your neighbors to lobby for street improvements that would make that intersection safer for pedestrians. (I have heard of pedestrians getting killed from similar accidents in city settings and such changes as a traffic light for the crosswalk or barriers in the median, narrowing of the street near the crosswalk, or strategically-placed cobblestones are usually made following the incident.)

[MMEand1]

Wow Lori, sounds like you had quite a day. I hope that you are able to find peace, as well as the family of the young lady.

I witnessed both a miracle and a loss on Friday as well. I was first called upstairs to take an x-ray of a lady that had just given birth to a beautiful little boy (the mom is fine), but was called down to the ER not 2 minutes later on a lady that was coming in code blue. We took some x-rays of her, but sadly, had to stand there and watch her die.

I hope you have a much better day today.
Mariah P.