This weekend was way too interesting...

[kellinator]

Last night a little before 8 (in other words, after dark) I was driving down LaVista. The light had just turned green and I had just driven through the North Druid Hills intersection when suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, a child materialized in my headlights.

It all happened so fast. I slammed on the brakes, but there just wasn't time. The car hit the little boy and he landed on the hood, then fell down, then got up and ran off. His mother ran across the street and picked him up.

I pulled over into the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot. We were all hysterical. Luckily the couple in the car next to me saw what happened and pulled over too. They were the only calm ones in the bunch.

The little boy was okay. He just had a skinned knee and elbow. By the end of talking to the police and all he was fine, running around excitedly and telling me it was all right.

Everyone told me it wasn't my fault. Intellectually, I understand this and even agree with it. But there's a part of me that can't get past it. What kind of monster hits a child with a car? Me, apparently.

After it was all over, I just felt so damn alone. When I had my wreck in February 2001, adric and I were dating and he and his parents were terrific. He took me to the emergency room and held my hand, then his parents insisted I come over for the night so I wouldn't be alone. This time, I just wanted a shoulder to cry on, but there was none to be had in the vicinity. atomicnumber51's in San Francisco, scarcrest's in Jackson, ariedana's in Nashville, gamgee's in Austin, 10dimensions and alison_says are way the hell out in Smyrna, I couldn't get ptwarhol on the phone and I wasn't even sure if alanator was back from his trip yet.

It was just really not a good night. But I keep telling myself that it could have been so much worse...

Comments

[vill.livejournal.com]

Yipes.

I'm glad you're OK.

My first thought is actually "What kind of mother doesn't keep her child out of the street after dark?"

My cousin was backing out of a parking space once and hit a toddler who had toddled away from its mother in the parking lot. The little one was right next to my cousin's bumper and in no way visible from any mirror. The kid went onto hands and knees when hit (tapped softly enough to push him over but not hard enough for my cousin to feel any impact in the driver's seat), and none of the wheels hit him, thank goodness. My cousin, having no way of knowing anything had happened, drove on out of the parking lot and was later arrested for hit-and-run (but the charges were dropped, as no damage was done and it was clear there was no way of him knowing that the kid was there or that he had hit him).

So it could be worse, yes. I'm still glad you're OK.

[amai-unmei.livejournal.com]

My first thought is actually "What kind of mother doesn't keep her child out of the street after dark?"

I thought the same thing. Where were the parents???

re: the toddler story ... All I can think again is, "where were the parents?" It's a testament to careful driving that the kids in both scenarios were not hurt, but you have to wonder what was going in the parental units' heads. Kids need to be kept clear from cars. What's so hard to understand about that? Sheesh.

[maida-mac.livejournal.com]

Parents can't be everywhere either, but yeah, I agree. :p

Wasn't your fault, Kelly. Shit happens. *hugs*

[vill.livejournal.com]

No, they can't be everywhere, but at the same time neither my brother nor I ever ran into a street without looking, nor did we let go of our mother's hands in parking lots (unless we were riding in a stroller or a shopping cart, of course). I see WAY too many kids running through stores, off curbs, into streets with their parents just ambling along behind them nowadays, talking on their cell phones or carrying groceries and not even saying "Stop right there and wait for me."

[maida-mac.livejournal.com]

The only thing that I meant was that even the most vigilant parent occasionally has a child who runs off. My youngest has been described by a good friend as "ADD gone horribly wrong". Even being careful as hell and doing my damnedest to instill caution in him, he occasionally disappears for a few moments. :p

[azurelunatic]

Heh. Yeah. I hear that.

Fortunately, Little Fayoumis has learned caution about roads, cars, and parking lots.

He was getting really into trying to break free and run across the parking lot at one point. Then we dug out our squashed-and-bent coins from the road collection. We told him to try and bend a penny. Then we showed him the bent penny and told him it had been bent by being run over by a car.

He got the idea.

[maida-mac.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I did much the same thing with the Younger, but he still doesn't quite get it all the time. "Get back here. Get back here. Get back here NOW, young man!"

[azurelunatic]

How old is he?

[maida-mac.livejournal.com]

He'll be seven next week. A darling child, with the attention span of a gnat and a certain...lack of focus.

[azurelunatic]

Understood.

LF grokked the parking lot thing at four. He was very impressed by that folded coin.

I've babysat teenage ADHD kids. Oy.

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

Now that's a great object lesson...

[amai-unmei.livejournal.com]

I think people in general really do not have enough fear of the innate power of a 2-ton vehicle and its influence on the immediate environment: that goes for many parents, folks that talk/apply makeup/read behind the wheel, people who speed in school zones, pedestrians that just dart out in traffic outside of proper rules, etc.

Since the boy's OK, it's fine. And the parking lot incident as well ... but it's still frightening to think of all the little things people do around cars without thinking of the responsibility that comes with wielding one of the things. And in Atlanta? The boy was lucky he came across kellinator ... a lot of people would have just driven away regardless of SuperBoy's injuries. Everybody is lucky on all sides, I guess.

[maida-mac.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, people are not nearly scared enough of the power a vehicle has and the damage it can do. Stupid, but definitely so. And children have even less concern about such things, unfortunately.

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

Yes. Yes, we are.

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

Thanks, babe. *hugs*

[maida-mac.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. You've been in my thoughts a lot.

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

Thanks... that really means a lot to me.

[snowelf.livejournal.com]

*nods* I am glad everyone is okay, and yes, the kid should have been watched.

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

Thank God everyone's okay...

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

Yes. Much worse.

Something the police said to me (and I have no idea why they said this to me) was "We talked to her [the mother] a couple of weeks ago; she has a disability" -- something about the way they said it made me think it was not the most stable of situations.