Shock, embarrassment and, shortly thereafter, pain were the emotions that crossed a young girl’s face as she picked herself off the crosswalk and wiped the blood dripping from her face. An oncoming full-sized truck had thrown her there.
As I had witnessed the altercation between this young woman and the truck, I stayed by her side and convinced her to go to the hospital. I was convinced she needed some sort of expert medical attention after hearing the audible crack her skull and other body parts made as they bounced around on the cement.
This incident helped persuade me to be extra careful while crossing the many pedestrian crosswalks that permeate this campus and supposedly provide safe travel from class to class.
Imagine my surprise and amazement when I found myself suddenly as an unattractive hood ornament on a late model low-slung black sedan. After hearing the squeal of brakes and noting the abrupt spinning motion my body made as the world revolved in a convoluted circle, I executed a very ‘Hollywood stunt girl’ gravitational slide onto the pavement.
As I lay there, the trite phrase ‘road kill’ floated around in my head. Events seemed fuzzy days afterward as I existed in a codeine-induced haze. I had refused to go in the ambulance to the hospital, but went there shortly after some very abnormal signs, such as tingling and numbness in the side of my body that got hit, told me that it was time to go.
I am almost back to normal, and my mind has had time to digest and process what has happened to me.
I realize that it was an accident, but after putting together the facts that I had witnessed an altercation a few months before and then heard of a following pedestrian automobile collision days after my own, I have a word of advice and a few suggestions.
First, I make a common sense plea to drivers around campus: do not drive over pedestrians. The phrase ‘pain and suffering’ is something you could be paying off for years.
Second, it should be the moral obligation of the MSU administration and security forces to ensure the safety of all students while on campus.
I know this problem doesn’t have the attention-grabbing power as the threat of a terrorist attack, but I felt terror as I landed near the front bumper.
Unfortunately, this threat is all too real for the rest of the campus populace.
Here is a list of proposed changes:
* Place more stop signs at crosswalks; hopefully more drivers will notice a red sign on the side of the road than the humans attempting to navigate the crosswalk.
* Charge a large fine for hitting pedestrians that could pay for the mandatory remedial driving course for inattentive drivers who hit people with their car while on campus.
* For my most extreme measure, I suggest limiting the number of through streets available to all vehicles except for those belonging to the campus.
The campus is spread out enough and students have to brave many busy streets while trying to get from point A to point B. Fewer busy streets means less chance of becoming ‘road kill.’
The human body was not made to handle a half ton of metal being rammed into it.
There will come a time when one of these human bodies will not walk away from a sudden case of being a passenger on a grill of an automobile.
At that time this educational institution could be facing a large settlement in a negligence case brought about by the bereaved family, pointing out the many cases where this facility failed to adequately secure the safety of its students and faculty.
We cannot afford such a payment both in money and in human life.
Brook Herman is a graduate student in biological sciences.