Dear Editor,
A couple of days ago, I was almost killed 鈥� on a crosswalk on a dry afternoon.
96th Avenue ends at a T-intersection at Glover Road in Fort 91原创. On the north side of this three-way intersection is a crosswalk marked by white lines on Glover Road. There are also two unlit stick-people crosswalk signs on the sidewalks at either end.
So I鈥檓 about five feet into the crosswalk, walking west.
My head is on a swivel, as I watch each driver of the three stopped vehicles to make sure none of them are moving. I鈥檓 as nervous as a cat in a kennel full of dogs.
The cars going north and south on Glover Road are both stopped.
There鈥檚 a truck stopped at the stop sign on 96th.
I鈥檓 crossing.
Suddenly, the truck guns his motor and moves his vehicle into the intersection.
He鈥檚 a full-sized transport truck with a full load of construction lumber.
My eyes bug out. I can鈥檛 believe what they鈥檙e telling me.
The truck is bearing down on me as fast as he can. He鈥檚 about to smash into me with the middle of his front bumper. I break into a run 鈥� and barely manage to avoid getting hit.
I stop and stare at the driver going past, a couple of feet away from me.
His eyes are bugged out too. He鈥檚 also terrified, staring back at me.
He beetles his way out of Fort 91原创.
This driver, who had been patiently waiting at his stop sign for the traffic on Glover to clear, saw an opening, a break in the traffic on Glover Road, and went for it. He didn鈥檛 even see me 鈥� a six-foot, overweight guy on a crosswalk in the middle of the day.
This particular intersection 鈥� at Glover and 96th 鈥� needs a stop sign going north on Glover and another one going south. Relying on some goofy crosswalk to stop traffic is a recipe for disaster.
With all the gangs of little children I see crossing that intersection 鈥� and the speed of the traffic on Glover 鈥� I鈥檓 expecting our first fatality there any day now. If I hadn鈥檛 been blessed with catlike reflexes, that person would have been me. And today, almost the same thing happened again.
Peter Kravchuke, Fort 91原创
