As someone working in a metropolitan city, there are many dangers we face–robbery, assault, public transit, a decent lunch, etc. The main danger though is crossing the street, especially during rush hour. One of the leading deaths to pedestrians is getting hit by a car while walking across the street.

I’ve had a few life or death experiences in my lifetime before, none though as harrowing as the one I had this morning.

I was walking up the street around 8 in the morning and started to cross the crosswalk. There was five seconds left on the light so I started a slow jog to get across faster. Out of the corner of my eye, a truck which was waiting for me to cross I assume, stepped on the gas and made his move. I had to run to my right and forward to avoid getting hit, only to pull to a stop when a second car also made the same turn. I couldn’t stop my momentum and slammed into the side of the car’s hood.

I was a bit disoriented and my adrenaline was at an all time high. Luckily though, I’ve been graced with a sturdy body and was not injured.

Life or Death Experience x2

The DMV Handbook generously provided an image for the scenario. I am the blue dot next to the arrow pointing towards the bottom left. There was most likely a second car behind the red car shown in the image as #3 and both were probably in the middle of the intersection waiting to make the turn. The sun was shining towards me, so the drivers were not blinded by any means. I guess we can just chalk this up to impatience and bad driving.

I would rank this experience in my top 3 of death-defying experiences. Also to note, the two other experiences also involved an automobile. One was at Yosemite, where an SUV’s mirror hit my arm and knocked it into the air. Amazingly, I was not injured there at all. The SUV mirror was broken though. The other was when I was a child and fell down crossing a street. A car coming up the street ran over my legs. I was not injured there as well. Because I am Gumby reincarnated.

Gumby and Horse-friend

Every experience provides a life lesson and this one was not different. In the words of Patches O’Houlihan from Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), “If you can dodge traffic, you can dodge a ball!”