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RE: [PLUG] WAYYYY Off Topic.... [Speeding Ticket]DOOH!!
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I've been hit twice:
Once (1998) while crossing in a cross walk (a-hole ran a red light) in
Philly. I wasn't injured (rolled over the hood of the car...saw it coming
and sorta got over the front fender and wasn't hit by the full impact.
Still hurt like hell, though.
Once while cycling (1981) in suburbia...as an a-hole in a Corvette didn't
bother to stop for the stop sign at the bottom of the 309 offramp. I hit
him broadside (I was doing close to 25 and had right of way), flew over his
car with bike shortly thereafter. He started yelling at me like it was my
fault rather than seeing if I was okay. His lovely red Corvette ended up
with a shattered hood as I jump on it repeatedly driving my heals into the
fiberglass. He drove off with me on his car and I rolled off. Yeah..I was
a bit scraped up, repaired the damage to my wheel and his car took the brunt
of the damage.
Getting too old to do this stuff on a repeated basis.
In both cases, I was unable to get the license number. The one in Philly
didn't even have a license plate.
As for the officers doing nothing...I suspect some of them don't know the
traffic laws all that well. Even a State trooper gave me the wrong answer
with regards to passing a stopped school bus on the right to make a right
turn...lights flashing red. He said it was okay provided the driver didn't
pass the front door to the bus (yeah...kids were getting on the bus). FWIW,
in accordance with State law, all vehicles are required to stop a minimum of
10 feet behind the bus when the lights are flashing red. Similarly, you
are allowed to pass to on a car turning left provided that you don't run off
the road and onto the shoulder. And, thou shalt not change lanes while
going through an intersection. How often do we see this one?
I think people get away with it because our roads aren't able to handle the
congestion caused by urban sprawl. Provided people don't do really dumb
shit, the cops will probably leave them alone as the traffic keeps moving.
And, if they stop one for doing something stupid, they probably have to stop
everybody or risk the argument that the offender was "singled" out. And, if
our courts did something about the repeat offenders rather than slapping
them on the wrist, I suspect the cops would be more effective and more of a
deterrent to the occassional law breaker.
-----Original Message-----
From: plug-admin@lists.phillylinux.org
[mailto:plug-admin@lists.phillylinux.org]On Behalf Of Fred K Ollinger
Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 10:21 AM
To: plug@lists.phillylinux.org
Subject: RE: [PLUG] WAYYYY Off Topic.... [Speeding Ticket]DOOH!!
As a bicyclist, I almost die on a a daily basis b/c a driver breaks the
law. They often do it in front of officers who do nothing. I know a lot of
bikers break lots of laws too, but I don't. Also, if a biker breaks a law
and hits a car, the driver will be fine, but the law breaking biker will
suffer bad so law breaking bikers are kind of self-correcting in a
darwinian fashion.
I have been hit before in front of many witnesses, and they didn't even go
after the driver even when the driver rammed me--yes this was a deliberate
attempt on my life for having the nerve to be in a cross walk w/ the light
in my favor when he was trying to turn.
Basically, drivers treat me as if I'm an annoyance, as if three seconds of
their time is more valuable than my life. I'm just saying this for people
to think about this next time you drive and you see a silly person who
likes to walk. Don't treat him like a lump that's in your way. That's a
human like you. I drove before, and there's something like being behind a
wheel of a car to make one forget about reality, and only about trying to
go as fast as possible.
Fred Ollinger (follinge@sas.upenn.edu)
CCN sysadmin
______________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group - http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements-http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug
______________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group - http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements-http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug
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