An accident (not me)
Fascinating observations in light of the previous post.
As it’s Tuesday, after I got home from my client’s office, I walked over to Copley Square Farmer’s Market. On the way home, I was waiting for the light (on foot) at a particularly bad intersection in my neighborhood. It’s especially bad because it’s a big, wide street onto which the high speed turnpike exits. A bunch of people started crossing against the light as is common there.
One particularly oblivious girl, complete with iPod, paying no attention whatever, stepped right out in front of a bike. He yelled “Red Light!”, but being iPod impaired, she did nothing and got slammed and thrown to the ground pretty hard. There was no way he could have avoided her. If it had been a car, she’d be dead.
She was dazed and bleeding a bit from the chin. People were there right away to help her up and asking if she was okay. No one asked him even though he went down just ask hard and was bleeding from the knee. Who knows what shape his bike was in. He did ask her how she was, several times. She said she was okay, but clearly she was dazed (you could almost feel the hit). I handed her her sunglasses and she took off for the T. I asked if he was okay, he said yes, so i left.
The basic fact is: She stepped off the curb, against the light, right into oncoming traffic and got hit. Had this been a car, it would have been a “tragic accident” and the driver would receive sympathy and possibly counselling for the psychological trauma he sustained. But as it was a bike, he’s automatically judged at fault and vilified before it’s even known if he’s broken a bone. (Broken collarbones are common in an accident like this.)
What’s interesting is this:
- Everyone assumed immediately that the bike was at fault whether they saw what happened or not. The looks of hatred were palpable.
- Not a single person (aside from me) asked how he was or whether he was hurt.
- Before he even got off the ground, three people were yelling at him that he should have been wearing a helmet. (And exactly how would that have averted this accident? It seems to me if the girl is going to walk out into traffic paying no attention, it is she that should wear the helmet.)
- Two people started literally screaming at him for running a light. He had not. She crossed against the light. I know because I was there beside her waiting for the light to change when she stepped off the curb. The people yelling at him had also crossed against the light, so it’s particularly telling that they would be yelling the way they were.
So, clearly, where bikes are concerned, people see what they want to see, not what actually happened. I have to admit I was a little taken aback by the visceral hatred displayed there. It really opened my eyes. I honestly thought the haters were just the Howie Carr sort of people who hate everything. I was wrong. Little old ladies with Free Tibet bumper stickers on their Priuses are just as likely to display this behaviour.
What does it all mean? I’m not sure. What I saw makes it much less likely that I’ll listen to any anti bike complaints, since it’s now crystal clear that people see what they want to, and not what actually is.
