Snow was just starting to fall, but the snowplow was out already, laying down sand (and perhaps some salt) in anticipation. The truck’s headlights bored through the night, highlighting the first flakes sifting down.
As he came past me, the driver slowed and stopped. He rolled down his window. I wondered what I had done wrong.
“I just wanted to thank you,” he called out, “for wearing a reflective vest. You wouldn’t believe how many people go out at night wearing dark jeans and black jackets. I can’t see them until they’re right in my headlights.”
On winter nights, pedestrians suffer delusions of invulnerability. Because they know they’re there, they assume that an oncoming car or truck must also know they’re there.
There’s no doubt that cars and drivers may be at fault. They may be travelling too fast; or not be paying sufficient attention; or be momentarily distracted. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whose fault it is. The car weighs 20 times as much as the pedestrian. In any collision between a pedestrian and a car, the pedestrian always loses.
It’s not considered politically correct to blame victims. But in fact it’s the pedestrian who can do the most to avoid an accident.
Every pedestrian can do two things.
First, make sure drivers can see you. Dark clothing blends into dark nights. Wear light coloured pants or jackets. Better yet, wear a reflective vest. Highway workers wear them, for good reason—they save lives.
If a reflective vest offends your fashion sense, at least wear a reflective armband. Or have reflective stripes on your shoes. Pet stores have reflective collars for your dog. Bicycle stores have flashing lights you can clip onto your jacket.
Beyond reflective vests and armbands, carry a flashlight. Turn it on whenever there’s a car coming. Even distracted drivers will see a light shining in the darkness.
Second, make sure you can see the cars coming. Walk facing the oncoming traffic. If by chance a car should swerve, you still have a chance to leap out of the way. Landing in a ditch is a lot preferable to landing in hospital. Or in a morgue.
Like that snowplow driver, I am shocked how often pedestrians suddenly materialize in my headlights, walking with their backs to me.
Would anyone turn their backs to a loaded gun pointed at them? Would anyone ignore a landslide or an avalanche roaring towards them? Yet a moving car is just as lethal.
Such foolhardiness seems to me to reveal an unshakable belief in personal immortality. But even if you believe that your immortal soul will survive an accident, are you willing to risk the possibility that your mortal body might spend the rest of its life permanently disabled?
Are you willing to inflict a lifelong sense of guilt that some driver will feel about having unintentionally maimed and/or killed another human being?
When you go walking at night, wherever you live, please, make sure that drivers can see you. And make equally sure you can see them.
