Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Does an increase in pedestrian vs. car accidents in Ridgewood, NJ surprise anyone?
Ridgewood, New Jersey, an upscale NYC bedroom community, has recently experienced a huge increase in the number of pedestrian/car and bicycle/car collisions. I’m talking at least one accident involving a person and a car per month. And in the last month, three that I can recall reading about.
Some of these accidents have occurred on dark, rainy nights. But many have occurred on sunny afternoons.
At least two of these accidents have been fatal. All have caused pain and suffering.
My guess is that MANY of these accidents were caused by inattentive drivers.
What’s your guess?
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Linda Longo said,
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 11:47 am
Inattentive drivers, yes, but also rude ones! Trying to cross Ridgewood Avenue even in the crosswalks WITH signs posted that it’s against the law to hit pedestrians (ok, it actually says something more like it’s a law to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks), you STILL would stand there in the crosswalk while drivers zoomed right past you. You’d think, “Can’t they see the orange cone AND the sign at eye level AND me IN the crosswalk?”
Sadly, this was happening as far back as 10 years ago before texting and cellphones were as prevalent as they are today. This is why I think that general rudeness and self-absorption — two traits that have become so pervasive — are also to blame.