1/4 second

A quarter second more could have been the difference between a bad situation and a tragic one I was involved in yesterday. At lunch time I go to the gym everyday. Employees have to park in an adjacent church parking lot. I walked out to my car and pulled around to the exit. I looked left and then right and then left again. There was a ton of traffic coming so I waited for awhile, intently looking for a small hole to pull out into. Finally it came and I took my foot off the brake and onto the gas, turned my head and saw a person on a bike right in front of my car! I instantly stopped but the guy on the bike bumped the bumper and took a tumble. I backed up and got out. I was freaked out, I didn’t know how bad he was hurt and was stunned that I almost ran the guy over. He was a mexican guy that didn’t speak much english. Another guy that was up the sidewalk saw it and came running down with cell phone in hand. I told the mexican guy I was sorry and I didn’t see him. I asked him if he was ok. His ankle was bruised up but he could walk. The guy that came up asked him if he wanted us to call for help or take him to a doctor. The mexican said no, no. We asked him several times and he wanted no part of getting someone involved, I suspect he may have been an illegal. So he limped off down the sidewalk. The other guy said “Well he left I guess there is nothing else we can do” It was awkward. I felt like shit as I watched the guy continue to hobble down the sidewalk pushing his bike.

As I got back into my car and went onto my way to the gym and throughout the entire workout, I dwelled on what happened and wondered if I should have taken him to a doctor and how just a fraction of a second longer and I could have ran the guy over or knocked him into oncoming traffic. It really freaked me out. When I left the gym I looked at the front of the car and there wasn’t a mark on the bumper but he knocked the animal siren thing off. Did this guy demonstrate good bike safety by riding in front of a car that was waiting to pull out into traffic with a driver whose head was obviously turned the opposite direction? No, but the bottomline is I should have glanced back right before pulling out. I was a very lucky person yesterday.