This is in response to the Sun Journal story (Feb. 1), “Bill would strengthen crosswalk law.” Per that article, in Maine, 25 percent of people hit by vehicles each year were in a crosswalk.
I would never step in front of a moving vehicle, even in a marked crosswalk, because the person behind the wheel might be on drugs, alcohol or hyped on caffeine, or might be having a heart attack, stroke or going into insulin shock; brilliant sunshine could momentarily blind the driver. Is the driver paying attention to pedestrians? Someone on foot simply cannot tell.
My own experience of watching a mother holding the hand of a three-year-old, stepping into a crosswalk in front of an oncoming vehicle and proceeding without hesitation while saying to her child, “Mommy wasn’t sure that car was going to stop,” was enlightening.
Laws against robbery, murder, rape — or even speeding — do not prevent those crimes. Does anyone honestly think that going to the time and expense of giving that statute more “teeth,” and then enforcing it, is going to prevent people from being hit?
It is time to stop legislating personal responsibility and remind people that each of us is responsible for our own safety. And it is time to take that conceptually well-meaning but dangerous statute off the books, instead of strengthening it.
Being in the crosswalk and having the right-of-way does not make anyone’s injuries any less severe when hit by a vehicle.
Linda Smith, Sumner
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